The red-hot form of Son Heung-min just shows no signs of abating and the South Korean once again stepped up last night in what was a dream first leg for Spurs in their Champions League last-16 clash with Borussia Dortmund. With Harry Kane and Dele Alli among the absentees, Mauricio Pochettino's side took the Bundesliga leaders by storm with Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente adding two more second half goals to give Spurs a 3-0 lead heading to Germany for the second leg. It leaves Pochettino and his side with one foot in the quarter-finals and afterwards the manager hailed his 'heroes' in what was a magnificent performance. In the night's other game Real Madrid took a 2-1 advantage away from Amsterdam thanks to an opening goal from Karim Benzema before Marco Asensio added a late winner after Hakim Ziyech had equalised for the Dutch side. But the big news of the day from an Irish perspective was Declan Rice and his declaration to play for England rather than Ireland who he had already played three senior friendlies for. The West Ham midfielder has been in excellent form of late and the confirmation that he has requested an international transfer brings to end a long-running saga but one that, Emmet Malone writes this morning, Ireland can really have any qualms about. "Rice may well regret a few of the things he said after games he played in green but we should ask ourselves for a second what choice we actually left him with. If he is genuinely happy now to be playing for the country of his birth, we should just simply wish him well," he writes.
Moving on to rugby and this morning John O'Sullivan writes in his statistics column about Ireland's unsung heroes. Originally omitted from the Ireland squad, Quinn Roux only got the call after injuries to Iain Henderson and Tadhg Beirne but he has answered it with aplomb. Ireland racked up a figure of 387 under the "own ruck arrivals" moniker – it signifies the number of Irish players to contest a ruck in which Ireland had possession – with Roux leading the way on 54, the stats show.
In our women in sport pages this morning Joanne O'Riordan writes that the ¤1,000 prize being put on offer by Investec for features on women's sport is misdirected. "In all honesty, I can't imagine doing an interview with a female athlete, winning the award and prize money and taking it all for me. Not when young girls' teams are crying out for basic gear, basic training facilities and just what every young person needs to excel in their sport," she writes. Meanwhile, Sonia O'Sullivan uses her column to look at training in extreme heat and the difficulties associated with it. The weather in Australia this winter has fluctuated between extreme heat and floods and that poses plenty of difficulties for all athletes. In football Mary Hannigan speaks to Louise Quinn about her career to date which has seen her go from playing in Sweden to experiencing Notts County going bust and now chasing a treble with Arsenal.
In GAA, Armagh forward Jamie Clarke has bemoaned the increase in simulation in Gaelic football. The 2017 All-Star nominee missed last weekend's Allianz League defeat to Meath after being red carded for an alleged strike during their round two draw with Clare which he says was accidental but was exagerrated by the Clare player.
Finally to golf and the rule changes which have come in in 2019 continue to cause confusion and consternation among professionals with Adam Scott the latest to suggest that the authorities should discard the idea of putting with the flag in, at least at professional level.
