Sean O'Shea

The decision by the British government to allow their monarch to marry a Catholic is only 400 years or so long in coming.

Up until last week's decision the monarch would absolutely lose the throne if a papist was his/her consort.

Notre Dame finally put offense and defense together and hammered Navy 56-14 in their South Bend encounter yesterday.

Micheal Floyd was the go-to destroyer, as this column predicted in the pre-match round up, throwing to Floyd early and often was the key to a Notre Dame victory.

It helped they played a Navy team that bore no resemblance to last year's squad who hammered the Irish with a massive ground game.

Amazing to think that Notre Dame might lose three in a row to Navy if they lose today at South Bend.

This is the game that will be played in Dublin next year and ND will not want to go there losing three in a row.

Joe Montana has come out swinging against Notre Dame because of their treatment of his son Nate who left the college last year.

Nate transferred from Notre Dame to Montana after being made a back up quarterback last year amid rumors of a falling out with coach Brian Kelly.

Nate briefly saw first team action against Michigan but never featured again.

Notre Dame quarterbacks simply make too many mistakes under Brian Kelly.

The same old failing came back to haunt them against USC with three critical turnovers at vital times.

Kelly came to Notre Dame with a much vaunted reputation o f making good quarterbacks great. So far he is doing the opposite it seems.

In a sensational move Rory McIlroy has dropped his long time agent Chubby Chandler, (pictured together), and joined with fellow golf major winner Graeme McDowell, in a new Dublin-based agency.

Chandler who handles many of the world's top golfers finds himself on the outs because apparently young Rory felt he was not getting enough personal attention.

The influence of Rory's new girlfriend, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, is plain to be seen according to Rory watchers in the new move.

Irish referee Alain Rolland is at the heart of a major controversy after sending off Welsh captain Sam Warburton the first half of the Rugby World Cup semi final between France and Wales.

France went on to win the game by 9 -8 but the absence of Warburton was the critical turning point.

Wales and most pundits were furious afterwards at the sending off which was considered very harsh.

Ireland got lucky when the draw for the playoffs in the European championship were made.

They will play Estonia, the weakest team left in the playoffs.

The first game will be on either Friday November 11 or the following day with the second leg in Ireland on 15th of November

Ireland have qualified for a play-off in the European championships after defeating Armenia 2-1 in the final game of the qualifying rounds.

Russia claimed the automatic place after easily defeating Andorra.

Ireland's task was made much easier by the sending off of the Armenian goalkeeper in the first half and shortly afterwards an own goal.

Did Notre Dame run up the score on Air Force at Notre Dame stadium today?

Leading 42-16 the Irish played much of the second half in all out offensive drives.

It is easy to see why.

Wales easily triumphed over a disappointing Irish side by 22-10 in the rugby world cup quarter final in Auckland, New Zealand.

The result was a shattering disappointment for an Irish team that had been fancied to go all the way to the final but who were outclassed and outplayed on the day.

Line out problems as well as a poor performance by key player, outhalf Ronan O'Gara meant the Irish team was always coming from behind as Wales seemed more committed and ready for the challenge.

Ireland raced into a 2-0 lead against Andorra after just twenty minutes with goals from Kevin Doyle and Aiden McGeady. Teh score stayed the same until half time.

It means that Ireland will easily pickup the vital three point in Andorra and will almost certainly enter the game in Dublin on Tuesday against Armenia needing a draw to qualify for a play off for a European final place

That is because Russia won 1-0 with an own goal by a Slovakia defender in Slovakia. This put them in the driving seat to get automatic qualification with only lowly Andorra at home to beat on Tuesday night.

The rugby world cup is electrifying Ireland and Britain and Australia, New Zealand France and South Africa.

Everywhere else, in about 90 per cent of the world's land mass, it is a non event.

An inspired second half performance by Ireland saw them pull away from Italy and win by 36-6 and qualify to meet Wales in the quarter final of the World Cup next weekend.

Up 9-6 at half time Ireland finally broke open the game with a Brian O'Driscoll try early in the second half.

Notre Dame will have learned little from the 38-10 blow out against Purdue except a case of what might have been.

This team should really be 5-0 with a national top ten ranking in their sights going into the Air Force game. The snake bitten losses against South Florida and Michigan will continue to haunt this talented side