Schmidt tells Irish to up game or risk losing title to Red Rose February 8, 2015 IRELAND coach Joe Schmidt has labelled England the team to beat at the Six Nations and admitted his defending champions need to improve by 30-40 per cent if they are to retain their crown. England made the perfect start to their bid to win the title for the first time in four years by defeating [...]
Football Comment: Spurs role makes Kane ready for England – unlike other hopefuls February 8, 2015 TOTTENHAM striker Harry Kane fully deserves to win his first England cap next month but I have a problem with talk of the likes of Saido Berahino, Danny Ings and Charlie Austin gatecrashing the squad too. There is so much to like about Kane. As he showed with both goals in Saturday’s north London derby, [...]
Former Middlesex batsman fears World Cup could be Ireland’s last February 8, 2015 DISGRUNTLED Ireland batsman Ed Joyce has blasted plans by cricket bosses to reduce the number of teams permitted to play at future World Cups. A total of 14 teams will contest this year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which begins on Saturday, although the International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced that number will [...]
McCoy enjoys Gold Cup win February 8, 2015 JOCKEY AP McCoy brushed off mixed emotions over his retirement announcement to land a first Irish Hennessy Gold Cup on board Carlingford Lough yesterday at Leopardstown. McCoy, who announced his intention to quit racing by the end of the season on Saturday, led the JP McManus-owned, John Kiely-trained 4-1 shot past Foxrock in a thrilling [...]
Film review: Shaun the Sheep February 6, 2015 Cert U | ★★★★☆ When the farmer in charge of Shaun’s farm goes AWOL, the herd set off on a daring adventure into the world of human beings to find him. At times it’s hard to keep track of which sheep is which, but that doesn’t matter – Aardman’s plasticine world is lit up with an [...]
Art review: Marlene Dumas at Tate Modern February 6, 2015 Tate Modern | ★★★★★ Working from photographs, South African figurative painter Marlene Dumas doesn’t represent life, she gives it. Indeed, it’s tempting to see her paintbrush as a defibrillator, jolting dead images to life. But no-one is being raised here; she doesn’t resuscitate her subjects so much as give them an afterlife, investing the long [...]
Theatre review: Di and Viv and Rose February 6, 2015 Vaudeville Theatre | ★★★☆☆ The programme for the Vaudeville Theatre’s production of Di and Viv and Rose features two pages of anecdotes from a wide range of women, from doctors to preachers, MPs to celebrities, about how they met their best friends. Infusing them all is a sense of effortlessness, of falling into friendships that [...]
Six Nations 2015: How Wales’ Millennium Stadium history gives them the edge over England February 6, 2015 If there’s one Six Nations fixture that can nearly always be relied on for thrills and spills, it’s Wales vs England at the Millennium Stadium. Fireworks are to be expected, but forecasting the outcome of the match is a much tougher call. Since the inception of the tournament in its current incarnation, the [...]
Film review: Selma depicts a pivotal moment in Martin Luther King’s life February 6, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Selma does what Lincoln did so successfully and what Long Walk to Freedom made the mistake of not doing – instead of compressing a great life into two small hours, Ava DuVernay’s Martin Luther King biopic depicts a pivotal fragment of that life, one in which the greatness of the whole [...]
Film review: Jupiter Ascending leaves plenty of space for improvement February 5, 2015 Cert 12a | ★☆☆☆☆ Sean Bean probably resisted at first. I picture bitter arguments, impassioned pleas, point-blank refusals. Contracts will have been brought out, threats made against the future of his career, the safety of his family. Eventually he capitulated, agreeing to read the line. “Bees are genetically programmed to recognise royalty.” Jupiter Ascending’s [...]