The Longshot: Mageean’s can't leave it late again in final show

CIARA MAGEEAN’S fine track season will come to an end tomorrow evening in the final Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon.

The middle-distance runner from the shores of Strangford Lough, broke her own Irish record at the last meet in Brussels last weekend, when finishing second to Scot Laura Muir. Mageean will face all-conquering Faith Kipyegon and seven other of this year’s World Championships finalists (including Muir) in a loaded 1500m, an event that saw the Down woman finish second behind the Kenyan great 12 months ago.

Mageean will probably feel she allowed Muir to get a jump on the field just before the start of the final lap in Brussels and will look to gain revenge on the Scot in the US.

The imperious Kipyegon, who has broken the 1500m, mile and 5,000m records this season in addition to winning the 1500m and 5,000m world titles, will be expected to win the race as she pleases, it being just a case of whether she wants it fast or more modestly paced.

Mageean was in the field for Kipyegon’s new 1500m and mile marks in Florence and Monaco as she finished fourth in the former before taking second spot in the latter, in addition to smashing our own Sonia’s 29-year-old Irish record by nearly three seconds to move fifth on the all-time list for the event.

There are no odds for tomorrow night’s event, or even for the Olympics next year, which is likely to be the 31-year-old’s final chance of grabbing a major medal.

In fact, the only odds on Mageean that we could find were that she is 5/1 to be a guest on the first episode of The Late, Late Show to be hosted by Patrick Kielty tonight.

That seems very unlikely considering she will be thousands of miles away, but also having just finished fourth at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest (in the Women’s 400m final), Rhasidat Adeleke is 6/4 to make an appearance.

The current favourites are Kielty’s fellow northerners, Jamie Dornan and/or Kenneth Branagh at events ahead of the release of their Hercule Poirot film, A Haunting in Venice.

The cast of The Bodyguard: The Musical have odds of 2/1 to make an appearance ahead of their run at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. After appearing in the World Cup for the first time ever this summer, the Irish Women’s Football team are 3/1 to make an appearance. Given the fact that she was just nominated for the Balon D’Or, Katie McCabe could well join Patrick on the couch.

Following their divisive Electric Picnic set, the Wolfe Tones have odds of 11/2 to perform as a musical guest. Earlier this week, band leader Brian Warfield said he hopes the comedian will invite the Wolfe Tones to perform, as they didn’t appear once during Ryan’s 14-year tenure as host.

The last time they appeared on The Late Late was 2007, while Pat Kenny was at the helm. The most unlikely appearance remains Ryan Tubridy who, after a week spent in London, is an outsider at 500/1 to return to the programme he left in May.

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CROSS-channel soccer returns this weekend after the international hiatus and tomorrow afternoon I will find myself at, if I’m measuring it right, only my fourth Premier League game.

My lack of top-flight appearances is squarely down to following a side who have been meandering through the lower leagues for more than three decades.

Luton travel to Craven Cottage to take on Fulham and search for their first points of their campaign. I was meant to go to the same fixture back in 2022 when the two were in the Championship, but when it was moved from a Saturday to a Monday, I had to throw my hat at it. We lost 7-0, so how bad.

The head-to-head column also makes for grim reading for the Hatters, who are winless in seven games against Fulham since prevailing 3-1 in a 1998 second-division match. Luton have given up nine goals in three matches, so getting to cheer a goal might be all we should hope for, although the bookies only offer a stingy 4/1 on an away win, and a more generous 14/5 on the draw.

Burnley are the only other side not to gain a point so far. They went up as runaway Championship winners, so it is showing the gap between the divisions this season (Sheffield United have a single point). They should have a chance of getting off the mark away to Notts Forest on Monday, considering they beat the same opposition at the City Ground two weeks ago. Another 1-0 men for Vincent Kompany’s men is 10/1.

Another side struggling is Everton, who also have only one point. Arsenal’s 4-0 win against Everton in March at the Emirates Stadium was the 100th time the Gunners have beaten the Toffees from 204 meetings. That’s the most one team has beaten another in the entire history of the Football League. Despite their many struggles in recent years, Everton have had an excellent record against Arsenal at Goodison, winning their last three meetings there. In their last seven games against one another, Arsenal have won once (a 5-2 victory in October 2017), with Everton winning five and the other ending in a 0-0 draw.

Another quirk is each of those five Everton wins were by a single goal, and four of those saw the winner scored by a centre-back. So, should Mikel Arteta be paying attention to the finer details, expect to see James Tarkowski and either Jarrad Branthwaite or Ben Godfrey being heavily marked. Everton are 14/1 to win 1-0 or 2-1.

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CLARIFICATION: Last week we may have led readers to believe they were insane if they thought Ireland could win the Rugby World Cup.

After the first weekend of action, we are taking this opportunity to suggest we were wrong and that any thoughts of ultimate victory maybe based on the logic that Ireland may actually be the best team in the world.

Sure, France looked good on patches, but New Zealand are a shadow of their All Blacks past, and there were plenty of mistakes made by both teams. South Africa will rely on brute strength rather than guile, which isn’t usually a winning formula.

Let’s forget Scotland. Wales needed the ref’s help to beat Fiji.

England did well against a woeful Argentina.

The Romania game didn’t matter, but Ireland are still 5/1, the same price as the start of the tournament and although we may have to pen a further correction on Tuesday in the wake of the Tonga game, that looks like good value right now.

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TONGA are probably the least-dangerous side from the Pacific at this World Cup and are unlikely to cause any major problems for Andy Farrell’s men They are 14 places behind us in the world rankings and qualified for the tournament by beating Hong Kong 44-22.

They were defeated 36-20, 21-16, and 34-9 in warm-up games against Fiji, Japan, and Samoa.

They are rated as 25/1 to upset the odds tomorrow, but rather go for Ireland to win by 26-30 points at 7/1.

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JOHNNY SEXTON gained some praise for telling the Romanian team to stand in the shade for their national anthem prior to last Saturday’s game. Former World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson would not approve.

The anthems themselves have caused a bit of a furore, with many pundits, players and fans complaining that the young choirs performing them have not been in fine voice so far. They even managed to sing La Marseillaise out of synch.

Organisers have now announced they will allow countries to choose between the kids singing or their own recorded version. So having the Rose of Tralee or getting the Wolfe Tones to perform The Soldier’s Song is unlikely.

BRIGHTON travel to Old Trafford tomorrow afternoon and can cause lots of problems for the home side.

Evan Ferguson may even be back to lead the line.

A treble of Fulham to win at home to Luton and both Burnley and Brighton to win away games will net you 17/1.