Shane Ross left red faced but you gotta love Pat Hickey’s chutzpah

Great rivalries are made at the Olympic Games. We have Michael Phelps and Chad le Clos in swimming, Bolt and Gatlin in the 100m sprint, the O’Donovan brothers and those très cool French dudes in the rowing. But you ain’t seen nothin’ like Ross and Hickey in the egos.

The Irish people awoke yesterday morning dazed and confused. Their Minister for Sport was on the radio proclaiming himself “stunned” after a meeting with the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI). “It was fairly tense, fairly direct and fairly frank,” Shane Ross told Morning Ireland.

“An excellent meeting” was how Pat Hickey described it. Were they at the same meeting? Is there any hotel room capable of accommodating both egos in full flight?