The latest stop in Gerry Thornley’s safari is Canberra where the Lions play the Brumbies tomorrow, and he has a notion that while Andy Farrell is still tinkering with his selections, the team he has picked for this game - which includes eight Irish starters - is the closest yet to the one that will take on Australia in Saturday week’s first test.
Tomorrow will be a heck of a day for Mack Hansen, “a bit of a pinch-me moment”, as he put it himself. He will, more than likely, be sprung from the bench against his former club, four years since he left the city of his birth for Connacht.
Australia’s performance against Fiji last weekend wouldn’t exactly have put the wind up the Lions, but, says Gerry, they have improved vastly under the wily old fox that is Joe Schmidt who is no stranger to plotting triumphs over bigger beasts.
Owen Doyle, meanwhile, was left unimpressed by the refereeing in the Lions’ win over the Waratahs, not least with how continuing “lineout shenanigans” were ignored. He’s close to despair, that man.
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Back in Europe, John O’Sullivan has followed the Irish squad to Lisbon where they play Portugal on Saturday, having had a, well, interesting time of it in Tbilisi. After just about surviving the traffic, he dined on Khinkali and Chacha (Georgian poitín) that would “make you dance”. You can’t let that fella out.
In hurling, there will be no replay of the Tipperary and Kilkenny semi-final, despite that scoreboard error, Kilkenny, writes Gordon Manning, left facing “a long winter of introspection”.
The focus will shift to football next weekend and Conor McManus is swooning over the fare that has been served up thus far. “I’m looking at an unrecognisable game,” he says, saluting the impact of the rule changes. “Football has been utterly transformed … the game is now a brilliant watch.”
In golf, Philip Reid fills us in on how each of the five Irish players in the field for next week’s Open at Portrush are warming up for the tournament, and he looks at Ireland’s hopes of ending a 17-year victory-drought at this week’s European men’s amateur team championship.
Gavin Cummiskey has news on the FAI’s request to postpone an appearance before the Oireachtas sport committee, and at Euro 2025, world champions Spain turned on the style against Belgium on Tuesday with a 6-2 win - as did Novak Djokovic in his stunning fourth round victory at Wimbledon over Alex de Minaur. Aidan O’Brien’s horses have been a bit stunning themselves this season - as Brian O’Connor tells us, the trainer is on track to threaten his own world record Group One haul this year.
TV Watch: There’s a feast of cycling to watch today, starting with the women’s Giro d’Italia (TNT Sports 2, from 11.45am) and followed by the fourth stage of the men’s Tour de France (TG4 and TNT Sports 1 from midday). The BBC continues its coverage of Wimbledon (from 12.30pm), and today’s Euro 2025 games are Germany v Denmark (RTÉ 2 and BBC 2, 5.0) and Poland v Sweden (RTÉ 2 & BBC 1, 8.0). And also at 8.0, Chelsea meet Brazil’s Fluminense in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup (DAZN).
