Thurs Lunch Sport, with Joe Mallon Motors, Sallins Rd., Naas

Ross Byrne will make his first Guinness Six Nations start as one of six changes to the Ireland team against Italy at 2.15pm on Saturday in Rome

Leinster out-half Byrne, making his 17th appearance for Ireland, replaces the injured Johnny Sexton, who injured his groin in the win over France .

Scrum-half, Craig Casey, gets  his first championship start,

Andrew Porter and Finlay Bealham keep their positions in the front row.Ronan Kelleher starts in place of Rob Herring, who drops out of the match-day squad. Dan Sheehan is the replacement hooker.

In the 2nd row, James Ryan will captain the side for the seventh time .  Iain Henderson comes in for the injured Tadhg Beirne.

Josh van der Flier is at openside. Jack Conan replaces Peter O'Mahony, with Caelan Doris moving to the blindside flank.

In the centre, Bundee Aki is in for Stuart McCloskey, who's on the bench. Garry Ringrose will win his 50th cap alongside Aki.

The back-three is Hugo Keenan at full-back with James Lowe and Mack Hansen on the wings.

Paolo Garbisi  will return at out half for Italy .

The 22 year old Montpellier player missed the opening two rounds of the tournament with a knee injury.

There are two other changes to the side which lost to England last time out.
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Legendary BBC football commentator John Motson has died at the age of 77.

He covered 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships and 29 FA Cups for BBC Sport.

Popularly known as 'Motty', he worked on Match of the Day between 1971 and 2018 and commentated on almost 2,500 television games.


In the Europa League tonight, Manchester United play Barcelona. The sides are tied 2 goals each from the first leg

The Spanish club will be without midfielders Pedri and Gavi.

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A 5 under par round of 67 leaves Leona Maguire just two shots off the pace after round one of the Honda LPGA Thailand.

In Florida, Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington are in the field for the Honda Classic, which starts today on the PGA Tour.

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Kildare hurlers, men’s and women footballers and Naas CBS footballers will wind down preparations tonight ahead of their weekend games.

The hurlers and both sets of footballers are in League action on Sunday against Derry and Offaly, while Naas CBS play Omagh in Clones in Saturday’s All Ireland Colleges Senior Football “A” semi final.

Kfm will have live coverage of all four games; and, we’ll preview the matches on tomorrow morning’s Kildare Today and later at 6.30 in the Weekend Preview 

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Today’s racing is in Thurles today from 1.55