Manchester United were held 1-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers last night as a sumptuous Ruben Neves strike cancelled out Anthony Martial's first-half goal and Paul Pogba missed a late penalty. Wolves, who beat the visitors in the league and FA Cup at Molineux last season, were transformed in the second half, rejuvenated by substitute Adama Traore on the wing.
Speaking at the old Burlington hotel as an All-Ireland winning manager, Liam Sheedy says Tipperary's success would not have been possible without his selector Eamon O'Shea: "He has a special connection to me and he has a special connection to all the players and he just brings the best out of everyone." Kilkenny manager Brian Cody was in a far less joyous mood in the Citywest hotel, explaining that the first half red card was the game's decisive moment - but warned that to scapegoat Richie Hogan "would be outrageous". Kevin McStay's weekly column (Subscriber Only) is about the regret of missing out on All-Ireland glory and how it can linger for a lifetime: "It won't ruin your life. But it's there, it is part of you."
In his column this morning, Gerry Thornley explains how the All Blacks were on a highway to hell, but their World Cup outlook is now a whole lotta rosy after last weekend's 36-0 win over Australia. He writes: "despite last Saturday's return to form, it was in part inspired by a relatively significant overhaul in playing personnel. As a consequence, the All Blacks still look less settled than four years ago." Ireland are using this week's training camp in their Algarve base to acclimatise ahead of the Rugby World Cup - the Irish squad have had a few morning sessions in temperatures of about 25 degrees and a few mid-afternoon sessions where it has been closer to 28/29 degrees. That is more or less what it is going to be like in Japan in terms of heat, but it's impossible to replicate the humidity.
Meanwhile in this week's Pay for Pay pages, Ruaidhrí Croke writes about the Football Yearbook and how despite the sales of sports annuals declining, this stat-packed 1,000-page tome is holding its own: "last Thursday the Football Yearbook published its 50th edition for the 2019/20 season and, for the moment, there are no plans to wind down operations despite the continuing decline in sales and the high costs of producing a book that is now well over 1,000 pages in length."
