William Porterfield feels Ireland proved they belong in cricket’s longest format after their gripping inaugural Test ended in a five-wicket loss to Pakistan.

Starting with the largest Sunday lead ever at The Players Championship was harder than Webb Simpson imagined.

It has all been about records this season in European football: records broken and records that remained tantalisingly out of reach.

Carlow hurlers may be facing an anxious wait to hear if any further sanctions come their way after Saturday’s gruesome Joe McDonagh Cup loss to Antrim.

The highly anticipated showdown between Galway and Mayo reminded me of all those FA Cup finals I used to watch as a kid.

There was a time in my career when even as a Tottenham fan I felt that Arsene Wenger was a bit special. Today I feel, probably like Wenger feels, that he is oh so close from putting it all together. The trouble is that he just can’t find the right formula, writes The Secret Footballer.

It’s less than a decade since Declan Kidney’s Irish team secured that famous Grand Slam but it may as well be a page ripped out of an ancient history textbook as Joe Schmidt’s current generation of players go about writing their own chapters.

Ireland 56 Italy 19: As an emotional Conor O’Shea assessed a seventh, consecutive Six Nations defeat on his watch, as Italy’s head coach, on Saturday night, he insisted the Azzurri had no option but to keep the head down and continue making the hard yards.

Garry Ringrose’s potential return to action after six months on the sidelines may be music to the ears of the Ireland team management but in the wake of Robbie Henshaw’s shoulder injury, the Six Nations leaders have a serious experience deficit to make up before Wales visit in Dublin.

The problem with playing against Italy, especially at home, is that everyone is expecting a cakewalk and even when you deliver a comprehensive win, as Ireland did Saturday, invariably it comes with caveats, writes Donal Lenihan.

Scott Evans announced his retirement from international badminton this week. The three-time Olympian was a star of the Rio Games for his dramatic victories and shirtless celebrations. His final competition will be next week’s European Team Championships.

Given his surname and upbringing — on a tiny island of fewer than 600 people in Norway — on first glance it seems unlikely that Thomas Westgaard would be competing for Ireland in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Although there was no great surprise in news of his retirement, already the cavity in the Ireland team created by Wes Hoolahan’s absence is being sorely mourned.

Ireland’s representatives at the U20s grade haven’t exactly made Donnybrook a fortress since swapping Dubarry Park for the Dublin venue midway through the 2015 Six Nations campaign.

Watford striker Troy Deeney will avoid a formal punishment from the Football Association over his goal celebration in the 4-1 victory over Chelsea on Monday night.

Maro Itoje and Alun Wyn Jones will shift from friends and former room-mates to rivals when England host Wales on Saturday.