This is the time Andy Farrell has been planning for. The moment that has been in his mind since he was a teenager at the outset of a glittering professional rugby life.

The IRFU performance director delivered his report yesterday into how and why Ireland underperformed in Japan

Eddie O’Sullivan curls a smile and offers a bald, one-word answer when asked to sum up his experiences of Rugby World Cups.

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt was honoured by the Rugby Writers of Ireland at the annual Guinness Rugby Writers Awards, having been awarded the prestigious Tom Rooney award in recognition of his immense contribution to Irish rugby.

An absorbing Heineken Cup final that lived up to its billing in every way. The Leinster players must have woken up yesterday wondering what hit them.

Ulster and Ireland captain Rory Best has confirmed that he will retire from professional rugby when his contract expires after the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Peter O’Mahony has drawn a line under Ireland’s defeat to Wales a fortnight ago, so as to focus on Munster’s biggest game of the season, Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Edinburgh at Murrayfield.

As key stakeholders in rugby convene in Dublin tomorrow about a ‘world’ league that seems more concerned with concentrating and increasing the wealth for its bluebloods than spreading the word to the unconverted and the cash to the marginalised, it has probably escaped rather than focused their minds that the deciding game in Europe’s biggest international competition is once again between one nation with a population of just 6.6 million and another with just 3.1 million.

Is the dam on the brink of bursting? Is international rugby ready to sell its soul? The haste with which a proposed new 12-team World League is being introduced smacks of panic. There is even talk of the tournament running in 2020. Surely not?

Ireland Women’s head coach Adam Griggs has kept changes at a minimum for their Six Nations Championship showdown with Italy at Viale Piacenza in Parma on Saturday (kick-off 6.45pm, Irish time).

These are the four spine-tingling moments of 2018 that will live long in the memory of Donal Lenihan

As a sporting spectacle, the Ryder Cup has the capacity to reach the dramatic pitch of All-Ireland finals, a World Cup, the Six Nations Championship, the Super Bowl, and the NBA finals.

The county that adapts to the new format quickest will be the county likely to make the biggest strides earliest, writes Dr Ed Coughlan

Ulster star Chris Henry has opened up on the shock of suffering a stoke on the morning of Ireland’s 2015 November Test against South Africa in Dublin.

Devin Toner is already the proud owner of three Heineken Cup medals and yet there is a sense that a first Champions Cup trinket would outweigh them all.

The key issues that will decide Champions Cup semi finals.

The enormity of the challenge facing Leinster and Munster in their respective Champions Cup quarter-finals this weekend is capably captured by the fact their opponents, Saracens and Toulon, have won the last five Heineken/Champions Cups between them, writes Donal Lenihan.

Proud as punch, of their own man Peter O’Mahony, the rest of the Munster contingent and this Irish team as a whole.

In almost any other sport or competition, it would be anathema to a type of observer, especially Real Championship Man: The wretched dead rubber.

Ireland coach Adam Griggs admitted his side were well below their best after Scotland secured a surprise victory in yesterday’s Women’s Six Nations Championship at Donnybrook.

With a third Six Nations Championship in five seasons already safely tucked away, Ireland head for Twickenham on Saturday without the requirement for any added extras.

By all accounts, it was the same across the rugby clubs and bars all over the country, Irish supporters on their feet, cheering deliriously for Scotland as developments in Murrayfield were unfolding immediately following Ireland’s tight win over Wales.

Ireland 35 Wales 12: Adam Griggs sang the praises of the “immense” Claire Molloy, after she secured a brace of tries in Ireland’s bonus-point victory over Wales in the Women’s Six Nations Championship at Donnybrook yesterday.

Warren Gatland will be wondering what Joe Schmidt can throw at Wales, writes Ronan O’Gara

Simon Zebo looked his customary cheerful, ebullient self at the University of Limerick yesterday as Munster prepared for Saturday night’s Guinness Pro14 clash with Zebre at Thomond Park.

As a Munster man, Peter O’Mahony knows all about adapting to new coaches, and the Ireland flanker believes a change in management will do France no harm at all in Paris this weekend.

As a Munster man, Peter O’Mahony knows all about adapting to new coaches, and the Ireland flanker believes a change in management will do France no harm at all in Paris this weekend.

Racing 92-bound Simon Zebo is not giving up hope of being called up by Joe Schmidt for next month’s Six Nations Championship.

Racing 92-bound Simon Zebo is not giving up hope of being called up by Joe Schmidt for next month's Six Nations Championship.

Munster Development XV 10 Ireland U20 26: Two tries in the dying minutes by right winger Peter Sullivan gave Ireland U20 a flattering 26-10 victory over a Munster Development XV in a hard-fought but scrappy encounter at Thomond Park yesterday.

It doesn’t take Marcus Horan long to highlight the most notable contrasts between his playing days and the current crop of men proudly wearing the red of Munster.

Brian O’Driscoll has warned that Joe Schmidt faces his toughest Six Nations Championship campaign since taking charge of Ireland.

New Zealand apart, the order of world rugby is changing rapidly, says Donal Lenihan

Furious Ryanair customers are bombarding the firm with complaints and questions following the latest batch of flight cancellations.

Ireland captain Niamh Briggs hopes her injuries woes are behind her as the countdown starts to the Rugby World Cup in August.

Experienced Ireland star Andrew Trimble has lent his weight to the plethora of indignation that has surrounded plans to condense the Six Nations Championship into five weekends.

So much has changed since Munster set out on their inaugural fixture in this season’s Champions Cup campaign that it’s difficult to grasp that they now sit just 80 minutes away from an appearance in the semi-final stage of the tournament.

If women can get to the top on the sports pitch — and we’ve seen that they can — there’s no reason why they can’t do the very same in every other sphere of society, writes Clodagh Finn.

The Ireland U20s have been dealt a fresh injury blow, as stand-in captain Cillian Gallagher is set to miss out on Friday’s crunch Six Nations encounter with France at Donnybrook.