It was a St Patrick's weekend pockmarked both by Irish success and Irsh disappointment. While Katie Taylor and Michael Conlan continued to reign supreme in the boxing ring and Rory McIlroy claimed the biggest prize outside the Majors on the PGA Tour, the Ireland rugby team fell to a dismal loss to Wales, bringing a rather sad curtain down on the Six Nations careers of Joe Schmidt and Rory Best. With the Grand Slam going to Wales, Gerry Thornley has picked his team of the tournament which was quite a different task to this time last year when it could easily have been made up of 15 Irishmen. And what of Ireland as the World Cup gets ever closer? Well, there's no doubt that confidence has been dented but, as Gerry Thornley writes, Schmidt's men have enough credit in the bank to retain the faith of supporters and also to demand some patience. Focus now turns back to the provincial game and specifically the Champions Cup knockout stages which get underway Saturday week. For Munster, Joey Carbery is in a race to be fit for their meeting with Edinburgh while, for Leinster, Robbie Henshaw is running out of time to be fit for the quarter-final clash against Ulster. Speaking yesterday, Leinster coach Stuart Lancaster said Ireland's Six Nations disappointment can be traced back to the first game and the loss to England.
On to football and Mick McCarthy took his first Ireland training session in 17 years yesterday ahead of the opening Euro 2020 qualifier against Gibraltar on Saturday. Much of the talk has been around how McCarthy will incorporate both Séamus Coleman and Matt Doherty in the team with the Ireland manager strongly hinting that Doherty will play on the right-hand side of midfield. McCarthy has also been impressed with Shamrock Rovers' Jack Byrne since he joined the squad. "I thought he was excellent [on Friday night for Shamrock Rovers] and he deserves to be here, he looks a good player. I think he started on the right but was never there; he flits around, gets on the ball . . . he's one of them that likes the ball all the time," McCarthy said. In Spain, Lionel Messi continues to excite and confound with his hat-trick against Real Betis on Sunday night just the latest act in his breathtaking Barcelona career. The Argentine's third goal of the game was enough to earn a standing ovation from the Betis fans as Sport newspaper proclaimed that "this league has just one name on it," writes Sid Lowe.
In golf, it was a feeling of relief more than anything for Rory McIlroy on Sunday when he claimed his first win in over a year at the Players Championship in Sawgrass, capping the impressive form which he has been in this season after racking up five top-six finishes in his five tournament outings previously. The four-time Major winner now heads into next month's US Masters with a weight of expectation stronger than it has ever been that he can finally don a green jacket and complete the career grand slam. After his win, McIlroy put his hot form down to an improved maturity and a more balanced approach to the game. "It's been having a focus over the last six or seven months on my attitude, especially my attitude to golf, and not letting golf define who I am as a person, trying to keep the two things very separate. One thing that I used to do in the past is I'd let what I shot that day influence who I was or my mood," he said.
In GAA, the CCCC will meet today to resolve fixture issues as both the football and hurling leagues reach an endpoint. The organisation are believed to be looking at the possibility of staging both league finals on a double bill at Croke Park on the last weekend of this month. However, much depends on this weekend's semi-finals and which counties make up the finalists. Meanwhile, Corofin made it back-to-back All-Ireland club football titles at the weekend with their win over Dr Crokes but there is little time to celebrate for the Galway men with the county league already underway.
Finally, as mentioned Katie Taylor and Michael Conlan both recorded victories in the ring in America over the weekend but Conlan has since come in for criticism. That's because the Belfast boxer made his ringwalk to the Wolfe Tones tune of Celtic Symphony which features the lyrics "ooh ahh up the Ra".
