By Cathal Dervan

RUGBY: Brian O’Driscoll is clearly not flavor of the month with all of Ireland as he continues to moan about the spear tackle that ended his Lions tour prematurely. Writing in his Daily Star column, the former Clare manager Ger Loughnane urged O’Driscoll to “grow up and quit harping on about the tackle.” Loughnane added, “O’Driscoll has overplayed the wounded hero act, leaving himself vulnerable to taunts of being a whinger when he eventually returns to action. He and the rest should grow up, put the incident firmly in the past and try and learn how to be a real leader.” Ouch.

GAA: It seems some people out there are still upset by the behavior of the Aussie Rules thugs during the Compromise Rules series down under. Australian captain Chris Johnson has just been banned for five games for his considerable part in the fracas that marred the second test, but the Aussie embassy in Dublin has also revealed that they have been inundated with angry calls as well as threats of violence from irate Irish fans. And they call it sport.

SOCCER: By the time you read this the Linfield striker Peter Thompson should have won his first cap for Northern Ireland against Portugal at Windsor Park. By the time you go to work on Thursday, the 21-year-old will be back on the streets of Belfast, working as a postman. Little wonder then that Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez believes that Thompson should take one of the offers of a pro contract that have come his way from Scotland and England.

GAA: Only in Ireland . . . A former inter-county referee by the name of John Denton has been banned for eight weeks by the GAA for verbally assaulting a match official. Worse still, the offense took place during an under-16 football championship game between Wexford and Carlow. Some example that was to the kids of Ireland.

SOCCER: Only in England . . . The Tranmere Rovers manager Brian Little has been criticized by his board for living up to his name. Little hasn’t spent big as far as the board are concerned and they’re not happy about it.

Heroes Of the Week: The Irish Rugby Football Union were left red faced when a fire on Friday night forced the closure of the North Terrace at Lansdowne Road for Saturday’s test match against the mighty All-Blacks. Several hundred Kiwi supporters had tickets for the closed end of the ground, but many Irish fans simply handed over their own tickets to the tourists outside the venue in a gesture that deserves nothing but praise. Maybe Ireland still is the land of a thousand welcomes after all.

Idiots Of the Week: Thankfully the blazers in the GAA have seen sense and rescinded the decision, but who decided to withdraw an $80 a day allowance from the three Munster players who had to leave the Railway Cup trip to Boston straight after Sunday’s game because of club commitments back home?