Thursday Lunchtime Sport with Joe Mallon Motors, Sallins Road,Naas

Farrell to name team to face Scotland shortly

SOCCER

James McClean has confirmed he will retire from international football at the end of this year.

The friendly with New Zealand next month will be the Derry native's final game for the Republic of Ireland.

McClean won his 100th cap against Gibraltar in June and featured at the Euros in 2012 and 2016.

It's expected he'll be in Stephen Kenny's squad for the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers when it's named later today.

The Boys in Green take on Greece in Dublin tomorrow week, before travelling to play Gibraltar three days later.



After the controversy surrounding their Premier League defeat to Tottenham at the weekend, Liverpool return to action tonight.

Jurgen Klopp's side are back at Anfield for a meeting with Union S-G of Belgium in the Europa League.

Kick off is at 8pm.

Elsewhere, Brighton face Marseille in Group B, while West Ham go up against SC Freiburg in Germany.

Rangers play Aris of Cyprus, with all of those games underway from 5.45.





Aston Villa will look to get off the mark in Group E of the Conference League this evening.

Unai Emery's side play Zrinjski (pr: Zrin-skee) of Bosnia Herzegovina at Villa Park.

In Group G, Aberdeen go up against HJK Helsinki.



RUGBY


The Ireland team to play Scotland in the Rugby World Cup on Saturday will be named later today.

James Ryan and Robbie Henshaw are both minor injury doubts for head coach Andy Farrell.

There's one game at the tournament tonight, with New Zealand up against Uruguay in Pool A.

Kick off is at 8pm in Lyon.



GOLF


Mark Power is off to an encouraging start at the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.

The Kilkenny native is two shots off the lead on four-under-par after nine holes.

Padraig Harrington, John Murphy and Tom McKibbin are all one-under-par.

Sebastien Soderberg of Sweden is the leader on six-under-par.


The Ascendant LPGA Benefitting Volunteers of America is this week's stop on the LPGA Tour.

Leona Maguire is in the field for the event in Texas.


RACING
Theres a seven-race card at Thurles this afternoon, with the first off at 2.15.