The salaries of the Men's Sevens rugby players is to remain below minimum wage next year. Despite qualifying for the Men's Sevens World Series, the IRFU insists on keeping the players on the same basic annual salary of €18,000 – less than someone on the minimum wage would earn over a year and a situation that threatens the squad staying together beyond this year. David Nucifora, the IRFU performance director, has set a target of at least reaching a first semi-final as the threshold for a good Rugby World Cup this year in Tokyo. Matt Williams writes that Leinster can look to Ali's Rumble in the Jungle for a victory template for this weekend's Pro14 final.
Jackie Tyrrell's column this morning looks at Tipperary's roving style and how it makes defending against them a nightmare: "So how does a team who seemed so stuck in a rut, lacking ideas and direction, one that was essentially playing with the handbrake on last year, how does that turn into this?" Read his column here. According to Antrim county chair Ciarán McCavana, elected at the end of last year, the saga of Casement Park's redevelopment has played a role in hampering the county's football and hurling teams since the project initially received planning permission.
Republic of Ireland defender John Egan has navigated his way back to the top in a fashion typical of the modern-day Irish footballer; getting cut by a Premier League club without playing a first-team game before negotiating the tiers on a gradual basis. He linked up with the Ireland squad earlier this week for the training camp in the Algarve: "Football is hard, it's not rosy all the time. I had a summer of uncertainty after Sunderland released me, not knowing where I'd end up. The offers weren't necessarily flooding in." Liverpool midfielder Naby Keïta is recovering faster than expected from a thigh injury and will be given every chance to prove his fitness ahead of next week's Champions League final against Tottenham.
Meanwhile Ireland's Eddie Dunbar had a superb performance on the first big mountain stage of this year's Giro d'Italia on Thursday, finishing third into Pinerolo.
