1. #BOYS IN GREEN Ireland came from behind to draw 1-1 with the Czech Republic at Lansdowne Rd last night.
Simon Cox levelled it up in the dying minutes after former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker Milan Baros was left completely unmarked as John O’Shea gravitated towards the ball, and he made no mistake when finishing past Shay Given.
“We couldn’t contain them in midfield, they were superior. But without this great misunderstanding, I think we continue in this way,” manager Giovanni Trapattoni said afterwards.
2. #EURO2012 Elsewhere, there was mixed results for Ireland’s Group C rivals. Italy were shocked by the USA who won out thanks to a single Clint Dempsey goal. Roberto Soldado hit a hat-trick as Spain put five past Venezuela without reply in their international friendly in Malaga.
In Croatia, their match with Sweden was tied at half-time after Jonas Olsson’s own goal had cancelled out Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s early penalty, before a second-half double from Sunderland’s Sebastian Larsson wrapped up the win for the Swedes against Slaven Bilic’s men.
3. #SIX NATIONS Declan Kidney yesterday named an unchanged side for Sunday’s rescheduled showdown with France in Paris.
“I never think of it as picking the same team again,” said Kidney, “it’s not that simple. You never go in and say ‘okay we were grand let’s go with the same team again’.”
4. #SWIMMING Gráinne Murphy held off the challenge of 16-year-old Sycerika McMahon to win in a time of two minutes 00.02 seconds in the women’s 200m freestyle on the opening day of the Irish National Swimming and Olympic Trials at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) in Dublin yesterday. It was just outside Michele de Bruin’s long standing national record.
5. #ATHLETICS Derval O’Rourke, Ciaran O’Lionaird and Ben Reynolds are the only names in what Athletics Ireland has called ‘a small but quality’ travelling group for the imminent World Indoor Championships. O’Rourke has not competed in the championship since winning gold in 2006.
6. #YOUTUBE If it’s fish fingers for dinner tonight, then it must be Thursday and time for our weekly video round-up. We’ll reach into our big bag o’ clips but get your favourites into us too, kids. Tiger Woods’ reaction to one reporter’s question yesterday might well make it…
YouTube credit: BOS000001
