And so the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer honeymoon period comes to an end. And with a bang, at that. Two quickfire goals in the second from Paris Saint-Germain's Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappé tore the heart out of Manchester United at Old Trafford last night and ensured that the French side will take a 2-0 lead to the Parc des Princes for the second leg on March 6th. United can probably feel somewhat aggrieved that Kimpembe was even on the pitch when he sidefooted home Angel Di Maria's corner after the full-back received an early yellow card and was then let off two questionable fouls later in the first half but there can be no doubt about the gulf in class between the two sides. Afterwards Solskjaer called it "a reality check" for United and, with Chelsea on the way in the FA Cup on Monday followed by Liverpool in the league on Sunday week, it's a reality United would want to get to grips with. As always Mary Hannigan was on TV watch and this morning she writes that there was quite a difference between the RTÉ panel and the BT Sport panel which included Paul "I could have done the job Ole has done" Ince. "Over on RTÉ, Damien Duff was scoffing at the notion that anybody at all could have applied such a Midas-y touch as Ole, reckoning that if the job was that easy he and Darragh Maloney would have been appointed gaffer and assistant gaffer," she writes. In the night's other match Porto pulled back a late away goal to leave Rome with just a 2-1 loss while this evening Tottenham Hotspur welcome Borussia Dortmund to Wembley while Real Madrid meet Ajax in Amsterdam. This will be Spurs' 22nd game in 79 days and will be a major ask for a squad that is already looking depleted.
Moving on to rugby and Gordon D'Arcy writes in his column this morning that France used to be the beating heart of rugby union and, with the team in disarray, we are all the poorer for it. Two losses in two Six Nations games – most recently a drubbing against England in Twickenham – has seen French rugby go into full crisis mode with little or no light at the end of the tunnel. D'Arcy writes that they need an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sort of figure to lift the doom and gloom around the place but even that seems to be a fanciful notion. "If Brunel remains the centrepiece of this French team, I struggle to see how they will avoid sinking further down the world rankings," he writes. In the Ireland camp there is some good news as Garry Ringrose looks set to be fit to face Italy at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday week as he continues to recover from a hamstring strain suffered against England. "It has responded to well to rehab. It was just a strain of the hamstring, not something I would have done before, a soft tissue injury. I was cautious in getting it rehabbed. Over the last 10 days, it has responded really well," he said yesterday.
On to GAA and Seán Moran writes in his column this morning that the GAA need to do more to make the most of the role of colleges in the sport. This weekend the Sigerson Cup semi-finals take place on Sunday with the All-Ireland club semi-finals on Saturday, leading to a major fixture clash for a number of players with some prepared to play two games in two days. "Increasingly, it appears as if Croke Park is running out of patience with the third-level sector in that it has been left to survive an increasingly hostile environment without intervention," he writes. As mentioned, this Saturday the All-Ireland club football semi-finals will take place with little Mullinalaghta from Longford hoping to spring a surprise on the giants of Dr Crokes from Kerry. The Longford club were one of the stories of the year in winning the Leinster championship last year and now they meet the Kerry side at Semple Stadium. Speaking yesterday, Crokes' Fionn Fitzgerald was full of praise for the Longford half-parish and is well aware of the threat that they will pose. "The Mullinalaghta story of being from a smaller parish is a big part of it too. But they are a very good team, very well coached and they have been knocking on the door for a few years now and will be around. This is not a fluke or anything. It is serious stuff at this stage. Sometimes you look at the opposition but then you bring it back to yourself. So we are very much on our guard," he said.
Moving on to athletics and this evening the Athlone Indoor International takes place. Among the competitors in the men's 60m is Su Bingtian – the first Chinese man out of a population of 1.42 billion and counting to break the 10 second barrier for the 100m. Yesterday Ian O'Riordan spoke to him about the achievement and the continuing quest for one of the world's biggetst superpowers to finally crack short distance running.
Finally to golf and the story emerged recently of Matt Kuchar paying a local caddie in Mexico a pretty paltry sum of $3,000 after the American won $1.2 million at the Mayakoba Classic last year. Kuchar denied that the story was true but it has now been confirmed by the caddie himself that the cheque he received was indeed a long way of the eight to 10 per cent which caddies would usually expect when their player wins. David Giral Ortiz, nicknamed 'El Tucan', was paid $5,000 for his efforts – something that has created quite a storm in the golf world and left Kuchar with a tag for stinginess which he may find hard to shed.
