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Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor. John Locher John Locher

• UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has been fined $150,000 (€134,000) and handed 50 hours of community service by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
• Munster loosehead James Cronin has been cited for a stamping incident in Saturday’s Pro12 loss to Leinster.
• Sean O’Brien looks set to return to action for Leinster this weekend after an eight-month lay-off.
• Clare hurler Podge Collins has backed the new management team to do “a great job”.
• Ireland’s November Series matches with New Zealand and Australia are sell-outs.

Away

Set-back: Tiger Woods will not be returning to competitive golf this week. Marcio Jose Sanchez Marcio Jose Sanchez

• Tiger Woods has postponed his comeback to golf after pulling out of the Safeway Open.
• England caretaker manager Gareth Southgate has dropped Wayne Rooney for tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier and named Jordan Henderson captain.
• In the NFL, the Atlanta Falcons won their fourth straight game by seeing off the Denver Broncos.

The Best Thing We Shared

Our own Murray Kinsella and Eoin Luc O Ceallaigh travelled to New Zealand recently to find out more about rugby in the home of the All Blacks ahead of the November Series. For more from our Facing History series, click here.

Where We Were Today

Never mind where we were… the great man himself Paul O’Connell dropped into the office to talk rugby this evening. We’ll have the interview up in the coming days.

On the Record

We got a lot of flak after the Serbia and Georgia games. I think unfairly so as well. The Irish press especially, they need a bit of a reality check. We’re not going to blow teams away. We’ve always been a team that works hard.” – Ireland winger James McClean believes the team has been subjected to unfair criticism.

The Fixture List

• There’s a huge game in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division tomorrow night as leaders Dundalk face second-placed Cork City at Oriel Park (7.05pm). Finn Harps also meet St Patrick’s Athletic on Tuesday evening (8pm).
• Several World Cup qualifiers are scheduled for tomorrow, including England’s trip to Slovenia. See a full fixture list here.

Showbiz, Baby!

Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke fired Belgium ahead against Gibraltar tonight… after just SEVEN seconds.