TV View:Do you know, you'd be stretched after a sporting weekend like that. We certainly were, barely able to summon the energy to complete our warm-down exercise, the one where you wiggle the thumb on your right hand for five minutes to ensure it's remote-control fit for the next game.

It was, perhaps, the trip from Osaka to Semple Stadium and back that exhausted us most, though it was worth it, notably the rather dazzling All-Ireland under-21 hurling semi-final between Galway and Cork, which would have been a low-scoring affair if not for those six goals and 39 points.

The Galway goalkeeper, James Skehill, you should know, produced more than several saves that made "Gordon Banks versus that Pele header" seem unremarkable, but we were particularly smitten by the performance of his team-mate Joe Canning. As TG4 commentator Brian Tyers put it after one of Joe's splendid moments, "Dia linn is Muire!"

Honest, can you imagine John Motson declaring, "God and Mary be with us!" on viewing a David Beckham free kick?

Much less impressive was the performance of our rugby boys against Italy in Belfast, a performance so poor it prompted George Hook to insinuate not only was the Foxford-born Admiral William Brown the commander-in-chief of the Argentine Navy but he and his descendants floated the boat of many of that country's women.

"In Argentina there must be 20 props with Irish grandfathers who we could have signed up to bring over here," he said.

Despondent, Hook simply couldn't understand how our boys could so struggle against such lowly opponents, although they weren't quite as lowly as he thought.

Hook: "For God's sake, Italy are ranked 11th or 12th in the world." Tom McGurk: "They're seventh." Hook: "They are not." McGurk: "They are." Hook: Silence.

McGurk, though, jeopardised his chances of an invitation to Eddie O'Sullivan's next party by alleging, "They're playing like a team that don't care."

Crooner Brent Pope was more measured, suggesting the slightly calamitous pre-World Cup campaign was not "an ideal preparation".

"Ideal? IDEEEEEAL?" Tom and George came close to screaming, but time ran out and the lads had to pass the baton to Setanta, who'll be looking after World Cup business.

If Italy weren't robbed of victory in Belfast by the video referee then Sunderland will be title contenders this season.

"It doesn't get any easier than this," Richard Keyes of Sky Sports breathlessly declared of their league fixtures against Liverpool and Manchester United. He wasn't being funny; it was one those of "fresh of breath air moments" we all have from time to time. Let he who stones the first cast.

"Sunderland will need strength in depth to survive, John," Peter Collins said to Gilesie on RTÉ that evening. Gilesie's right eyebrow wiggled.

"I don't think it's a question of strength in depth, Peter," he said, "it's the strength of the first 11 that's the problem."

The problem for Bernard Dunne was the first 86 seconds against Kiko Martinez on Saturday night at the Point, after which he was left dazed and confused and wondering how he'd relinquished his European title before he'd even had time to find his bearings in the ring.

"If Bernard doesn't keep his hands up this fella will have his lights out," RTÉ pundit Jim Rock had said.

"Huh," those of us more clued-up on pugilistic matters had replied, having had more bouts than Rock.

Jim? Sorry.

Heartbroken, we were. How can you not love Bernard Dunne? And then his beloved Dubs lost too, just to put the complete tin hat on his weekend.

"I think Elvis was alive the last time they beat us," said Eoin Liston on The Road To Croker earlier in the week. For the young people out there: Eoin is a Kerryman who pitilessly bombed Dublin through the late 1970s and much of the 1980s, inflicting severe collateral damage, leaving the populace all shook up.

Ain't nothing but a Groundhog Day: Kerry did it again.

Second half? Exhilarating. The first? Ah, ugly.

"It's a plague on the game, I wish they'd stop," said Colm O'Rourke at half-time on a few Dubs' insistence on "mouthing into the faces of opponents", notably when they, the opponents, missed a score.

Co-commentator Kevin McStay put this tactic down to sports psychology. If Kevin is right, it suggests the psychologist had so little faith in his/her clients he/she reckoned their only hope was to resort to idiocy.

Joe Brolly blamed the referee, suggesting the players were frustrated by his performance. You'd have to assume he was a touch frustrated by theirs. Indeed, you'd wonder if the combined forces of the French Legion and SAS could have stamped out that first-half unpleasantness.

Our suspicious minds say not.

Mercifully, football class won out in the end.