Just the two more sleeps before the Champions Cup final, and as Nathan Johns suggests, Leinster find themselves in an unfamiliar position: as underdogs. The narratives for the game “write themselves”: “Leinster’s blitz vs the attack run by their former academy manager, Noel McNamara.” But in his look in to where this game will be won and lost, Nathan reckons there are “a handful of areas” where Leinster might be able to avoid “succumbing to a Bordeaux counter-attacking masterclass”.Perhaps only John O’Sullivan could squeeze a mention of Carmen Miranda in to a piece on Garry Ringrose and his thoughts on the final, although, unforgivably, he fails to refer to that line in her 1941 classic Chica, Chica, Boom, Chic which mentions chasing jinxes away. Which, after “an eight-year Champions Cup hiatus to the province’s last success in the tournament”, is what Leinster will attempt to do on Saturday. John also talks to Bordeaux-Bègles’ Adam Coleman, the Tasmanian-born secondrow who was left without a club after London Irish folded, but has prospered since moving to France. In football, Gerry Thornley celebrates his spell as an Arsenal fan after their Premier League triumph, while Ken Early takes us through the team’s development under Mikel Arteta, from the days when they were regarded as “a soft touch” to the “Monster Truck Arsenal” they have become. By the sounds of it, most Americans would prefer to attend a Monster Truck event than a World Cup game, Dave Hannigan telling us that evidence that the nation is hosting the tournament in just three weeks “is in rather scant supply”. Fifa’s “fleece ‘em all” approach to the event has hardly helped. In Gaelic games, Ciarán Murphy points to the value of success in the Tailteann Cup - win it and “watch your competitiveness level soar”. There is no better example than newly crowned Leinster champions Westmeath who won the competition four years ago.London wouldn’t mind emulating that success, and they’re already up and running after a first round win over Waterford. Gordon Manning talks to their captain Liam Gallagher, one of a growing crop of London-born and bred players lining out for Michael Maher’s sideIn cycling, Shane Stokes reports on the first stage of the Rás Tailteann, a quartet of Britons pulling away from the pack on day one, with Odhrán Doogan, seventh overall, the best of the Irish.And in athletics, Ian O’Riordan has news of a 400m lifetime best for Sharlene Mawdsley in a meeting in Italy on Wednesday night, in what was her first individual race of the season.TV Watch: We’re at the halfway-ish stage of cycling’s Giro d’Italia, coverage continuing today on TNT Sports 1 (from 11.30am), and at 5pm, Sky Sport Golf takes us to the opening round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas, Séamus Power in the field.