THE Guardian’s elegant columnist Frank Keating had a typically sharp piece in his newspaper last week, a simple concept butexecuted with precision and wit.

YOU can call off the search.

ON ONE hand, writing about Munster playing at home in the Heineken Cup is the simplest assignment in the world.

YOUR columnist has been colder than he was yesterday in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, but not often. Thurles Sars and De La Salle played in what Sylvia Plath called the light of the mind: cold and planetary.

AFROS and handlebars on Tuesday, side-creases and smooth chins on Sunday.

THE eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Tipperary outfit Aherlow collected a second Tipperary SFC title last weekend.

RAYMOND WILLIAMS, the Marxist scholar, had an interesting take, not on sport per se, but on people’s attitudes – one that could easily be applied to the non-stop erotic cabaret on offer across the water in the Premier League.

“LET’S HAVE a chat,” said the sports editor, who, newly returned from holidays, usually has a new broom air about him for the first couple of days back in harness.

COUNTRY versus a continent?