This is F1
Twenty cars on the grid, ready to race.
When the lights go out, they will begin the chase.
Their drivers waiting, filled with adrenaline,
Each ready to battle it out for the win.
It's lights out and away we go.
The drivers speed up ready to show,
That their determination wouldn't be in waste
And that they would be the one in first place.
The drivers racing hard, powered by their passion.
Some pilots, they perform in spectacular fashion.
While others, their races are over and done,
But that's what it means to be in F1.
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Karen Duggan: Manager Carla Ward needs to park her fixation with attacking flair and embrace the Irish way
Belgium it is for Ireland in October's Nations League playoffs . They're a team you wouldn't be intimidated by, but you definitely need to respect them. They had a mixed bag of results and performances in a really tough League A group, some of which were poor while others were excellent. Their stand-out result was beating England at home. It is, then, hard to know what to expect from them. Instead of picking out their 5-0 defeat away to England and taking heart from it, it's much more important that we analyse how Ireland lost 4-0 away to Slovenia and learn from it. Yes, we won our other five group games, but that's the result that stands out. READ MORE It was a tough time for Carla Ward to come in . There had been no end of upheaval and disappointment before she arrived, not least with the defeat to Wales in the Euro 2025 playoffs and the subsequent departures of Eileen Gleeson and Colin Healy . Add in the retirements of Niamh Fahey, Louise Quinn, Diane Caldwell and Julie-Ann Russell – four leaders gone from the dressingroom and the pitch – and it was always going to be a challenge. There was also no getting away from Ward's own lack of experience at international level. But my worry throughout our League B campaign was the lack of balance between the Carla Ward way and the Irish way. It's all very well wanting a more adventurous attacking style, but it was our defensive strength and resoluteness that ultimately got us to the World Cup. We can't lose that. We can't afford to. It's not that she has reinvented the wheel with her preferred 4-4-2 system as all of our players have played it at some stage from underage up. But the effort to improve us going forward can't be done at the expense of us being defensively sound. That's the balance that has to be found. Maybe she underestimated Slovenia and overestimated us when we played them in February, but she went gung-ho, with too many attacking players on the pitch, some out of position. It just looked disjointed. We were torn apart. And that was the result that cost us top spot in the group. We were hearing too much about how it was a great job for her work-life balance She didn't quite know her team then and you'd hope she does now. But when you don't know your team, you need to err on the side of caution. I hope she's learned from that. We should certainly err on the side of caution against Belgium. They've been playing at a higher level than us recently and will have a Euro 2025 campaign behind them by the time we meet in October, so their intensity is going to be high. I didn't see any intensity from Ireland until that first half in Cork against Slovenia on Tuesday, in our final group game . By that stage, my concern had grown about how this team was shaping up. But there was real improvement that evening. We were excellent: back to basics, direct, strong, quick, playing for each other, taking responsibility. I thought it was all there – except we still didn't have the finishing. Louise Quinn with her son Darragh after her final appearance for Ireland against Slovenia in Cork last Tuesday. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho I wondered if that performance was an emotional reaction from the players to it being Louise Quinn's last game for Ireland, although I'd prefer to think that it was down to work done with Ward in training, having reviewed the team's struggles in the campaign until then. Either way, it was heartening after a less-than-stirring start to her time in charge. I think she started off with too much of a 'nice' approach to it all. We were hearing too much about how it was a great job for her work-life balance and how she loves the Irish way, the grit and determination. But sometimes you have to coax that out of the players too, especially when they had taken such a confidence hit from their defeat by Wales. I don't think that was addressed. The key for me is that she learns she has to bend a little bit on the Carla Ward way in favour of the Irish way until we're a bit more settled. It's all still a work in progress, I'm not sure she even knows her best starting 11 yet. And there's still scope for change on the player front. She has talked about the scouting efforts for new talent. She brought in Mel Filis, from the English Championship, in her first squad, and Erin Healy, from the Australian league, in her last, after both of them got their Irish passports. And that's fine. But both inclusions raised an eyebrow and in the end, neither played. I think you need to be very sure, when you pick these players, that they'll come in and make an impact. Otherwise, why not keep an eye on players closer to home? Such as Ellen Molloy, Jess Fitzgerald, Ellen Dolan and Joy Ralph, or any of the players coming through from the under-19s. Bring them in, give them a taste of where they need to get to in terms of making it at professional level. Have a look at them. If you don't rate them, fine. But give them a chance. In wider development terms, nothing seems to be working too well. Hannah Dingley left her role as head of women and girls' football after just a year. There was no impact. In with a whimper, out with a whimper. And the strategic plan that she presented was, to put it mildly, underwhelming. We need someone in that role who is willing to put a few years and a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it. It needs to be someone who is passionate about the development of the game here. Dingley's predecessor, Eileen Gleeson, was a great appointment. Would she be willing to take that role again? I don't know what her relationship is like with the FAI now. Ward could have done without all that drama, but her focus now has to be on getting past Belgium in the playoffs. It's been a damp squib of a start for her in this job, but there's time to get things right. The report card on her and her team, at this point, might say: 'Expect more from someone with their ability.'
