A year out from the World Cup and the All Blacks have been riled. It doesn't take a genius to work out that that is bad news for everyone. New Zealand's loss to South Africa at the weekend in the Rugby Championship came as quite the shock to everyone and could spell bad news for Ireland with Tokyo 2019 getting ever closer, according to Gerry Thornley. In his column this morning he writes that the All Blacks will have learned plenty of lessons from Saturday's defeat and have plenty of time to bed them in before the action gets underway this time next year. Meanwhile, Geordan Murphy has caused a few headlines in England and around the world after claiming that rugby has become "too PC" following the red card given to Leicester's Will Spencer for a bruising hit on Wasps hooker Tommy Taylor. This morning Johnny Watterson writes that Murphy's comments underline the battle at the very heart of the game between safety and maintaining the hard-hitting of old.
On to football and the Champions League returns tonight with Tottenham one of the first teams in action when they meet Inter Milan at the San Siro at the new earlier kick-off time of 5.55pm. Eight years ago the same fixture at the same venue was the catalyst for Gareth Bale being thrust into the world's spotlight when he inspired a Spurs comeback from 4-0 down. Now Mauricio Pochettino's side go to Italy a significantly different beast and a side who look to be ahead of Inter in every facet. Meanwhile, at 8pm Liverpool take on Paris Saint-Germain 115 days on from Jurgen Klopp's side's defeat in the final of the same competition to Real Madrid. This year's instalment presents itself as unfinished business to the side that maintained their 100 per cent Premier League record for the season so far at the weekend. There has been a few changes made to both Champions League kick off times and TV broadcasters in Ireland this year, more of which you can find out about here.
For the Dublin women's team it was the traditional trip to Crumlin Children's Hospital yesterday after they finally saw off Cork in the All-Ireland final on Sunday to continue what truly are rare auld times for football in the capital. It seems a long-time removed now from when they threw away a 10-point lead against the same opponents at the same stage four years ago. "The same passion and love for the sport was there, we just weren't playing as smartly," Sinéad Goldrick explained. "Sometimes when you are going at 100 miles per hour you make more mistakes.
On to golf and the Tour Championship gets underway on Thursday at East Lake in what is the final event of the PGA Tour season with the FedEx Cup winner set to be crowned. It's now two years since Rory McIlroy blew the competition out of the water to take the $10 million bonus for himself but this time he will need something special – and a few helping hands – if he is to claim the order of merit prize for a second time.
In hurling, Padraic Fanning was last night announced at the new Waterford manager, taking over from Derek McGrath who served five years at the helm. A member of a well-known GAA family in the county, he is a grandson of Pat Fanning, who was president of the GAA when the ban on foreign games was repealed in 1971. His father Phil was also heavily involved with the association.
