Ireland have won a series in Australia, the England hype train has gone into overdrive, Dublin have won another Leinster title without breaking sweat, the heatwave starts now and all is right with the world. Ireland's 20-16 win in Sydney on Saturday morning was enough to complete a 2-1 series win over Australia and ensure, as Gerry Thornley writes, that Joe Schmidt's men finish the 2017-18 Northern Hemisphere season as the best team in the world.
One of the men at the centre of it and who possibly can't quite believe what's happened over the last year is Jordan Larmour. The Leinster man seemed unfazed by the most recent step on his meteoric rise to the top when he spoke afterwards – "We talked right through the week about making a bit more history. We knew how good it would be to come back from 1-0 down to win 2-1. That was kind of driving us on."
Moving to Russia and England yesterday put six goals past a Panama side that would have looked more at home on a Sunday in the Phoenix Park, with Harry Kane grabbing a hat-trick in their 6-1 win. The hammering puts England into the last 16 with Belgium and Thursday's clash of the two teams will decide who finishes first and second. reporting from Nizhny Novgorod, Ken Early writes that the warm-up games of Tunisia and Panama are now over for England and the real business starts in four days time.
Meanwhile, Emmet Malone has spent the last while in Yakaterinburg – the furthest east of all the host cities – and he writes in his letter from the Russian city that a strange atmosphere of euphoria off the back of the national team reaching tghe last 16 is mixed with sombre reflection on the anniversary of the Great Patriotic War.
Yesterday evening Colombia emphatically ended Poland's campaign with a stunning 3-0 win in Kazan which sees the South Americans back in the hunt for a knockout spot. However, they still sit a point behind Japan and Senegal after those two sides drew 2-2 earlier in the day meaning its all to play for in Group H with the final rounds of group games getting underway today. At 3pm Group A will be decided when Uruguay meet Russia to battle it out for top spot, while Group B could still see a shock on the cards when Portugal face Iran and Spain take on Morocco at 7pm with the Iranians still in the hunt for a knockout spot. You can follow all of the action on our liveblog from 6.30pm.
On to GAA and Dublin yesterday overcame a slow start to rack up their biggest win in a Leinster final this decade when they beat Laois 1-25 to 0-10. Jim Gavin's men were ruthless in the second half as they went untiol injury time without kicking a wide. Earlier in the day Donegal had claimed the Ulster title with a win over Fermanagh in Clones while Kerry hammered Cork to take Munster honours on Saturday night.
At 8.30am this morning the round three qualifier draw will take place with Mayo and Monaghan among the teams in the pot after both came through their round two matches at the weekend with wins over Tipperary and Waterford respectively.
In golf, Paul Casey blew a four-shot lead at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut on Sunday as Bubba Watson stormed through the field to take the title while Brian O'Connor writes in his Tipping Point column this morning that Phil Mickelson's actions in hitting a moving ball at the US Open last week, coupled with his reaction afterwards, reveal the unberable smugness of golf.
“As sporting sins go Mickelson’s was negligible. It was like nicking a yard or two taking a free in GAA. Or hanging a leg out to be kicked in a soccer penalty area, maybe even accidentally on purpose getting in the way at a ruck,” he writes.
