1. Ruby has broken just about every important bone in his body and there comes a time for every jump jockey when they know enough is enough. For all that, the shock of his announcement was palpable around Punchestown.
The sense of something, someone sacred leaving the sport, left many in tears, not least his father Ted and sister Jennifer. Only Walsh’s family – his wife Gillian especially – can truly know the investment of mind and body it has taken to become what Mullins describes as “the greatest we have seen”.
And it didn’t require any great leap of faith to see the truth in that.
After Ruby Walsh called time on a remarkable career on Wednesday, Vincent Hogan reflected in the Irish Independent on the brilliance of the Irish jockey.
2. The church organist wanted to meet outside Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium. Her name is Anne Preston, and she carried the program of a funeral she’d played the day before, as a document of something both ancient and achingly current. She wanted me to see it, so I’d understand how life, death and resurrection are so tied together with football along the banks of the Mersey River.
She arrived with her husband, meeting me between the Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand and the Kop, the mighty Liverpool Kop. As he went over to sort his tickets for the first leg of the Champions League semifinal in Barcelona, she produced the program and told me about a musical request from the family. The mom made the request herself. To honor her son, whose funeral program had Anfield on the front and the club crest on the back, she wanted Anne to subtly work in “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during the Mass. It’s a familiar request to Anne, and to every funeral director and organist in Liverpool.
As Liverpool chase a first Premier League title in almost 30 years, Wright Thompson for ESPN looks at what it would mean to a city that has experienced plenty over the last few decades.
3. The case is widely regarded as being the most complex and contentious one in Cas’s 35-year history. However, apart from a short statement, little has come out about the drama that went on behind closed doors. But the Guardian has spoken to more than half a dozen eyewitnesses to gain an unparalleled insight into a case that touched on so many areas – including science and sociology, gender and genetics, health issues and medical ethics – and also split sport and society right down the middle.
Given the extraordinarily high stakes it was no surprise that each side came tooled up with many world-leading experts. Semenya even had two legal teams, one from Canada and the other from South Africa, while more than 200,000 words of evidence were filed before the case even began.
Sean Ingle in The Guardian turns the spotlight on the sporting trail of the century, Caster Semenya v IAAF.
4. And so Liverpool ended up – as Guardiola’s Bayern had – paying for their gamble by losing 3-0. As four years ago, Messi scored twice. Back then, all three goals came in the final 13 minutes, here it was two in the final 15, but the message was similar: take Barça on and they might wobble, but the slightest slip can be punished and, whatever you do, do not get tired.
Jurgen Klopp’s approach was not wrong in Barcelona, argued Jonathan Wilson in the Guardian, but it did open up the prospect of a heavy defeat in Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final.
5. Think of the consistency it takes to do it day in and day out for four seasons in a row. Colm Cooper won eight All Stars, Mikey Sheehy won seven, Peter Canavan and Ger Power six, Tomás Ó Sé, Stephen Cluxton and Seán Cavanagh five. None of them put four back to back.
Every one of them had a down year somewhere along the way, often more than one. Summers when they weren’t just at it like they had been before. Or even just summers when someone else caught that little bit more of the eye. All Stars are subjective thing, often more a matter of taste than science. Sometimes, you’re going to lose a tight call. Paul Flynn never did. He was nominated four times in his career and he won each time.
The celebrated career of Dublin’s Paul Flynn was recognised by Malachy Clerkin in The Irish Times.
6. When Liverpool scored after 15 seconds against Huddersfield Town on Friday night, one common reaction would have been to bemoan the lack of competitiveness in the Premier League, and wonder if there was anything else on television. But this was one of the most interesting goals you’ll see all season, and it’s worth analysing what happened in detail.
Ken Early explores in the Irish Times the shift that has occurred in soccer philosophies on the pitch and how it has left some pundits in the studio behind.
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella are joined by Andy Dunne to discuss all the week’s rugby news:
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