Ireland starts to rack points up, coming first (5)
I believe the answer is:
prior
'first' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'ireland starts to rack points up' is the wordplay.
'ireland' becomes 'roi' (Republic of Ireland).
'starts to' says to take the initial letters.
'up' is a reversal indicator (in down clue: letters go upwards).
The initial letters of 'rack points' is 'rp'.
'roi'+'rp'='roirp'
'roirp' reversed gives 'PRIOR'.
'coming' is the link.
(Other definitions for prior that I've seen before include "figure of authority in retreat" , "Source of poetry in 17th century" , "Pre-existing; head friar" , "Former - cleric" , "Coming before N a superior" .)