{"id":119158,"date":"2025-11-03T10:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/119158\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T10:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:07:06","slug":"ireland-must-soldier-on-after-chicago-hiding-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/119158\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland must Soldier on after Chicago hiding \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t, alas, 2016 all over again, this time New Zealand taking the honours at Soldier Field after, as Gerry Thornley puts it in his match report, Ireland \u201cran out of punching power and energy\u201d<\/a> in that final quarter. There were, though, \u201czero excuses\u201d from Andy Farrell<\/a> after, instead he called on his players to \u201cbuckle down\u201d ahead of the remainder of their Autumn international schedule. <\/p>\n

But it was, writes Johnny Watterson, a tough watch, reminiscent of \u201cthe days when fans could set their watches by the moment Test matches began to crumble<\/a> in front of their eyes\u201d. Ireland weren\u2019t helped, of course, by Tadhg Beirne\u2019s red card<\/a>, but as John O\u2019Sullivan tells us, thems the new laws regarding incidents of that nature \u2013 and the officials simply observed them. <\/p>\n

The New Zealand press, need it be said, was less than sympathetic about Beirne\u2019s fate after that collision. \u201cIf you\u2019re not expecting a ball-runner, what are you doing on the field, mate?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Beirne\u2019s brief stint on the pitch earned him just a four in Johnny\u2019s player ratings<\/a>, Ryan Baird<\/a> and Stuart McCloskey<\/a> faring considerably better after they did they their reputations no harm at all on an otherwise gloomy day for Ireland. How about Jack Crowley? As Johnny puts it in his \u2018five things we learned from the match\u2019<\/a> piece, Farrell needs to make a decision on the unending outhalf debate. <\/p>\n

In Gaelic games, Denis Walsh saw Waterford\u2019s Ballygunner get the better of Limerick\u2019s Na Piarsaigh<\/a> in the Munster hurling quarter-finals, while John Fallon was at Pearse Stadium where a late goal pushed Loughrea over the line against St Thomas\u2019<\/a> in the Galway final. Se\u00e1n Moran took himself off to P\u00e1irc Tailteann to witness Meath\u2019s Summerhill progress <\/a>in the Leinster football championship, Paul Keane rounding up a busy club weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the time of year when intercounty panels are being selected, and for those omitted there can be \u201can element of unintentional brutality\u201d<\/a> to it all. \u201cAll over the country,\u201d writes Denis, \u201cthere are players who feel chewed up and spat out\u201d. <\/p>\n

In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey rounds up the League of Ireland weekend<\/a> while Conor McEvoy reports on how the Irish abroad fared<\/a> \u2013 none better than Sligo man Johnny Kenny who sent Celtic on their way to a League Cup semi-final win over Rangers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Down in London, all is not going swimmingly for Thomas Frank at Spurs<\/a> \u2013 even though they\u2019re fifth in the table. \u201cA narrative has already formed that Frank is a small-club manager bringing a small-club mentality to Spurs,\u201d writes Ken Early. <\/p>\n

In athletics, Ian O\u2019Riordan reports on yet another fine run by Fionnuala McCormack<\/a> who finished in 10th place in the New York City Marathon, the best placing by any Irish woman in the event. And he traces the history of our women marathon runners down the years, young Ava Crean, the newly crowned Irish champion<\/a>, aiming to join a distinguished roll of honour. <\/p>\n

And in horse racing, Brian O\u2019Connor looks back on the most valuable victory<\/a> \u2013 \u20ac4.3 million! \u2013 of Willie Mullins\u2019 career, Ethical Diamond producing one of the biggest shocks in Breeders\u2019 Cup history on Saturday. And he could even trump that triumph if he\u2019s successful in Tuesday morning\u2019s Melbourne Cup. <\/p>\n

TV Watch: A quiet enough night on the box, unless you\u2019re all a-tingle at the prospects of Tamworth v Leyton Orient in the FA Cup (TNT Sports 1, 7.30pm), or Sunderland v Everton in the Premier League (Sky Sports, 8pm). Also at 8pm, TG4 has the highlights from the GAA club weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t, alas, 2016 all over again, this time New Zealand taking the honours at Soldier Field after,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,46616],"class_list":["post-119158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-sports-briefing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}