Sports journalist Cliona Foley and Mick O'Keeffe of PSG Communications joined newly awarded Sports Broadcaster of The Year Joe Molloy this morning to explore the spread of sports coverage in the Sunday papers. And understandably, rugby and soccer pieces dominated the focus.

Mick O'Keeffe said days like this are comparable to a 'kid waking up on Christmas morning ' while Cliona Foley mused that the exhausted cliche of a Super Sunday 'actually means something today.'

The Ireland rugby team has enjoyed a relatively smooth world cup journey so far with Italy providing the only real obstruction along the way. But the panelists say that although Schmidt has performed well so far, they would have liked to have seen more journalists questioning his decisions.

Cliona Foley, who cited an article in the Sunday World said: 'Well we'll see what he has up his sleeve. Roy Curtis wrote in the Sunday World that not starting Henderson is a huge mistake. There's also another article by Paul Wallace questioning Schmidt for picking Earls.'

Mick O'Keeffe added that 'confidence in Schmidt is almost blind' and speculates that tonight's game will not be pretty with few tries on the scoreboard.

The panel also discussed an article written by Eamonn Sweeney in the Sunday Independent regarding the viewership who tuned in to watch Ireland play Italy last week. According to Sweeny's figures, that Rugby World Cup fixture outshone the All-Ireland football final by almost 200,000 viewers.

Cliona Foley said: 'Rugby is getting stronger. The Sunday World did something clever and asked seven people who they preferred between rugby and soccer and five of them picked rugby.' Mick O'Keeffe echoed Foley's comments and said that the Irish public can strike a relationship with the Irish rugby team because they 'seem like real human beings.'

With the soccer team due to face Poland in their last group game for Euro 2016 qualification, attention turned to an article by Stephen Hunt about Shane Long. In the article, Hunt writes that he wasn't sure if Long had the substance to succeed as a professional footballer, but has since watched him blossom into a complete player with good PR skills. 

Cliona Foley honed in on Hunt's humorous description of Long's anger at not getting picked for Thursday's game, 'That's the hurling in him.' 

Elsewhere the ongoing dispute in Galway got a brief mention towards the end of the discussion. Cliona Foley felt the issue deserved more in-depth analysis in the papers while also making an interesting remark about the need for player representatives on selection committees.

'I think it was Longford who did this and I thought 'fair play to them.' If you have a player on the selection committee, they can offer the players' opinion and then at least you can get a decent dialogue going.'