ireland.com - The Irish Times

Cockerels come home to roost
RUGBY: And so it came to pass that form mattered, and Ireland could not undo the baggage of history, the last five meetings and, most pertinently of all, the last month or so. Though les bleus themselves looked there for the taking for stretches in the first hour, the better, more purposeful, more complete team/squad came good and with one bound and a 25-3 win France were free. The cockerel came home to roost, and so too did a few Irish chickens.

Grant puts accent on difference
SOCCER: The shock was always going to be severe when anyone dared to occupy the chair vacated by Jose Mourinho, but Avram Grant seemed determined to emphasise the contrast. p

Prix de l'Arc remains the target for Authorized
RACING: Derby winner Authorized remains firmly on course for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, despite Peter Chapple-Hyam admitting his string have been dogged by a bug in his yard. p

Soccer

Mourinho to take continental break
Jose Mourinho has told English football fans he will be back - but not immediately. Following his sensational departure after more than three years with Chelsea in the early hours of Thursday morning, Mourinho has repeated the club's assertion that he was not sacked. p
Kenyon takes no blame for change of guard
Peter Kenyon last night insisted he was blameless for the departure of Jose Mourinho although he did admit the behind-the-scenes conflicts of the past year at Chelsea had led to a breakdown in the relationship between manager and board. p
Vintage wine goes back to Ferguson's cellar
Alex Ferguson is at a loss to know what to do with an expensive bottle of red wine which is threatening to go to waste now Jose Mourinho has left Chelsea. p
Gordon rekindles memories of Thorpe
A year on The Wear: The value of a footballer is not always reflected in his price. Because of deeds for Scotland as well as Sunderland, people are beginning to review the €13 million sent to Hearts for Craig Gordon and, increasingly, consider it realistic. p
Just glad to be staying alive
Daniel Taylor on life for Clive Clarke since the heart-stopping drama at Leicester that turned into a battle for his very life p
Weakened students stun holders
Derry City 0 UCD 1: FAI Cup holders Derry City sensationally crashed out of this year's competition when shocked by a decimated UCD at the Brandywell last night. p
Cork can keep run going
Waterford Utd v Cork City: European qualification may yet be achieved through the league, but Cork City's lingering hopes of having something more tangible to show for the season could be ended this evening at the RSC if they fail to maintain their recent run of form against a Waterford side desperate to extend their own FAI Cup run. p
Mooney back for Longford
Longford Town v Limerick 37: Longford will move a step closer to being the domestic game's story of the year this evening if they can beat Limerick 37. p

Rugby

Refound passion never enough
France 25 Ireland 3: Ireland found their people, found their intensity, found their passion, but had nothing like the passion to take a French team that for long stretches on an electric night in Paris had looked there for the taking. Errors, emanating from a sadly palpable lack of confidence in their skills, undermined that effort, but it went deeper than that. France targeted the Irish lineout to telling effect and mauled the Ireland pack for truckloads of yardage; that and their vastly superior offloading, tempo and handling saw them pull clear with two tries by Vincent Clerc in the last quarter.
Irish left down if not out in Paris
TV View: For the past fortnight, the World Cup seemed like more of a promise than a reality. At last, though, we were in Paris. We knew this because Eddie O'Sullivan told us so. "We got off the TGV and suddenly we were in Six Nations territory." p
COUNTDOWN TO DISASTER:
Stade de France timeline p
Only darkness in the city of light
Irish Reaction: Not even Pythagoras would be comfortable with devising the mathematical equation that would explain how Ireland could still qualify for the play-off stages. It's an equation that borders on the impossible. In real terms, Ireland's World Cup ended in Paris last night; for the Irish only darkness in the city of light.
'We didn't turn that early pressure into points'
Player Reaction: There wasn't much griping from the Irish players as they straggled out of the bowels of Stade De France. A strong French team that did little wrong and took their chances when they presented themselves were the undoing of Ireland's dreams for this World Cup. p
France content to wear down the Irish
Pool D/France v Ireland: There was little between the teams but the French were clinical. They didn't give Ireland any outlets to exploit. They were quite content to wear down the Irish.
Contempomi has sights on bonus point
Pool D: Argentina outhalf Felipe Contepomi believes securing a bonus point against Namibia today is no foregone conclusion. p
Islanders' pain to be England's disadvantage
Pool A: The Pacific champions are on a mission to restore pride after an untypically subdued and wholly unexpected defeat by Tonga, their head coach, Michael Jones, tells Richard Williams p
Springboks look to their fringe players
South Africa will rely on their fringe players against Tonga in Lens as they seek to maintain their 100 per cent record this afternoon. p
Samoa a very real threat
England have never lost to Samoa, a country with a population smaller than Northampton's, but defeat in Nantes today would not only effectively seal their fate as the first English side to bow out before the tournament's knock-out stages, but also invite further global ridicule. p
Aiming to keep home fires burning
Pool C: This is Scotland's strongest World Cup squad yet, Chris Paterson tells Paul Rees p
Scots send out shadow side
Scotland coach Frank Hadden confirmed yesterday he would take on the All Blacks tomorrow with a side which is likely to bear little resemblance to that which will face Italy in a quarter-final decider next week. In doing so he polarised opinion here and gave the All Blacks their first serious concern of the tournament. p
Solid Connacht always in control
Celtic League/Connacht 22 N-G Dragons 7: Connacht disposed of the Dragons with a workmanlike performance to open their Magners Celtic League with a deserved victory yesterday. p
O'Connor keeps his nerve to secure win
Ulster 17 N-S Ospreys 16: Ulster opened their Magners League campaign with a narrow win over the Ospreys at Ravenhill. p
Patched-up Edinburgh look set for drubbing
Leinster v Edinburgh: Understandably, your thoughts are elsewhere today. This also applies to Edinburgh fans, what with the All Blacks due at Murrayfield tomorrow, so only the most loyal are expected at the reopening of the RDS this evening. p
New-look Munster can register winning start
Munster v Llanelli: At the time of writing this preview, the result of last night's Ireland v France encounter was unclear so one hopes the light-hearted comments of Munster coach Declan Kidney do not resonate further. "We have to be aware of the difference in physicality of the pre-season games to the competitive ones. Consider then we are going in against a side that has two competitive matches under their belt already. p

