“Not even in our dreams did we see this coming,” says Ken Early of “Ireland’s best home win in a decade”, the number seven in the green shirt, Troy Parrott, shining brightest on a joyous night while his opposite number, Cristiano Ronaldo, became, well, the first “billionaire footballer” to get himself sent off.
“Nothing makes sense.” That was Malachy Clerkin’s conclusion after witnessing Ireland’s 2-0 win over Portugal, a result that keeps their World Cup qualifying hopes alive. And how could you argue with him? This is a team that lost to the 105th ranked nation in the world, Armenia, just eight weeks ago, and here they were beating the side at fifth in those listings. Mad, but glorious, stuff.
Gavin Cummiskey attempts to make sense of it all in his match report, while Malachy hands out handsome marks in his player ratings. Guess who got a ten? Go on. The ‘Ronaldo sick as a Parrott’ headlines, need it be said, wrote themselves.
A very special night, then, for Heimir Hallgrímsson, easily the best of his underwhelming 16-month reign. As for Ronaldo confronting him after he was sent off? “Just a moment of silliness from him, I would say.”
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The Aviva switches codes again tomorrow for the meeting of Ireland and Australia, Gerry Thornley hearing Andy Farrell talk through the nine changes he has made to the team that lined out against Japan last weekend.
Among them is the return of Mack Hansen who will wear the green 15 jersey for the first time, his 29th cap offering him a new job description, as John O’Sullivan puts it. Bundee Aki will be on the bench tomorrow, the Connacht man admitting that he needs to raise his game to another level now that his place in the team is no longer guaranteed.
It’s showtime for Andy Farrell and Joe Schmidt, Johnny Watterson looking at what’s at stake for both coaches in this game. Defeat to Australia “would be further evidence that the Irish team is in transitional decline”, victory would persuade the doubters that “Ireland has direction”.
Gerry dropped in on Schmidt’s press conference, the man who “helped to transform Leinster and Ireland into global powers for almost a decade” rather eager for his team to put that loss to Italy behind them.
In golf, Philip Reid reports on an impressive opening round for Rory McIlroy at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, his shot-making “precision personified” en route to a 66 that leaves him just two adrift of leader Michael Kim.
And in Gaelic games, Seán Moran looks back on a red-letter day in the history of Wicklow football, when, 36 years ago, Baltinglass won both the Leinster and All-Ireland championships. And no non-Dublin club from Leinster has won the All-Ireland title since.
TV Watch: The second round of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai started early this morning, but you can catch the latter stages of it until 1pm this afternoon (Sky Sports Golf). Ireland under-17s are playing Canada in the World Cup at 3.15pm - you can follow the action on RTÉ 2. And at 7.45 this evening, the Republic of Ireland’s under-21 side are away to England in their Euro qualifier.
