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Andy Farrell believes Ireland must remain calm and “roll with the punches” to realise their potential at the Rugby World Cup. Former dual code international Farrell is preparing for his first global tournament as head coach having previously been involved as a player and an assistant coach. Six Nations champions Ireland have topped the world rankings for more than a year and arrived in France on Thursday among the favourites to go all the way. Englishman Farrell has welcomed setbacks during his tenure to challenge his players and prevent them becoming fazed on the biggest stage. “The key learnings are the scenarios that we’ve tried to put ourselves through in the last few years,” the 48-year-old said of his previous World Cup experiences in both rugby union and rugby league. “You hear me say constantly ‘best laid plans and all that’, it’s 100 per cent that at a World Cup. “The ones that get flustered with all that because they’re not ready for all different types of permutations are the ones that lose the plot. The key to progressing in a competition like this is staying calm, keeping your feet under you and making sure that you just roll with the punches. Andy Farrell “The key to progressing in a competition like this is staying calm, keeping your feet under you and making sure that you just roll with the punches and be the best version of yourself no matter what happens and have no-excuse mentality. “We’ve tried to put ourselves in those type of positions before and we know what’s coming through.” Ireland have been placed in the tougher half of the draw and begin their campaign next Saturday against Romania in Bordeaux. Farrell’s men then face Tonga, reigning champions South Africa and Scotland in Pool B, with hosts France or New Zealand likely opponents should they progress to the quarter-finals. Asked if this is the most competitive and open World Cup, Farrell said: “I think everyone loves to say that anyway. “Everyone wants it to be like that because there’s so many good teams that can beat each other on any given day. “The pressures of the competition within itself, the history of all that shows that it is going to be a wide-open competition. So one step at a time. Let’s see if we can build some momentum.” Farrell assisted Joe Schmidt at the 2019 World Cup before stepping up to become Ireland boss following a quarter-final exit against the All Blacks. The opening year of his reign, amid the coronavirus pandemic, brought mixed results but his side have won 25 of 27 Tests dating back to round three of the 2021 Six Nations. “I’m not surprised,” Farrell said of the progress. “If you’re talking four years ago then we probably didn’t know the total plan as in what we’ve been through and what we’re going through. “The process has always been for the here and now, and the medium term, and the long term. “A lot tend to go from cycle to cycle and chop a few and carry on. “I think the right way, for me anyway, is to grow and develop competition as we go and then when we get to something like this (World Cup) watch and learn and let’s pick accordingly on what’s right on the team.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Mason Greenwood will begin to rebuild career with loan move to Getafe David Moyes enjoying West Ham topping Premier League after Luton win Sofyan Amrabat ‘will put everything’ into playing for Manchester United

Jodi Jones was wooed by Malta on Instagram and now he is looking for a picture perfect finish against England. The Bow-born forward is ready for Friday’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Gareth Southgate’s side and he has been ready for some time. Three cruciate ligament injuries in just over three years at Coventry put his career on hold and thwarted a move to Leeds. His injury despair also delayed international recognition with Malta, who initially made contact with Jones via social media four years ago. But, having made his debut in last year’s Nations League loss to Estonia before winning promotion to the Football League at Wembley with Notts County this season, Jones is ready to make up for lost time. “I remember getting messages on Instagram. Obviously, I didn’t know if they were genuine but then they started contacting my family regularly,” he tells the PA news agency. “It was the president (Bjorn Vassallo) who reached out to me on there, then he got my number and was calling me a lot. It's got my love for the game back. It's been a great experience, playing international football, even just little things on a shirt like a badge that says Euro qualifiers Jodi Jones “I played against Luke (Gambin, Sutton’s Malta international) and he messaged me on Instagram saying they were asking about me out there. “Then they reached out to me not too long after that with a proper phone call and contacted the club, that’s when I thought, ‘oh, yeah, obviously this is genuine’. “I was injured at the time so I wasn’t really interested, not because I didn’t want to do it, I was interested but I just wanted to focus on getting back fit. As soon as I was and I thought I was back to my best I thought, ‘now’s the perfect time’.” A seventh appearance came in Friday’s 1-0 win in Luxembourg, a victory which may not resonate worldwide but against a team 80 places above them in the FIFA rankings it suggests quick progress in Michele Marcolini’s three games in charge. “It’s got my love for the game back. It’s been a great experience, playing international football, even just little things on a shirt like a badge that says Euro qualifiers,” says Jones. “As a kid when you get a football kit you want it to have everything on. I remember Arsenal kits when I was younger, I wanted the Champions League badge on it, I wanted the Premier League badge. I’m still like a kid when I see things like that. “It’s got my name back out there as well, which I really needed because if you mentioned my name, people say, ‘well, he’s done his ACL three times’. “Now, if you say my name they’ll say, ‘he did his ACL three times, but he’s still playing, he’s just been promoted with Notts County, he’s an international and is playing against England’. So the positives have overtaken now. “I just enjoy the little things, like just being able to play. I know how quickly things can change, especially with what I’ve been through.” The support of his family – and godparents Terry and Geraldine – has been crucial in helping Jones return from despair but it took dad Jay to remind him of how far he has come. “My godparents, they’ve sacrificed a lot for me. From the age of six they’ve taken me to football because my parents were very young when they had me,” said the 25-year-old, who made just two appearances for Coventry between November 2018 and August 2021 because of injury. “Without them I definitely wouldn’t be a footballer. I can’t thank them enough. For my parents and my partner I’d say it’s more they’re just relieved to see me back playing. “My dad said to me the other day, ‘for all you’ve been through you’ve still played at Wembley twice, you’re going to be playing against England, you’ve been promoted two or three times’. “He said for someone to have missed so much you’ve also achieved so much. “Being from England and watching England when I was a kid, playing against them would mean just a little bit more. It’ll just be a massive thing. “I’m just really excited my family can come and watch me play. I want to be able to be a role model to them, just show them to follow your dreams and they can come true.” Jones has Maltese connections on both sides of his family but more on his father’s side with Jay and mum, Frances, flying out. His partner Zoe, children and godparents will be at the Ta’ Qali Stadium for the Group C game. He also remains close with James Maddison, remaining in a WhatsApp group with former Coventry team-mates with the ribbing about trying to keep up with the Leicester star ongoing. Friday will cap his comeback season after Notts County’s dramatic National League play-off promotion. Last month, Jones’ first goal since October 2018 sent the Magpies to Wembley after his last-minute extra-time winner capped a thrilling 3-2 semi-final victory over Boreham Wood before a penalty shoot-out win over Chesterfield in the final. Jones, who made his senior debut at 16 for Dagenham in 2014, scored in the shoot-out and knows how special one more goal on Friday would be. “I’ve pictured it loads of times, whether it’ll happen is another thing,” says Jones, who joined the Magpies permanently this month after leaving Oxford. “I believe in my ability and I know if I get one chance I will take it.”

