Sports journalists, like the people they write or talk about, are creatures of habit. It’s human nature to lean on the familiar, of course, but this job sure does reinforce that point.

Last April one year, Carol Sharp picked up the phone in Edinburgh and put a call through to her daughter Lynsey in the United States.

Should Ireland ever commit to the Commonwealth again, it would only be to the benefit of its sports men and women in the 26 counties, smack bang in the middle of every Olympic cycle

Conor McGregor has a different perspective than most when it comes to what the Irish sporting public holds close to its heart.

Three days on and the images from Belo Horizonte that stick in the mind are not those of David Luiz’s Sideshow Bob- standing-on-a-rake routine, nor Germany’s seven wonders, but instead it’s the youngsters and grown men crying in the stands.

Hard to believe, but it’s 25 years since David Elleray, the Harrow headmaster who spent his Saturdays admonishing a very different class of brat, was wired for sound for ITV’s World In Action programme on a First Division game between Millwall and Arsenal at the old Den.

Thursday morning, Dublin. It’s early. Way too early.

It’s time again to dust off the joke book and dig up those old enmities.

We are the boys in green

David Campese has uttered the odd verbal gaffe in his time, but the Wallaby legend was prescient enough to foresee the direction rugby was already taking when he announced his formal retirement from the game back in 1999 after one of the most wondrous of careers.