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Mary Hannigan: Robbie Keane impresses in first season as gaffer, against backdrop of war

Gordon D’Arcy on Australian rugby’s smart move with Schmidt and Malachy Clerkin on the ‘grand’ Netflix Full Contact series

Head coach Robbie Keane with assistant Rory Delap of Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C.. Photograph: Robin Jones - AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images

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Mary Hannigan
Wed Jan 24 2024 - 11:06

When he took over as manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv last June, Robbie Keane didn’t exactly sound exhilarated about the job. “You have to start somewhere,” he said. But since then, after stints as a player-manager in India and shifts as an assistant with Ireland, Middlesbrough and Leeds, he has impressed in his first season as gaffer, the club top of the Israeli Premier League and still in contention for four trophies. All of this against the backdrop of war in the region. Gavin Cummiskey reports on Keane’s eventful seven months so far in Israel.

Joe Schmidt’s coaching CV is decidedly longer, Gordon D’Arcy reckoning that Australian rugby has made a smart move by putting him in charge of their national team - even if he’s a Kiwi. “I believe Schmidt now has the potential to revolutionise rugby in Australia,” he writes, and such has been “the pace of their decline” over the past decade, a revolution is very definitely required if they are to return to the top table.

Rhys Ruddock enjoyed some good times under Schmidt with both Leinster and Ireland, captaining his country on seven occasions in that spell. But the last of his 27 caps came in 2021, prompting no end of speculation since that he might switch allegiances to Wales, from where his father Mike, the former Leinster and Wales coach, hails. The prospect, writes Gerry Thornley, “remains a possibility, albeit an unlikely one”.

The prospect of Malachy Clerkin watching all eight episodes of Full Contact, the new Netflix rugby series that “is a glossy, beautifully-packaged account of the 2023 Six Nations”, might have seemed unlikely too after he wasn’t entirely bowled over by the opening one, but he stuck with it and concludes that it’s “okay”. “Don’t let anyone tell you it’s terrible. Equally, don’t let anyone pretend it’s amazing. It’s grand.”

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In Gaelic games, Ian O’Riordan talks to Damien Comer ahead of Galway’s League opener against Mayo on Sunday, while Seán Moran looks at the potential commercial impact on the GAA of the Department of Sport contemplating placing a further 14 sports events on the free-to-air television list, including some of the GAA’s highest profile matches.

“Nothing has been decided but it’s certain that the GAA will have strong views on the proposal effectively to devalue its media rights,” writes Seán. He’s puzzled by “the generally reviled provincial football finals” possibly being categorised as “culturally significant events”. That, he reckons “might be stretching things – unless Unesco grants special cultural status to turkey shoots as well as hurling”.

TV Watch: There’s a mountain of televised football to choose from today, including four games from the African Cup of Nations on Sky Sports - South Africa v Tunisia (5.0), Namibia v Mali (5.0), Tanzania v DR Congo (8.0) and Zambia v Morocco (8.0). Sky also have the second leg of the League Cup semi-final between Fulham and Liverpool (8.0), Liverpool winning the first 2-1. And Chelsea meet Real Madrid in the women’s Champions League (TNT Sports 1, 8.0).