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
LIV Golf shows what happens when a niche sport goes to war with itself – rugby should take note
This R360 stuff is interesting for the thunder that isn't rolling. Normally, when you come across a sport being sized up for attack by an outside disrupter, you can't move for sirens wailing and cannons firing in opposition. That doesn't quite seem to be the case with rugby in this instance, which raises the fascinating question of why that might be. It feels like a little more than just the usual rugby confidence in itself, although that is certainly part of it. World Rugby hasn't said anything about the proposed breakaway league spearheaded by former England international Mike Tindall. There hasn't been a peep out of any of the unions. None of the players' bodies have chirped up, either in support or in high dudgeon. Since nothing is yet official and all anybody has to go on is a strategically leaked business pitch and a year-old podcast rumination by Tindall, it's maybe no surprise that everyone is holding fire for now. But somewhere in the silence lies the uncomfortable truth that has set this thing in motion in the first place. Rugby is in a precarious place right now. Nobody can say with any confidence what it's going to look like in, say, a decade's time, but it probably won't look like this. Particularly in England, where three Premiership clubs have gone to the wall in recent seasons and seven of those remaining are losing money. READ MORE England is one of the great rugby nations on the planet and it is struggling to make the sport a viable business. Same goes for Wales , where the WRU is reducing its funding to two of the four regions. Same Down Under , where Rugby Australia recently announced a loss of $36.8 million (a shade under €21 million) for 2024 – and had the chutzpah to pass it off as good news because the Lions tour and next year's World Cup will bring in the bucks. So much jam tomorrow. Into this world, the arrival of an idea that is apparently attracting new sources of funding can't be dismissed out of hand. Especially when some of the people interested are reportedly established owners from the big, sexy, moneymaking leagues – the NFL, the Premier League, Formula 1. These are the lads with a proven record of turning existing sports into spun gold. If they think they have a way of making rugby viable, there's probably more rugby people than you think who are willing to give them a hearing. Instinctively though, it feels like the whole idea has two glaring issues. One, rugby is too small for a breakaway league to work. And two, rugby players aren't famous enough to build a breakaway league around. They're both variations on the same problem, but let's take them in order and use the most recent sports league disruptor as a case study. [ 'Crampgate' tells us rugby's code of dignity counts for little when lucrative online views are at stake Opens in new window ] Bryson DeChambeau celebrates his birdie putt on the 18th hole with a record 58 to win the LIV Golf Invitational - Greenbrier at The Old White Course in August 2023 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Photograph:The first LIV Golf tournament took place this week in 2022. Since then, LIV has unquestionably gone on to establish itself as a player in the golf ecosystem. Whatever future the game has, LIV and its players will have to be dealt with, one way or the other. It's maybe no surprise that some of the people involved in R360 have worked on LIV. Plenty of commentators pooh-poohed LIV from the start and didn't envisage it lasting the course. That it's still here at all will be proof enough for some of those involved that a successful template exists and that rugby is ripe for its application. But the reality is that LIV has been a disaster for golf , simply because golf is far too niche a sport to be going to war with itself. By breaking away from the PGA Tour , LIV is running an unprofitable sports league that is bringing in pitiful broadcasting money and is only surviving because there's a bottomless well of Saudi oil cash to feed it. Rugby is played seriously in nine countries on the planet. In only two of those is it the number one sport – arguably only in one, given that football at least has parity in Wales these days. Rugby's problems stem from the fact that there are already not enough people who want to pay to watch it, be that in person or on the TV. Slicing the sausage even thinner makes it highly unlikely that more people will suddenly think it's worth shelling out for. That's especially true when you take the second lesson from the LIV disaster. LIV's signature achievement has been to slough off most of the interesting players away from the PGA Tour and hide them in a league that nobody watches. Jon Rahm , Bryson DeChambeau , Brooks Koepka , Phil Mickelson , Patrick Reed – these are (in some cases, were) some of the best players in the world and some of the most watchable. But they may as well be bog-snorkelling for their dime now, for all that anybody tunes in to see them. And yet, whatever LIV's problems, at least the idea of following individual sportspeople is already established in golf. People don't follow rugby players. They follow rugby teams. The international game is the financial engine of the sport not because Antoine Dupont plays for France and Sam Prendergast for Ireland, but because millions of people are invested in the outcome regardless of who is the blue nine and the Ireland 10. [ Craig Casey to captain Ireland for summer Tests against Georgia and Portugal Opens in new window ] [ Tiger Woods son Charlie fires 66 to clinch first career AJGA title Opens in new window ] Let's say – and this is entirely for argument's sake before anyone's lawyers get twitchy – that Dupont and Prendergast are R360 players in a couple of years' time, taking each other on in São Paulo, LA and Barcelona. Are you watching? Maybe. Do you care who wins? Not a chance. If it means that neither of them is playing for Ireland or France, will it stop you watching the Six Nations? Even less of a chance. Rugby will change in the coming years. It has to. But the R360 proposal seems to want to (a) chop an already small sport into even smaller pieces and (b) build a new entity around a group of players who are pretty much interchangeable to all but the sport's most engaged devotees. LIV Golf gets away with it because the Saudis seem comfortable emptying barrels of money into it indefinitely. Hard to imagine R360's backers aspiring to their munificence.