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Two down, one to go. Perhaps it is a sign of the FA Cup’s diminishing status that it seems the least of the trio, perhaps a sign of its historic importance that Pep Guardiola sounded genuinely delighted to win it. “The emotions are so, so special,” he said. For the record, and it can be obscured by much else on a sizeable CV, he is now the only manager to win each of the main English, Spanish and German knockout competitions two times. There was a time when it represented arguably the biggest prize in the domestic game, another when the double was the ultimate achievement. Only four clubs did it in 97 years. In the last 38, nine have: over three decades, more than a quarter of champions have also ended the season with the FA Cup. It is a sign of how a concentration of resources at the top have altered the footballing landscape. Manchester City are an extreme case, even if the man who proved their Wembley match-winner, Ilkay Gundogan, was a £16m bargain. But if the 2023 FA Cup will have a greater significance than most, it is probably for two reasons. This was, in more than 150 years, the first final to double up as a Manchester derby. It may not be the last if City maintain their dominance and Erik ten Hag’s revival of Manchester United proves more than a fleeting affair. Both of these neighbours had arguably underachieved in the competition in the previous decade, even though each had won it once; they had claimed eight League Cups between them in the same time. And there is the importance of the FA Cup as part of a package, as one-third of a potential treble. If City’s legacy and reputation rests in part in the hands of the lawyers, given the 115 charges of breaching Premier League financial regulations, on the field, it depends on the continent. “We have to win the Champions League to be recognised how the team deserves to be,” said Guardiola. The idea is nothing new: the different element is that he has started to admit it as the prospect has grown likelier. Many a City fan would rather win the Premier League than the Champions League but it always felt disingenuous when Guardiola used to argue he would, too. “You have to put the pressure on yourself to be recognised as something good, so you have to win in Europe,” he has now admitted. Europe seems the final frontier for this most European of sides. The most seismic FA Cup – on its own, anyway – in City’s history may forever remain the 2011 tournament that Yaya Toure decided in their favour; it opened the floodgates. Then, there was a novelty value. Now, the distinctions can feel statistical: Gundogan scored the quickest goal in FA Cup final history after a mere 13 seconds. It took a contentious penalty to stop them becoming the first team since 1903 to win the competition without conceding. Their eventual goal difference was 19-1. Riyad Mahrez had delivered the first semi-final hat-trick since Alex Dawson’s in 1958. The fact the Algerian’s treble came against Sheffield United was both indicative and deceptive. “Many times we arrive in the semi-finals,” said Guardiola; they can be their undoing, the proximity of Champions League knockout ties tending to stop them flourishing on all fronts. Yet City finish this season’s competition having knocked out the teams who came second and third in the Premier League and, including Chelsea, three of the supposedly big six. They have beaten five of next season’s top flight even if two of them, Burnley and Sheffield United, had a rather greater focus on promotion. There are signs of how the FA Cup is secured this season. Erling Haaland has scored 52 goals this term but has only found the net in one FA Cup match, even if it did bring him a hat-trick against Burnley. Neither Mahrez, their top scorer in this season’s competition, nor Julian Alvarez, who was tied for second, actually took part in the final. Phil Foden, another of those to get three goals, was limited to a cameo. City’s squad is not as large as is often imagined but they have quality in such depth that their first 18 or so players are outstanding; United could reflect that theirs are perhaps not when they brought Wout Weghorst off the bench. The man who played most minutes in City’s FA Cup campaign was, indirectly, the instigator of that record-breaking goal, Stefan Ortega, whose punt forward led to Gundogan’s wondrous strike. In his own way, the second-choice goalkeeper is a reason for glory, and not merely with his collection of clean sheets. Guardiola’s willingness to pick his reserve goalkeeper has cost him in previous seasons, with Zack Steffen culpable in successive semi-final defeats. Ortega has proved an upgrade, just as City showed defensive resolve when United threatened an equaliser. But it will be Ederson who faces Internazionale, charged with completing the treble, to get the prize City want more than the FA Cup and the recognition that has eluded them Read More Man City’s FA Cup victory provides no clues on how to stop them Ilkay Gundogan, Man City’s master of timing, sets up chance for perfect goodbye Pep Guardiola urges Man City to cement greatness by winning Champions League Elton John joins Manchester City’s FA Cup celebrations Man City vs Man Utd player ratings as Ilkay Gundogan wins FA Cup final Man City’s FA Cup victory provides no clues on how to stop them

Newcastle confirm Sandro Tonali has been banned from football for ten months for betting offences and will be available to play again on August 27, 2024.