Tadhg Furlong gets Sexton’s backing over alleged groin-grabbing incident

Tomorrow will be D-Day for Tadhg Furlong when he faces a disciplinary panel via video conference after being cited for that, well, incident with Munster’s Gavin Coombes last Saturday. The support keeps coming, though, for the prop, Johnny Sexton the latest to insist the alleged offence would be out of character for the Wexford man. “I know Tadhg as a person and I don’t think that’s something he would have done,” he said.

Coombes’ focus is solely on Saturday’s URC game against the Durban Sharks, insists Munster coach Clayton McMillan. “Nothing has changed for Gavin,” he said. “What happened at the weekend is now in the hands of the Judicial Committee.” McMillan himself has enough to be thinking about ahead of the game, Michael Scully reporting on the injury list he has to contend with.

Despite their loss to Leinster, Gordon D’Arcy has been largely impressed by how Munster have been shaping up this season and, overall, he finds reasons to be cheerful with the form of all four Irish provinces.

That, of course, is encouraging for Ireland as they head in to the Nations Championship, although while Johnny Sexton would quite like to win that tournament, as well as the Six Nations, “at the same time, we’ve got a World Cup in 12 months and we obviously need to see certain people play”. Gerry Thornley hears from the assistant coach.

Malachy Clerkin, meanwhile, has the latest on the 29-year search for the truth in the case of the murder of Bellaghy GAA chairman Sean Brown, his family long maintaining that he died at the hands of agents of the British state. The UK Supreme Court has reserved judgment on an attempt by the British government to overturn a ruling which ordered a public inquiry into the murder.

Ian O’Riordan hears from Rhys McClenaghan in the middle of “unexpectedly testing times” for the man who, just over two years ago, made history by becoming the first gymnast to simultaneously hold the Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles on a single apparatus. But such have been his struggles of late, “by his own frank admission, there’s no guarantee McClenaghan will even qualify for LA”.

In golf, David Gorman talks to Claire Dowling, the Dubliner who has become the first woman to captain The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in its 272-year history. She can recall a time when women weren’t even allowed in the bars of golf clubs, never mind become members. And here she is, captain at the Home of Golf.

And Ciarán Kirk has good news from the World Boxing Under-19 Championships in Montenegro where Mullingar’s John Donoghue won gold in the 70kg final on Tuesday. That brought to six Ireland’s tally of medals at the event, Wexford’s Kalib Walshe taking silver on its final day.

TV Watch: Disney Plus has a bunch of games from the women’s Champions League today, including Katie McCabe’s Chelsea taking on Roma (5.45pm) and her old club Arsenal at home to Benfica (8pm). In the lads’ League Cup, Liverpool v Chelsea looks like the pick of the night’s games (UTV and Sky Sports Mix, 8pm), among the other fixtures Manchester City v Brighton (Sky Sports Plus, 7.30pm). Fleetwood Town, meanwhile, are still in dream land.