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Biggest Derby field for 22 years underlines unpredictability of Epsom classic
The biggest Betfred Derby field in 22 years lines up at Epsom on Saturday, and if the old saying is 'the bigger the field, the bigger the certainty', the only sure thing about this 246th renewal of racing's blue riband appears to be unpredictability. Even what the elements might do is up in the air, with an unsettled weather outlook making likely ground conditions unclear. The last properly soft ground Derby was in 1983 when Teenoso was the last of Lester Piggott's nine winners. The Long Fellow knew Epsom better than anyone and followed a traditional route to glory. But should the going turn testing enough, it might prompt some enterprising soul to even try his luck up the stands rail, a Derby scenario no one alive can recall happening before. A 19-runner field is the biggest since Kris Kin won in 2003 and reflects a puzzling Derby with no outstanding candidate, and plenty prepared to try their luck in the circumstances. READ MORE If odds were cramped about racing's two superpowers, Coolmore and Godolphin, being in the mix, the presence of the €7,000 purchase Al Wasl Storm smacks of a rare lottery element. A pair of French supplementary entries at nearly €89,000 each suggests a have-a-go attitude too. One of them is Midak, carrying the colours of the late Aga Khan, a five-time Derby winner in whose memory the race is named. Aidan O'Brien's astonishing Derby record means he's looking for an 11th victory in the classic. It includes a historic hat-trick between 2012 and 2014, which the Irish trainer is now looking to repeat following victories for Auguste Rodin (2023) and City Of Troy a year ago. Much speculation about which of the Ballydoyle trio Ryan Moore would ride ended midweek when he opted for Delacroix rather than The Lion In Winter. Colin Keane comes in for the latter, while Wayne Lordan teams up with Chester Vase winner Lambourn. There is another Irish interest with Joseph O'Brien's outsider Tennessee Stud, who might not yet prove to be such a long-shot since he won a Group One as a two-year-old on heavy ground. Scrambling to find form in easy conditions might permeate much of the Derby build-up and those pinning their faith in Moore's judgment can point to Delacroix's narrow defeat in last year's Futurity. William Buick aboard Ruling Court – who takes his chance in the Epsom Derby – after winning the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA He was beaten a nose by Hotazhell on that occasion, although it looked to be through rawness as much as anything else. In a pair of Leopardstown trials this season, the strapping son of Dubawi has looked much more the finished article. It's hardly surprising, then, that Moore has opted for him. The Lion In Winter was a long-time favourite for the classics, only to have a setback before ever running this year. He then put in an unconvincing display on his Dante comeback. O'Brien is confident of much better now, and those who doubted him in the last two Derby outcomes will have been chastened enough to factor that into calculations. How likely The Lion is to be tamed by the ground is an unknown factor, one that will also be to the forefront of Godolphin's minds for their 2000 Guineas winner Ruling Court. It could be a long way from the Dubai desert where he ran in March before getting first run on Field Of Gold at Newmarket. Sea The Stars in 2009 was the last to complete the Guineas-Derby double. Before him, it was 20 years back to Nashwan. To date, at least, Ruling Court hasn't smacked of being quite in that class. The limits of Pride Of Arras's ability are unknown. He won the Dante in just his second start for Galway rider Rossa Ryan. His trainer, Ralph Beckett, is proven at delivering on the big occasion, including the Arc with Bluestocking. Beckett also saddles Stanhope Gardens. Numbers alone mean the chances of getting caught in deadwood around Epsom's famously tricky contours are increased. With everyone fancying their chances of picking up some sort of pieces, space will be at a premium. Jockeyship could prove crucial. After his inspired French Derby effort on Camille Pissarro last weekend, Moore's confidence will be a plus to Delacroix's chance of giving the English man a fifth Derby victory. That would put him level with a trio of riders from the 19th century that includes the legendary Fred Archer. In contrast, James Doyle's best in eight Derby rides to date has been a meagre sixth place. He teams up with the Dante runner-up Damysus. He is a first Derby runner for the Wathnan operation, which is backed by the Emir of Qatar. Since its emergence two years ago, Wathnan has become prominent quickly and the same looks to apply to Damysus, who debuted at lowly Southwell in December. His Dante effort, when last off the bridle and raced from the back off an ordinary pace, was a big leap. If that progress has continued, the Frankel colt could prove each-way value.
