“How do you follow that,” Gerry Thornley asked Simon Easterby of the challenge of inheriting a team that won the last two Six Nations. “Win a third,” he replied with a smile, the solution simple enough. Easterby was in Rome on Tuesday, along with Irish captain Caelan Doris, for the launch of this year’s tournament, the Colosseum the backdrop for photos of all six coaches and captains. “Gladiators readying themselves for the fight and all that,” writes Gerry.
It was Doris’s launch debut, the Leinster man now settling in to his role as Irish captain and “enjoying it a lot more”. It will become more enjoyable again if that three-in-a-row can be completed, but, he says, “it’s hard to look past England”, his focus solely on that opening fixture and not beyond.
Last Saturday, Doris captained Leinster to a 47-21 Champions Cup win over Bath, Gordon D’Arcy revelling in how they “embraced the chaos” of the game, offering “a timely reminder that great rugby isn’t always about structure, it’s about seizing moments”.
Munster, though, paid for “defensive lapses” against Northampton, while showing plenty of “spark with the ball”, their skills coach Mossy Lawler admitting it was a missed opportunity from which they must learn – preferably before that trip to La Rochelle in the round of 16.
In Gaelic games, Seán Moran looks ahead to the opening weekend of the National Football League when the new rules will be in play. He likens this “seismic change” to Sweden coming to terms with the switch from driving on the left side of the road to the right back in 1967. That went smoothly enough, despite forecasts of “carnage”. How will football cope with driving on the other side of the road?
It is, says Diarmuid O’Connor, a journey in to “the unknown”, the Kerry midfielder talking to Gordon Manning ahead of his county’s opening game against Donegal in Killarney on Sunday. “It mightn’t be until the middle stages of the championship that teams really nail down exactly what is going on and what other teams are doing.”
Gordon also previews the Division Three football season, reckoning Kildare, under the new management of Brian Flanagan, should enjoy a much happier campaign than last time around. Which wouldn’t be hard considering they suffered seven straight losses and were relegated. But they “should have enough talent to ensure their Division Three stay is a short one”.
TV Watch: Shane Lowry gets his season under way at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego today (yes, it’s starting on a Wednesday) – he’s scheduled to tee off at 9.29 tonight (Irish time) in a group with Tony Finau and last year’s winner Matthieu Pavon (Sky Sports Golf, 4.45pm-midnight). And among tonight’s Champions League 8.0 kick-offs are PSG v Manchester City (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 1), Celtic v Young Boys (RTÉ 2, Premier Sports 1 and TNT Sports 3) and Arsenal v Dinamo Zagreb (Virgin Media More and TNT Sports 2).
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