SPORT is a mirror of so much of what we do in the serious part of our lives that its role in shaping attitudes and character cannot be underestimated.

Leinster 32 Toulouse 23

JUST as an outward looking and more confident America can be a force for good so too can the great friendships built on sport.

DENIS LEAMY and Alan Quinlan have been declared fit to play for Munster against Northampton Saints in their first match of the new Heineken European Cup season at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.

IT MAY have taken Michael Cheika four seasons to build a squad capable of attaining Heineken European Cup glory, but the structures and foundations appear to be in place within the province to build on that success.

IN a scene straight from one of the darker passages of a Mario Puzo mafia-fest, an innocent father and businessman was murdered in his family-owned amusement arcade, on Thursday, because his cousin gave evidence against a key associate of the killers.

WHAT a prospect on this grey, worrying morning!

JOHN LYONS yesterday assumed the office as the 121st President of the Irish Rugby Football Union.

John Lyons assumes the office as 121st President of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) at the annual council meeting in the Ballsbridge Court Hotel this evening.

TOURISM bosses said yesterday Limerick and the mid-west will benefit from a visitor spin-off out of the huge exposure gained by the city by Munster’s Heineken European Cup victory and homecoming celebrations.

MUNSTER made a wonderful contribution to the ongoing task the French set themselves when they began their revolution in 1789, by winning their second Heineken European Cup in Cardiff on Saturday.

The Leinster man who helped Munster claim the Heineken European Cup two years ago has revealed he deconstructed his game after last season and believes it's paying dividends as Munster prepare for push towards the final again this afternoon.

DECLAN Kidney declined to comment last night on any aspect of the succession stakes for the Irish rugby coaching job in the aftermath of Eddie O’Sullivan’s resignation on Wednesday.

MUNSTER coach Declan Kidney has a few serious injury worries as he prepares for important Magners League games over the next two weekends followed by the Heineken European Cup quarter-final against Gloucester at Kingsholm on Saturday, April 5.

THE Munster rugby battlecry of Stand Up and Fight will ring out with renewed vigour in central France this weekend as the province faces a vital Heineken European Cup clash against ASM Clermont Auvergne.

ON the first week of September, Jerry Flannery was one of 30 excited and expectant Irish rugby players who set out for France and the World Cup firmly believing that the team was capable of going a very long way in the competition, if not actually returning with the trophy.

NAMES like Kees Lensing and Jacques Burger will mean little or nothing to the vast majority of Irish rugby fans this morning.

Following the release of mid year results by Heineken NV, its Irish subsidiary, Heineken Ireland today reports a 21.6% share of the total beer market in Ireland in the six-month period to June 30, 2007.

THE likely salvation of the Heineken European Cup will come as a major relief to Munster rugby fans.

YOU must play for the full 80 minutes.

BRIAN CARNEY, the Cork-born rugby league star who made his name with Wigan before furthering his career in the 13-man game in Australia, was yesterday confirmed as Munster’s latest acquisition as they head into the closing stages of the Heineken European Cup campaign.

Limerick's infamous rugby ground, Thomond Park, will be seen out in style today as defending champions Munster take on the Leicester Tigers ahead of the park's redevelopment.

A TICKET scrum for Saturday’s Thomond Park showdown between Munster and Leicester saw prices rocket on the internet yesterday.

THEY were the first, and until May they were the last, but since Ulster won the Heineken European Cup in 1999 it’s been downhill all the way, with the exception of their Celtic League victory last season.

ON a day when a born-again coalition renewed vows, it was only appropriate Bertie Ahern should spend some time in a maternity hospital.

LAST Friday afternoon, at 5pm, there was a media briefing, Cork version, at the luxurious Maryborough Hotel in Douglas, in advance of this Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final.

A HISTORIC week for Munster rugby was capped yesterday with the unveiling of the design for the new-look Thomond Park which will be built at a cost of €40 million.

The plan for the redevelopment of Thomond Park has been unveiled by the Re-Development Committee.

MUNSTER’S own Cara O’ Sullivan is to sing ‘Stand Up and Fight’ at half-time in the Heineken European Cup final in Cardiff today.

A DREAM Munster rugby package has gone on sale in Limerick for a good cause.

AN immovable Munster pack yesterday magnificently overcame Leinster at a glorious Lansdowne Road.

WHAT a team. What spirit. What supporters.

A RADIO station has been deluged with requests for a song written and sung by station staff to mark the upcoming Heineken European Cup semi-final between Munster and Leinster.

LIKE Napoleon’s soldiers, more than 1,000 battle-hardened warriors of rugby’s Red and Blue armies will march on their stomachs into Lansdowne Road for next week’s Heineken European Cup semi-final.

WHEN Munster came calling in the early summer of 2005, Trevor Halstead was betwixt and between. Should he stay with the Natal Sharks or seek a new challenge in a country and with a team he didn’t know a whole lot about.

The is no political will within the Government to tackle alcoholism, a Fianna Fáil backbencher claimed tonight.

ANTHONY Foley’s frustrating year on the international rugby scene got a lift on home ground yesterday when he was named Limerick Person of the Year.

RUGBY bosses in Limerick who want to buy 16 houses adjacent to Thomond Park in order to double the crowd capacity of the stadium, remained tight-lipped yesterday following meetings with house owners at Knockalisheen Road.

A €6 MILLION deal to save Thomond Park will be struck tonight.

TWO Sale supporters were badly bitten by a Limerick predator yesterday.

MUNSTER rugby captain, Anthony Foley yesterday spoke of the nightmare week he and his wife Olive have spent at the bedside of their critically ill baby son.

MUNSTER'S walking wounded received favourable reports from their medics yesterday and the expectation is that all will be able to take part in today's squad session at Temple Hill in the build-up to Friday's all-important Heineken European Cup away game against Castres (7.30pm Sky Sports 2).