After their 33-17 win over Italy at the Aviva earlier this month in the first of their three World Cup warm-up games, the Irish Rugby team have been relaxing and doing a bit of training also at Quina do Lago in Portugal. It seems to have been a fairly relaxed camp last week we saw photographs of the Irish players chatting with sports stars Roy Keane and Padraig Harrington and pop singer Niall Horan was also pictured with the group.
It will probably get a bit more serious when England visit the Aviva on Saturday next for the last home game before the World Cup gets under way in France. England have played Ireland in warm-up games prior to the 2011, 2015 and 2019 World Cup finals and each time they have given us a wake-up call with big defeats; the last warm-up defeat was a 57-15 win at Twickenham in August 2019.
Against Italy the Irish team dominated for large swathes of the game, with Caelan Doris bagging a brace of tries in an all-action display, but coach Andy Farrell was left frustrated with a host of wasted scoring opportunities in the second half. We have one additional warm-up game after England, and that’s against Samoa in Bayonne on Aug. 26, before the World Cup action gets under way against Romania in Bordeaux on Sept. 9. Johnny Sexton’s three-match man will be over by then and hopefully our 38 year-old captain should be fit to lead the Irish team out against Romania.
Also the referee at the centre of the Sexton abuse storm in the Champions Cup final has been lined up for the opening match of next month’s World Cup. Jaco Peyper is due to referee the most hotly anticipated World Cup opener in history, as France aim to kick-start their home World Cup campaign with victory over perennial challengers New Zealand.
UEFA SAYS ‘NO’
UEFA has rejected Derry City’s request to move the second leg of their Europa Conference League tie with FC Tobol to Windsor Park. The Candystripes were hopeful that European football’s governing body would allow them to play their Kazakh visitors in Belfast tomorrow, an occasion that would have generated huge interest given the club’s history. However, UEFA have ruled that Derry cannot move the tie when there is a suitable venue within the territory of their home association, the FAI. Derry had initially nominated Tallaght Stadium for this round because their home, the Brandywell, does not meet the requirements.
With Linfield and all of the other Irish League club out of Europe, Derry tried to arrange a switch to Windsor Park at short notice to make life easier for supporters facing a trek to Dublin. The IFA and FAI were fine with the suggestion but UEFA held the ultimate say. The UEFA statement said: ‘‘A venue may be the ground of the home club or another ground in the same or another city within the territory of its association. Therefore, Derry City FC will have to play in Tallaght as originally announced.’’
Derry lost the first leg 1-0 in Kostanay last week.
MCGEENEY
WIN 25 TO 16
Kieran McGeeney is continue as Armagh senior football manager for a 10th season. His appointment was ratified at an Armagh County Board meeting last week where 25 clubs voted to retain the man known as Geezer and 16 voted against him. Under McGeeney, Armagh have become a formidable outfit, but silverware continues to elude them after three successive penalty shootout heartbreaks, last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway, this year’s Ulster final against Derry and All-Ireland quarter-final against Monaghan. With Colm Collins having stepped down in Clare, McGeeney is now longest serving inter-county manager in hurling or football.
Also staying on for three more years are joint Tyrone managers Brian Dooher and Fergal Lohan. The extension was ratified at last week’s county board meeting. The duo guided Tyrone to a surprise All-Ireland final win in their first season in charge in 2021, but the Red Hands have failed to reach the same heights since then, enduring a poor 2022 before suffering a heavy quarter-final defeat to Kerry last month after they had come within inches of being knocked out in the Round Robin stage by Westmeath.
And Joe Fortune will continue as Westmeath senior hurling manager into 2024. In what will be his third season in charge of the Lake County hurlers, the confirmation rules out the Wexford man from the vacant position in his native county after Darragh Egan’s exit from the Wexford job last month.
COUNCILLOR PROTESTS
BBC’S GAELIC ‘AGENDA’
Traditional Unionist Voice councillor Allister Kyle believes the BBC have an ongoing agenda to divert funds towards the broadcasting of Gaelic Games on the channel. BBC Northern Ireland secured broadcasting rights for All-Ireland semi-finals and finals in both Gaelic football and hurling following the end of Sky Sports’ rights deal with the GAA. A peak audience of 800,009 tuned in to watch the football decider between Dublin and Kerry on BBC Two around the UK last month. The BBC’s coverage included comments from well-known Irish figures Paul Mescal, Adrian Dunbar, Patrick Kielty and Dara O Briain.
Councillor Kyle’s comments came following BBC Northern Ireland’s decision came to drop the Irish League highlights show which had been shown on late-night television. Kyle said: ‘‘I am deeply disappointed that the Irish League show has been cut by the BBC. As an avid Irish League fan I always enjoyed watching our local presenters comment on the highlights of the local games throughout the province. What makes the BBC decision to cut this broadcast all the more bizarre is that they just recently managed to find the funds to run live broadcasts at the two All-Ireland semi-finals, which only showed one county out of the four that can actually pay the licence fee.’’
MCMANUS UNDECIDED
ABOUT 18TH SEASON
Monaghan footballer Conor McManus said he has not made a decision yet whether he will continue playing for his county next year. It would be the 18th season for the 35-year-old, who has won three All-Star awards. A brilliant forward, McManus, who has struggled with a long-term hip problem said: ‘‘I will focus on the club championship now with my club Clontibret. We will give that a rattle over the next few months and see where that takes us. I will take stock towards the end of December or early January, talk to our manager Vinny Cory and see what way the body is feeling then.’’
GAAGO TO STREAM
STEELERS GAMES
There were a lot of criticism of GAAGO during the GAA season, but now the service which is co-owned by RTE and the GAA, is going to stream three of the Pittsburgh Steelers pre-season games. The six-time Super Bowl champions will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Buffalo Bills and Atlanta Falcons this month ahead of the NFL season’s start on Sept. 7. The announcement is the latest development from the Steelers franchise after being granted rights to expand its brand and activities in Ireland as part of the NFL’s ‘Global Markets Program. Head of GAAGO, Noel Quinn said: ‘‘We are excited to bring the Pittsburgh Steelers pre-season games to audiences on the island of Ireland and to add to the rich array of content available through GAAGO. Fans who have never used the platform before can simply sign up and stream these games.”
ART MCRORY, 82
The death occurred last week of former Tyrone manager Art McRory at the age of 82. The Dungannon native led the Red Hand to five Ulster football titles in three different spells in charge. He was manager of Tyrone when they reached their first All-Ireland senior final in 1986, losing to Kerry. When Tyrone qualified for their next final in 1995 McRory was joined by former Red Hand captain Eugene McKenna in the dug-out. They lost the ‘95 final by one point to Dublin. McRory’s inter-county management began when took charge of the Tyrone minor team that won the All-Ireland final in 1973. He was also assistant to Ulster manager Brian McEniff for many years during the halcyon of the Railway Cup.
