Don’t expect goals against the Swiss; Henshaw, Sexton and Earls to return

If Ireland can beat Switzerland in their fifth European Championships qualifier tonight, they'll have engineered a genuine advantage that Mick McCarthy believes his players could maintain to the end of the campaign. "We've watched them over a couple of games – two or three games, actually – and they like to dominate a team with possession, and we'll be doing our very best to stop that," explains the Irish manager. Emmet Malone has also named a probable team, containing Glenn Whelan and Sheffield United duo Callum Robinson and David McGoldrick. Anybody hoping for a goal-fest tonight should be aware Switzerland rarely score or concede, as explained in this guide to the wonderful world of Swiss football.

Joe Schmidt and Warren Gatland are expected to name near full-strength sides today for Saturday's final World Cup warm-up match between Ireland and Wales at the Aviva Stadium. Gerry Thornley has revealed his probable team, and he's rarely too far off with these predictions, with returns due for Johnny Sexton, Robbie Henshaw and Keith Earls.

In this week's GAA Statistics column, Eamon Donoghue explains why it's vital that Cian O'Sullivan returns for Dublin in Saturday week's All-Ireland football final replay. He's looked back at his impact in the 2015 decider, and last year's league win against Kerry where David Clifford had just three touches after O'Sullivan began operating as a sweeper from centre back: "As was the case at the start of the five in a row, Dublin need to close down the Kerry attack. They need to get back to winning ugly. At both ends. That approach will inevitably bring them back to Cian O'Sullivan."

Meanwhile Sanita Puspure reflects on the renewed self-belief that has driven her to back-to-back gold medals at the World Championships, after a difficult summer where she lost her sister. "It's very exciting to go into the next 12 months as being favourite to win an Olympic medal," she tells Johnny Watterson. "I've never been in that position before."