Having flown higher than any Cork flag in history, the blood and bandages that once orbited the globe have returned to Earth.

Motorsport Ireland (MI) chief executive Alex Sinclair has described this week’s meeting with rally competitors in Athlone as “something positive” as officials seek solutions to a number of problems facing the sport.

Ireland 56 (3-11-5) Australia 52 (1-13-7): Maybe now the International Rules series will be allowed to live in peace without the persistent threat of execution. Maybe now it will be allowed to develop into something more than it has been up until now.

There is activity in abundance in the sunny south-east, beginning with the Waterford Harvest Festival (Sept 11-13, www.waterfordharvestfestival.ie ). 

South Africa have recalled World Cup winners JP Pietersen and Schalk Burger among five changes for Saturday’s QBE International against England at Twickenham.

830,000 babies die every year because they weren’t even breast-fed for an hour

Connections of Toormore feel they have found a golden opportunity for last season’s champion two-year-old to collect some lucrative prize money when he lines up in the International Topkapi Trophy at Veliefendi in Turkey tomorrow.

Northern Ireland’s friendly in Cyprus next week is expected to go ahead despite the bombing of a referee’s car on the island.

Star rugby players such as Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell would be fabulous ambassadors for an all-Ireland rugby bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and if the public get behind it we’ll [have a] very good chance of landing rugby’s biggest prize, Sports Minister Leo Varadker has said.

Ireland 4-12 Scotland 2-12

This year's Ulster Senior Hurling Championship final has been re-fixed for Sunday, November 3 - almost four months after Down and reigning champions Antrim were originally due to play each other.

Australian Rules officials are considering sending a team made up of indigenous players to meet Ireland for this year’s International Rules series.

Few, if any, drivers have more experience of the terrain within the Cartell.ie International Rally of the Lakes than Denis Cronin, himself a winner of the Killarney spectacular in 2010.

The 2012 Rose of Tralee International Festival is underway in Kerry and the 32 International Roses have safely arrived in Tralee.

A British writer has scooped the largest prize in the world for a novel published in English.

FIFA today promised a “definitive decision” on the use of goal-line technology would be made at this summer’s International Football Association Board (IFAB) meeting.

NICKY Henderson feels Spirit Son is the dark horse among his three-strong contenders for the StanJames.com Champion Hurdle.

A troublesome groin injury has left Cork's John Miskella with no option but to retire from inter-county and club football.

JAMES HOOK has underlined his “huge aspirations” to continue playing for Wales after securing a reputed £1 million (€1.1m) deal with French club Perpignan.

Floris de Vries and Justin Walters took huge steps towards places at the Open Championship after carding seven under par 64s in the first of two rounds of International Final Qualifying from Africa, which began in Johannesburg today.

NICKY HENDERSON is worried the weather might scupper the planned return of reigning Champion Hurdle hero Binocular at Newcastle on Saturday.

Laois footballer Colm Begley is hopeful that Ireland can account for Australia in the first of their 2010 International Rules Tests at Limerick's Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night.

John Gosden has today been forced to pull the plug on Arctic Cosmos’ bid for the Canadian International at Woodbine on Saturday and the St Leger winner will not run again this season.

Irish bookmakers Boylesports are to end their sponsorship of the International meeting at Cheltenham in December after four years.

Bolton boss Owen Coyle feels football would benefit from the introduction of goal-line technology – so long as the system was “foolproof”.

PLAYERS may no longer be sent off for fouls which deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity if the referee gives a penalty as well, under a proposal submitted to the game’s rulemaking body.

Sea The Stars’ homecoming managed to exceed even the loftiest of expectations as he gave his most visually impressive performance to date in the Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown.

THE MAUL’S place at the heart of rugby is set to be preserved following a meeting of nearly 60 senior rugby stakeholders.

Brave Inca’s trainer Colm Murphy is another to have taken serious notice of Binocular’s awesome performance on Saturday.

A decision is expected tomorrow on the re-scheduling of the Boylesports.com International Hurdle.

CHELSEA chief executive Peter Kenyon has reiterated that the club have no advanced plans to quit Stamford Bridge and move to another stadium.

Colin Montgomerie is not the only star hoping to use this week’s BMW International in Munich as a means of forgetting last week’s US Open.

THE conservation of heritage varieties will be one of the areas promoted in Ireland this year, to mark International Year of the Potato.

NOT enough is being done to help people cope with the life-changing experience of having a brain tumour, a support group has claimed.

Aidan O’Brien continued his domination of the big staying races as Septimus powered to a record-breaking success in the GNER Doncaster Cup on Town Moor.

AUTHORIZED comprehensively avenged his Coral-Eclipse defeat and confirmed his early-season promise as he stole the show in the Juddmonte International Stakes at York yesterday.

Scotland’s Catriona Matthew was very much in contention as two of the new stars of women’s golf – Lorena Ochoa and Paula Creamer – shared the lead on four-under-par 140 at the halfway stage of the Kraft Nabisco Championship today at Mission Hills Country Club in California.

Detroit City, trained by Philip Hobbs and ridden by Richard Johnson, won the boylesports.com International at Cheltenham.

Ireland's Graham Geraghty faces a hearing this afternoon after being cited for rough play in last weekend's first International Rules test against Australia.

Ireland v Canada, Junior International

Phil Mickelson won the Masters in April after romping to a 13-shot victory the previous Sunday. Things are rather different for his attempt to make a successful defence of the US PGA championship at Medinah in Chicago this week. He has just missed his first halfway cut of the year.