Not since the dim and distant past of 2008 did the Republic of Ireland’s women’s team suffer a heavier competitive defeat than they did in Koper on Tuesday evening, Gavin Cummiskey tasked with finding the words to sum up a calamitous 4-0 Nations League defeat by Slovenia. “It is completely unacceptable by our standards,” said captain Katie McCabe after, Friday’s error-strewn 1-0 win over Turkey followed by this giving Carla Ward a headache-inducing start to her reign as manager. Things, surely, can only get better.
Simon Easterby has had a decidedly happier start to his interim spell as Ireland’s head coach, and while Saturday’s win in Cardiff “lacked the bells and whistles of previous accomplishments”, Gordon D’Arcy suggests that victories of that sort “are the ones that provide the most satisfaction” for players. They “regained their composure” after going 18-10 behind, and “were able to problem solve on the hoof”.
Garry Ringrose, meanwhile, will learn his fate on Thursday morning when he’s up before a disciplinary hearing following his red card against Wales. “The outcome,” writes Johnny Watterson, “will determine what further part the Irish outside centre will have in Ireland’s two remaining games against France in Dublin and Italy in Rome.”
In Gaelic games, after the shooting down of a number of motions last weekend, Seán Moran concludes that “Congress is well past its use-by date as a governing forum”, largely because pressure from the games calendar “makes for a rushed atmosphere”.
Ireland’s limitations laid bare in Slovenia as poor Nations League start continues
Le Bombe Equipe and the French 7-1 split promises Ireland a battle of collisions
Owen Doyle: Ireland were major beneficiaries of the new 20-minute red card against Wales
Five things we learned from the GAA weekend: Football is for forwards again, and Mayo find some x-factor
And Gordon Manning talks to the remarkable Bríd Stack ahead of her featuring in TG4’s Laochra Gael series, the 11-time All-Ireland winner with Cork, who also played in Australia with Great Western Sydney Giants, still hoping to get back playing with her club later this year after having her third child.
In horse racing, Brian O’Connor brings news of trainer ‘Shark’ Hanlon being free to run horses again from this weekend after the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board approved the return of his licence. He had been suspended after images of his horse box pulling a trailer with a dead horse in it through a Kilkenny village were circulated on social media. And looking ahead to Cheltenham, Willie Mullins is just 7-1 to beat his own record tally of 10 winners in a single festival.
TV Watch: There’s another batch of Premier League games on your screens tonight, TNT Sports and Premier League bringing you Nottingham Forest v Arsenal, Spurs v Manchester City and Manchester United v Ipswich (all 7.30 kick-offs), before Liverpool’s amble towards the title continues against Newcastle (8.15). And in the women’s Nation’s League, England meet Spain in a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final (ITV4, 8.0).
