If the rumblings and murmurs from the Irish camp in Gdynia are to be taken at face value, Kevin Doyle now looks to be the only player from the original first XI to miss out against Spain tomorrow.

Spain winger Jesus Navas has warned Ireland the defending champions will attack from the off tomorrow night.

After Sunday’s deflating defeat, Irish fans might see a victory over Euro 2012 favourites Spain in tomorrow’s Group C clash as unlikely, but La Roja midfielder Sergio Busquets said yesterday that he and his team-mates were prepared for a difficult game.

Those comparisons with Greece, which mushroomed in both number and volume prior to Ireland’s opener against Croatia, are no longer being made but the example of Chelsea remains a valid one for a team clinging to the precipice of these European Championships.

Patrick Kavanagh’s poem about experience, Advent, was probably really a poem about depression. Not everyone who has “tested and tasted too much” feels as bad about it as Kavanagh seemed to do.

He played no part in the national team’s qualification campaign, but the gifted young attacker was included when Giovanni Trapattoni named his squad for the European Championship finals.

“Six years ago we were the predators, now we are the prey,” said Portuguese paper Publico yesterday, of a match where the Danes can afford to wait to catch their opponents on the break, whereas Portugal have to score.

Munster Rugby chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald last night promised a programme of “cutbacks and savings” as the Munster Branch unveiled a projected deficit of more than €1 million for the year ending June 30, 2012, at its Annual Delegate Meeting in Cork.

Gert Smal will require all his motivational skills to get his injury-hit pack ready for a manic onslaught from a fired-up New Zealand pack this weekend.

Christy Mullins reached his second successive Munster senior final when he dethroned Munster and European champion David Murphy in the last shot at Shannonvale on Sunday.

Roy Keane would — probably — approve.

Germany captain Philipp Lahm has branded the mole leaking team line-ups to the media as a “disgrace” and admits the spy could be damaging their chances of winning Euro 2012.

With a clean sweep on their Southern Hemisphere tour, Scotland have gone a long way towards redemption after their World Cup and Six Nations disasters, but head coach Andy Robinson admits there is still a lot of work to do.

As Ireland bid a hasty retreat from New Zealand for the second time in eight months, they do so with a heavy heart and a feeling of what might have been.

There was a depressing sense of déjà vu when Rory Best walked out to face the music after Saturday night’s debacle.

The Irish immigrants who settled in Syracuse, New York’s Tipperary Hill and named it after the county they’d left behind were a notoriously sentimental crowd.

Your first ever radio station?

Paul McGinley heads into today’s British Open 36-hole qualifier buoyed after storming his way to a share of third place at the BMW International Open near Cologne.

French Football Federation president Noel le Graet has labelled Samir Nasri’s behaviour “intolerable” after the midfielder’s alleged foul-mouthed rant at a journalist following Les Bleus’ Euro 2012 exit.

Are France the new Netherlands?