Sports Briefing

“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” So says Gerry Thornley in his preview of the naming of the Irish squad for the November internationals by Andy Farrell this afternoon. The loss of the injured Caelan Doris and Jack Conan will be compensated somewhat by the return of Andrew Porter, Ryan Baird and Mack Hansen for the first time in almost a year. Will there be any surprises in the squad? Well, one “bolter” might well be Ulster outhalf and former England underage international Jamie Benson who qualifies for Ireland through his mother.

Alex Nankivell isn’t available to Andy Farrell just yet, but the Munster centre will be in two years’ time when he will qualify to play for Ireland. John Fallon talks to the New Zealander who has just signed a two-year contract extension with Munster.

Gordon D’Arcy looks back on the opening weekend of the Champions Cup and is encouraged by the tweaks to its format, the competition having struggled with “ugly duckling syndrome” until now. He was heartened too by the performances of all four Irish provinces in Europe, Connacht and Ulster having “the clearer picture” of how they want to play.

In football, Gavin Cummiskey takes you through the permutations for the title race and relegation battle in the League of Ireland with just two games left to play, Shamrock Rovers within touching distance of their sixth crown in seven seasons.

In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning talks to John Meyler, the chairman of the Hurling Expert Advisory Group, about the experimental rules that will soon be trialled in the game. There are plans too for an interprovincial hurling exhibition in Thurles at the end of November to showcase the changes.

Gordon also has word on the retirement from intercounty football of Roscommon’s Ultan Harney, the three-time Connacht senior football championship winner ending an 11-year career with his county.

And in his America At Large column, Dave Hannigan tells us the story of the Manchester City of the NBA, the LA Clippers. After being caught using shadow deals to circumvent spending rules, they were handed their punishment last month - and it’s hefty enough to all but guarantee that they won’t be competing for an NBA title any time soon.

TV Watch: There were goals galore in yesterday’s Champions League games, PSG, Manchester City and Liverpool managing 13 between them. We’ll see how today’s offerings go.

Manchester United are off to Italy where they will play the Cesc Fabregas-coached Como (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 2, 5.45pm) and at 8pm, Real Madrid host RB Leipzig (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 4) and Aston Villa play Norway’s Viking (TNT Sports 2). The tie of the day, though, looks like being Bayern Munich v Arsenal (RTÉ 2, Premier Sports 1 and TNT Sports 1).