It would be fair to say that as anti-climatic and disappointing as last Saturday in the Aviva was, it hardly constituted the sort of crisis and crossroads Irish rugby was looking at the last time we played and lost an opening Six Nations game to England, writes Kieran Shannon.

“Help us pull this red thread tighter” — that was the appeal from host and former captain Doug Howlett at the inaugural Munster Rugby New York dinner Tuesday night, when the province’s 2008 Heineken Cup-winning team were honoured on the 10-year anniversary of their victory over Toulouse.

The World Rugby U20 Championship has been horrendous for Ireland but one of the few bright sparks has been the emergence of Jack Daly, the latest to come off the remarkable Currow conveyor belt in Kerry.

Talk to Len Dineen, they said. There’ll be stories, they said. Well, the Limerickman, who recently retired after 40 years as a rugby commentator, settled in ...

Donnacha Ryan has come a long way in a very short time, from Tipperary across the Pyrenees via Paris for a crack at joining one of rugby’s rarest breeds.

Peter Bracken, the former Munster, Connacht and Wasps prop, tells a great story about one of his first encounters playing alongside John Muldoon for Galwegians.

By learning from the best, the apprentice has become one of the best. Anyone who fears Leinster and Ireland talent Joey Carbery may get impatient waiting for Johnny Sexton to retire doesn’t appreciate the upside of operating in his shadow.

Few players who have graced the Munster jersey over the last 20 years appreciate more what it takes to beat a top French team in their own country than Mick Galwey.

This is, and remains, a man’s world, a world built on privilege for some and deep injustice for others, writes Fergus Finlay

And so the Munster Miracles keep on coming, as if put together on some sort of supernatural assembly line cranked into use only in times of deepest trouble.

There was a time when teams boasting outstanding forward packs brought the All-Ireland League title to Limerick almost as a matter of course.

There are tributes and then there is the Donncha O’Callaghan variety, as hundreds of mourners learned yesterday at the funeral Mass for the late Munster Rugby media manager Pat Geraghty, 62, in Celbridge, Co Kildare.

A legend, a leader, a braveheart, a kind, loving and spiritual man were among the accolades used to describe Willie Duggan at his funeral Mass, when more than 1,000 people gathered to say farewell to a giant of Irish and international rugby.

Like so many of those who knew Anthony Foley, James Downey could not believe the news last October that his former boss had passed away so suddenly.

Your letters, your views...

‘The journey isn’t over. This is just another station on the way’

The great Munster rugby teams of the early years of the millennium were renowned as hard men who never backed off a challenge. 

Munster Rugby players and officials returned to Ireland last night in deep shock following the sudden death of head coach Anthony Foley. He was 42.

Seven moments that shaped Anthony Foley’s illustrious career...

Boxers and those more used to bruising political debates will take part in the “Brawl in the Hall” to raise funds for the local GAA club.

“It’s like every game we play from here on, we’re in cup final mode.”

The men who fought alongside and against Paul O'Connell have their say on the big man.

A hurler, footballer, greyhound enthusiast, horseracing fan, and, most of all, a loving and proud family man.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Nine years ago, Paul O’Connell assured the BBC that international careers could no longer last as long as his would do.

STAT OF THE DAY

If ever there was a man primed for a tough day at the rugby coalface, it is Peter O’Mahony; relaxed, fresh and ready for what the Ireland flanker expects will be typically abrasive collision with the Italy pack on Sunday.