BORDEAUX may be famed for its wine and lush countryside, but not too many of the current Irish squad have as many happy memories as the rest of us.

Despite poor punditry it is one of the globe’s elite competitions

RATHER than patronise them afterwards in the event they ship a heavy defeat tomorrow, let’s seize the moment and acknowledge the breadth of Dublin’s achievements this summer right here.

JAMIE SPENCER and Cape Blanco hold a favourite’s chance of landing their second Grade 1 victory together in the States tonight when they team up in the celebrated Arlington Million.

BORDEAUX may be famed for its wine and lush countryside, but not too many of the current Irish squad have as many happy memories as the rest of us.

ENGLAND manager Martin Johnson will take no risks with injury doubt Chris Ashton in today’s World Cup warm-up international against Wales.

ROBBIE KEANE, Shay Given and Sean St Ledger all generated headlines this week by declaring the FAI should not delay any longer in giving Giovanni Trapattoni a new contract.

LEO CULLEN gets another crack at captaining Ireland when Declan Kidney’s outfit switch from the rain of Edinburgh to the good weather in Bordeaux tomorrow night.

IT’S hard to get excited about the increasingly odious English Premier League soccer competition that begins this weekend, rioting and police response permitting.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND skipper Robbie Keane last night added his voice to the consensus that boss Giovanni Trapattoni should be given a new contract by the FAI to lead the country into the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

FRANCE coach Marc Lièvremont has thrown down the gauntlet to his players ahead of Saturday’s World Cup warm-up with Ireland in Bordeaux by declaring that Les Bleus are now in “competition mode”.

HENRY Cecil’s multiple Group One-winning mare Midday is an intended runner in the Juddmonte International at York on Wednesday.

GRAEME McDOWELL will go into this evening’s PGA Championship first round looking to reset his expectations after admitting a top-10 finish no longer excited him.

WHEN I slip on the Superman jim-jams, pile an extra marshmallow into my Irish Examiner-branded mug of hot cocoa and pad up the stairs to bed with a water bottle tucked under my arm, I like to have a good book waiting on the bedside cabinet.

IRELAND lie third in the FEI Nations Cup Series and preparations for a shot at Olympic qualification at next month’s European Championships in Madrid are on target, so, all in all, manager Robert Splaine is entitled to be reasonably satisfied.

THE competition for scrum-half places in Declan Kidney’s rugby World Cup squad is intensifying but Isaac Boss is relishing the battle for places over the next four weeks of intense preparation for the tournament.

MUNSTER coach Tony McGahan says he is prepared if necessary to wait until after the World Cup before filling the one remaining foreign contract in his squad.

“THE RETURN” was the talk of Akron last night as scribes dashed to their laptops to bear the good tidings to the world.

MIRIAM CROWLEY has been handed a chance to prove her international credentials at the highest level, after she was the bolter named in Gene Muller’s squad for the EuroHockey Nations Championships in Moenchengladbach, Germany later this month.

DUBLIN Lord Mayor Andrew Montague — a major advocate of cycling in his city — was forced to saddle up a different type of transport yesterday to attend the Dublin Horse Show.