Let's not start this morning with coronavirus talk. No, instead let's start this morning with Joe Marler grabbing Alun Wyn Jones' genitals. That's what happened during England's Six Nations clash with Wales on Saturday and that is what Gordon D'Arcy is writing about this morning in his column. England prop Marler tried to play down Saturday's incident as just yet more "banter" (particularly with his follow-up tweet) but it has not been seen that way in many quarters. "This idiotic act has damaged the reputation of his sport, a game with unspoken laddish values that already gets lambasted by a large portion of society at the drop of a hat. And rightly so," writes D'Arcy.
Moving from Marler to Cheltenham and Altior's absence could make today's Champion Chase a two-horse race as Defi Du Seuil and Chacun Pour Soi go head-to-head at Prestbury Park. Willie Mullins is hoping that Chacun Pour Soi can break his duck in the big race today, 12 months after he filled in the Gold Cup gap on his CV. Elsewhere, Tiger Roll is ready to etch his name further into Cheltenham lore as he goes in search of a fifth victory at the famous festival. Keith Donoghue will look to guide the back-to-back Grand National winner to another win in the Cross Country while, in the opening race of the day, Envoi Allen faces the toughest task of hus fledgling career. If you fancy having a bet on today's action you can check out Tony Keenan's tips for day two here while our liveblog of all of the action will be up and running from 1pm.
Unfortunately now we do have to move to coronavirus and the news this morning that Arsenal's Premier League clash with Manchester City this evening has been postponed after some Arsenal players were put into self-isolation. The club has taken the precautionary measure after a number of its players met Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis after their Europa League clash last week with the Greek since testing positive for the virus. The fast-spreading virus is continuing to cause havoc in football across the continent after it was announced yesterday that Ireland's Euro 2020 qualifier against Slovakia will be played behind closed doors while domestic action also looks to be increasingly in jeopardy, especially north of the border after Linfield yesterday confirmed that one of its players has contracted the virus. However, tonight's Champions League last-16 clash between Liverpool and Atlético Madrid will go ahead as planned at Anfield with the Premier League leaders needing to turn around a one-goal defecit from the first leg. Last night Tottenham went crashing out of Europe at the hands of a ruthless RB Leipzig who won 3-0 on the night to send José Mourinho's players further into a downward spiral. Ireland's Troy Parrott again spent the whole match on the bench as Mourinho instead preferred to bring on three defenders when trying to overturn a big defecit with the manager commenting afterwards that the whole of Leipzig's bench would get into his team.
On to GAA and Seán Moran writes in his column this morning that coronavirus could wreak havoc with the sport as there is very little room for manoeuvre in the current championship format. "There is the possibility of staging matches behind closed doors, but in a GAA context what would that achieve apart from the bare minimum of putting names on trophies? It would actually depress revenues as overheads would be incurred without any income," he writes.
Finally to golf and Rory McIlroy goes into this week's Players championship looking to defend the title he won last year and with fond memories of TPC Sawgrass. The world number one has been in very impressive form this season but has still not yet managed to rack up a victory. However, as he said yesterday, he has come a long way since his first appearance at the event aged just 20 in 2009 when he missed the cut "and ended up getting kicked out of bars in Jax Beach for having a fake ID."