Gaelic Games

Kerry march to their traditional beat
All-Ireland SFC Final Kerry: Tom Humphries reflects on the elements that make the champions so often superior to all their rivals p
Things heat up in Tyrone
Far from the glare of All-Ireland time for the second successive year, Tyrone football has used the time well and have reached the semi-final stage of the county championship this weekend. p
Mayo focused on final goal
Last Sunday Croke Park witnessed the most personal and enduring rivalry of Gaelic football when Kerry took on Cork for the All-Ireland title. p
Cork have the attack
Women's Football All-Ireland Final: Tomorrow's senior final is testimony to the youthfulness of the Mayo team that sensationally broke through eight years ago to win its first All-Ireland. p
Bold approach needed against Kingdom
Sideline Cut: How many modern day football men have what Daniel Day Lewis, sharpening knives as the glass-eyed patriot William "Bill the Butcher", theatrically called "the sand". How many football managers have the bloody-mindedness and daring to truly believe their team will beat Kerry in next year's championship? How many teams will be talking and thinking that way as early as October? The immediate challenge for those who would be champions is to topple a team that will, next summer, chase not so much another leasehold on the Sam Maguire as a legacy that will shine as brightly as anything achieved by Kerry teams in the past. p

Golf

Lowry leads from the front
Point proven. Shane Lowry, the Irish champion, didn't get a Walker Cup call-up for the shindig at Royal County Down earlier this month, but the 20-year-old Offaly man put down an early marker for the match in famed Merion, Pennsylvania, in 2009, with another impressive performance in yesterday's conclusion to the men's amateur Home Internationals at Co Louth Golf Club where he took the scalp of Nigel Edwards in inspiring Ireland to a 10-5 win over Wales. p
McIlroy achieves first goal
BRITISH MASTERS : Rory McIlroy went on a real rollercoaster ride before surviving the halfway cut in his first event as a professional. p

Racing

Bellamy Cay will have to improve
It's a long way from Meath to Melbourne, but a prominent display by Bellamy Cay at Fairyhouse in the featured Diamond Stakes this afternoon may just get some grand plans back on track for Dermot Weld's horse. p
Dream has advantage
Leg Spinner was last seen bounding up the Ascot straight to win one of the Shergar Cup races under the legendary Japanese rider Yutaka Take but it looks like being a tougher grind for Tony Martin's horse at Listowel tomorrow. p

Other

Weaving a life on the waves
SURFING/Interview with Irish surfer Easkey Britton: Seán Kenny talks to the Donegal woman whose success riding the waves reflects a life of immersion in the sport. Her parents christened her Easkey after a wave off Sligo p
Champagne finale has more cash than dash
On Athletics: It may come as something of a surprise that the champagne finale to the season takes place this weekend, the star-studded, 2.15-million prize-fest known as the World Athletics Final. Second only to the World Championships in terms of its potential as pay dirt for athletes, it was dreamed up by the IAAF five years ago as a way of maintaining the profile of the sport, when clearly that profile was dwindling. p
Taiwan won't host torch
OLYMPICS GAMES 2008: The Olympic torch will not pass through Taiwan because negotiators could not resolve differences with the Beijing authorities, officials have confirmed. p
Cyclist admits she took EPO
CYCLING: Former Olympic Canadian cyclist Genevieve Jeanson has admitted she regularly took the banned performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin (EPO) during her career. p
Menchov still leads in Spain
CYCLING: With just two days remaining in the Vuelta a España, Rabobank rider Denis Menchov looks almost certain to take the second Tour of Spain of his career, writes Shane Stokes. p
Britain take advantage
TENNIS: Britain and Austria took a big step towards securing berths in the Davis Cup world group next season after building commanding 2-0 leads against their respective play-off rivals yesterday. p
Keita's positive test confirmed
ATHLETICS: Naman Keita's positive doping test has been confirmed by the B sample, the IAAF said yesterday while revealing there were no doping cases at the Osaka world championships themselves. p
McLaren cede Ferrari title
FORMULA ONE: Ferrari were confirmed as Formula One champions for a record 15th time on Friday after McLaren accepted an unprecedented €70 million fine and loss of all their 2007 constructors' points. p

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