THERE have been times when Eddie O’Sullivan has been too protective and supportive of his Irish players but not last night. He actually looked diminished in himself; pale and shell shocked as he took on board just how poorly his side had played in beating the unrated Namibians.

ONE night some 43 years ago a delegation was ushered into a meeting of the Kerry County GAA Board in Tralee.

EARLY DAYS and all that but if first impressions count for anything, then New Zealand have set an awesome standard. I was fortunate to be in the Velodrome in Marseille on Saturday where the men in black delivered as clinical a performance as one could expect against respected Six Nations opposition.

THERE was something almost theatrical about the scenes outside the police station in Portimao yesterday.

HENRY SHEFFLIN faces an anxious wait before he finds out the extent of the knee injury sustained in Sunday’s All-Ireland final.

FORMER lobbyist Frank Dunlop denied at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he raised a £20,000 bank loan 15 years ago and gave it to “a single, senior politician”.

WE ARE lucky to live in a country where the press has enjoyed circumstances that, by and large, allow it to do its job without hindrance or threat.

TOP scorer Andrew Quinn may have been forced to watch the major part of Sunday’s Clare county hurling final from the sideline after an early injury, but it didn’t prevent him from celebrating a famous victory for Tulla which had special relevance for himself and his brothers Brian, Mark and Karl.

JAKE WHITE will be careful about his wardrobe this morning.

A REAL Cinderella-story in Tipperary tomorrow, as Loughmore-Castleiney take on Drom & Inch in the senior hurling championship final at Semple Stadium (3.30pm).

PRESSURE intensified on ITV bosses to take responsibility for the spate of phone-in scandals yesterday after chairman Michael Grade admitted he would have resigned if he had been chief executive at the time of the deceit.

ON a human level, you had to feel for Steve Staunton on Wednesday night.

A BABY boom at the country’s second largest maternity hospital has forced management to put up expectant mothers in a nearby hotel.

FRANCE coach Bernard Laporte names his team today to face Ireland in Friday’s crunch Rugby World Cup game, having postponed the announcement by 24 hours.

AN underage Limerick gaelic football final ended in chaos after an elderly woman invaded the pitch.

THE EMOTIONS among the Irish supporters in the Stade Chaban Delmas on Saturday night were varied. Shock, embarrassment and anger were chief among them although to hear the side booed off the pitch by a section of the crowd was very disappointing.

ROY KEANE is backing the spirit of ‘73 to help Sunderland turn around their Premier League campaign today.

EIGHT minutes into Ireland’s European Championship qualifier against Slovakia in Bratislava on Saturday night, Stephen Ireland was on top of the world, having just given his country the lead in a vital match away from home.

“BRING us back a parrot!” was the cry of canal bank Dublin urchins years ago as they waved to barges seen heading to imagined exotic destinations. Like Meath. Or Kildare.

A FASHION expert told a court yesterday she found 580,000 references on the internet to the type of woman’s top at the centre of a landmark legal dispute between British fashion stores and Dunnes Stores.