A team playing at Thomond Park this Sunday in desperate need of a victory to kickstart the second half of the season?

Former Wales star James Hook is to retire at the end of the season when his Ospreys contract expires.

Almost 60% of women surveyed at a refuge had at least two adverse childhood experiences, led by emotional abuse but with physical abuse and domestic alcohol abuse pronounced in many cases.

A body has been found by divers in the search for the missing pilot of a light aircraft which crashed off the coast of North Wales.

Robin McBryde was a baby at birth in Bangor...

Brian Ashton was a prophet in a land that couldn’t understand his message when he took over as Ireland head coach in the 1990s.

Research throws light on how other countries managed the transition of their declining energy industries to meet climate change targets, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Munster will face an Ospreys side in disarray on and off the field, but Johann van Graan’s side have been warned they’ll face a wounded animal in their Champion’s Cup opener.

Almost three and a half years after the Brexit referendum the uncertainty continues.

This World Cup serves to remind us that previous form or results counts for little. The fact that Ireland had won two of their previous encounters against New Zealand only handed Steve Hansen and his coaching staff a template to beat us when it mattered most.

Irish drivers Kris Meeke (Toyota Gazoo Racing) and Craig Breen (Hyundai Motorsport) may have to park their own desire to win the Wales Rally GB to ensure their respective teams have the best possible platform to win the WRC Manufacturers’ title.

From action and adventure to idyllic villages, North Wales is a revelation – and it’s just a short ferry journey away, writes Donal O’Keeffe.

How do you stand out by fitting in? This is the quandary that faces players across all sports when they are looking to make a name for themselves.

Whether zipping through the air at 160kph, bouncing in a speedboat at 40 knots, or exploring the dream-like Italianate village of Portmeirion, North Wales is a revelation, and just a short ferry trip away.

A Brexit Party bus has been towed after it was pictured empty with its doors open on the side of a road in Wales.

Munster have been left holding the short straw for next season's Heineken Champions Cup with the two-time champions plunged into the clichéd 'Pool of Death' after Wednesday's draw in Lausanne.

The Ireland Women's worst Six Nations finish since 2006 was confirmed by a poor 24-5 defeat to a young Wales side who were clinical with their scoring opportunities as they concluded the Championship on a real high at Cardiff Arms Park.

Wales have completed the Grand Slam after beating Ireland 25-7 in their Guinness Six Nations match in Cardiff.

Such has been Ireland’s rise in prominence on the world rugby stage these past six years under Joe Schmidt that their days as party poopers are long gone. The one-off big performance to spoil a rival’s ambitions have given way to a higher standard and more positive motivations.

The Principality Stadium roof will be open, Storm Hannah’s wet and windy weather won’t make for a classic, but Wales will nonetheless be backed by an entire nation in Cardiff this afternoon.

The midfielder leaves for the Welsh capital with immediate effect.

Andy Friend believes his players let themselves down after they missed a golden opportunity to move into the PRO14 play-off places by slipping to a narrow defeat against the Cardiff Blues in Wales.

Ciaran Ó Raghallaigh assess where the four provinces lie after the interpros.

Bernard Jackman has been sacked as head coach by the Dragons.

Businesses need to respond to Brexit and its challenges, as it will bring “real changes for all of us, regardless of what form it takes”, Tánaiste Simon Coveney has said.

Niyi Adeolokun's late try put the seal on Connacht's rousing 33-20 Guinness PRO14 win over Scarlets at the Sportsground, with Bundee Aki and 18-point fly-half Jack Carty starring for the winners.

“There seems to be a feeling nobody totally understands what it’s about,” admitted Martin O’Neill ahead of this Nations League tie with Wales in Cardiff.

Champions Leinster will begin the new Guinness PRO14 season by tackling Cardiff Blues in the Welsh capital.

Our universe, it seems, came into existence in the Big Bang 13.7bn years ago.

Tries win finals. Most of them anyway.

At The Races presenter Hayley Moore has sent social media into a frenzy.

Allen Clarke believes leaving Irish rugby can help take him to the next level as a coach.

Connacht’s slim Champions Cup qualification hopes were ended in Swansea as Kieran Keane’s side were beaten 39-10 by the Ospreys.

If Leinster could be forgiven for straining one eye forward to next week’s appointment with Saracens, then their hosts today will bring a one-track mind to proceedings as they seek to rescue their season.

Sam Davies held his nerve to hammer home a 79th minute conversion of replacement hooker Ifan Phillips' try to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for the Ospreys against the Cheetahs.

No wonder Johann van Graan looked downbeat.

Munster’s planning for a Zebo-less future has solidified with new contracts for Andrew Conway and Stephen Fitzgerald confirmed and a first start of the season for the latter in this evening’s Guinness PRO14 trip to Cardiff Blues.

The sight of Keith Earls hunting down Italy full-back Matteo Minozzi in the final minutes of a game already done and dusted has had everyone purring, and Darren Sweetnam has thrown in his praise, calling his Munster team-mate’s skills, pace and commitment “outrageous”.

Ross Moriarty has revealed the full extent of a horror injury that ended his British and Irish Lions tour and left him unable to climb stairs.

Manchester City cruised into the fifth round of the FA Cup with a routine 2-0 win at Championship side Cardiff.

NEXT weekend three Irish teams play three English teams in the European Champions’ Cup. Ulster travel to London to play Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop, Leinster go to Sandy Park to play the Exeter Chiefs and Munster will again welcome Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park.

Dragons 32 Ulster 32: Australian international Christian Lealifano salvaged a 32-32 draw for Ulster with a last minute try against the Dragons at Rodney Parade.

Newport Gwent Dragons and Ulster fought out an dramatic Pro14 League draw at Rodney Parade with visiting fly-half Christian Lealiifano both hero and villain.

Two years? It feels like a lifetime.

Talk of revenge for Cardiff two years ago will fill many a column inch between now and Ireland’s meeting with Argentina on Saturday, but CJ Stander insists it isn’t a primary motivation for Joe Schmidt and his squad.

Harry Arter’s Plan B when a thigh injury ruled him out of last year’s European Championships was a holiday in Marbella with a bunch of mates followed by a stint in Barcelona with his partner.

The joys of Cardiff on a Monday night in October.

Peter Jackson on the son of an Irish emigrant who guided Wales to the World Cup finals and was Matt Busby’s right-hand man at Manchester United.