The Guinness PRO14 rarely fares well when observers from across the Irish Sea compare it to their own Gallagher Premiership.

Munster have reached one objective in this Heineken Champions Cup campaign by beating Saracens for the first time in five years last Saturday.

Johan van Graan has challenged Munster’s batch of young and inexperienced scrum-halves to step into the void left by the departing Alby Mathewson and apply the pressure on Conor Murray for the province’s No.9 jersey.

Peter Jackson gets over the gain line, behind the headline

The Republic of Ireland’s 40-year run of misery against Denmark has continued as Ireland were left to retreat to the back-up of a Euro 2020 play-off.

The sport’s governing body wanted to revamp rugby’s global calendar with the introduction of a new competition for the top 12 teams from both the northern and southern hemispheres.

The Rugby World Cup drew to a close on Saturday, when England were beaten by South Africa in the final.

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.

No one knows why good teams go bad, but they do. The Irish rugby team, for example, who, within the space of a year went from being very good to being really not very good at all.

Johnny Sexton may have only been half-joking when he suggested the knives would be out for himself and half-back partner Conor Murray once Ireland had departed this World Cup.

Prior to Geneva, when did Ireland last start with 3-5-2?

World Rugby has cleared Ireland of accusations levelled by a Sunday newspaper that the IRFU applied pressure on the World Cup organisers to stop the Japan v Scotland match being rearranged in the wake of Typhoon Hagibis.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) says there has been a number of confirmed cases in the Kanto Region.

Andy Farrell would have happily sacrificed a heavier deficit in the points difference column in exchange for a victory over Japan but if Ireland can return to form this Saturday it will have meant the lessons of that shock defeat have been learned.

Peter Jackson gets over the gain line, behind the headline

Dan McFarland will be up early this Sunday morning, like most Irish rugby fans around the country.

Joe Schmidt makes his final trip to the Aviva Stadium this afternoon as he takes charge of Ireland on home soil for the 34th and last time.

Eddie Jones believes “Kamikaze kids” Tom Curry and Sam Underhill can smash England straight through any World Cup turgidity.

World Cup-bound Lewis Ludlam was considering his options outside of rugby a year ago as he reflected on a career that was in danger of fading away.

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has departed their Rugby World Cup training camp to go back to New Zealand due to a family bereavement.

Eir sport has unveiled a "new and fresh" looking Rugby World Cup team of experts, with Gordon D’Arcy, Peter Stringer and Jerry Flannery fronting studio analysis for Japan in the autumn.

Joe Root insists England must beware of “sleep walking” into their inaugural Test against Ireland at Lord’s today.

Australia have the potential to cause yet another Rugby World Cup surprise later this year in Japan, according to former New Zealand captain Richie McCaw.

Conor Murray’s name would be among the first on most people’s Ireland World Cup squad but memories of his own ascent to the 2011 tournament are keeping the scrum-half on his toes during the team’s training camps.

We are lucky at home to have three super young boys as neighbours.

Sara Dabritz hit the only goal of the game as Germany beat Spain to take control of their Women's World Cup group.

Women forming their own culture club

Denmark defender Mathias Jorgensen has seen enough of Ireland in the past 20 months to believe not even Mick McCarthy can extinguish their defensive instincts.

French Rugby president Bernard Laporte has kicked to touch on the possibility of Ronan O'Gara being part of the country's World Cup coaching ticket, insisting it's a call for head coach Jacques Brunel.

Eden Hazard scored twice as Belgium recovered from a blunder by Thibaut Courtois to beat Russia 3-1 last night and start European Championship qualifying campaign on a high.

The time has come for Ireland rugby to believe the hype and go to Japan this year confident they can and will win the World Cup.

This week’s story about a British man who was arrested in the UAE after wearing a Qatari football shirt might give some people ideas, writes Tommy Martin.

There have been so many twists and turns in Sanita Puspure’s life, from the moment she quit rowing in Latvia to when she ruled the world in Bulgaria last summer.

Conor Harte says today’s showdown with England is Ireland’s “World Cup final” with a draw or better required against the world number seven side.

From a season-ending World Rally Championship victory being a distinct possibility, on the Kennards Hire Rally Australia, Craig Breen (Citroen C3 WRC) saw the prospect undone ever so quickly. Midway in the second leg, he was down in tenth place, due to a series of incidents. Aided by some late retirements, the Waterford driver eventually finished seventh.

The last time the reigning Grand Slam champions dared to beat the All Blacks, they followed up by winning the World Cup within a matter of months, writes Peter Jackson.

Leinster may be the best side in Europe over the course of the season, but the notion that they are invincible ignores those human traits — thoroughbreds or not, says Ronan O’Gara.

Minority sports crave that moment that propels them into the national sporting consciousness. Think Katie Taylor at London 2012 and the O’Donovans in Rio 2016. Hockey Ireland’s Phil Oakley swears that after Irish ’s exploits at the Cricket World Cup in 2007, he saw lads using hurleys to play cricket in Mayfield on Cork’s northside.

Irish pride was strongly on display among Irish Women's Hockey coach Graham Shaw's fellow Glenanne Club members, as they watched this afternoon's final against The Netherlands with huge pride at The Morgue Pub in Templeogue today.

I wonder what Patrick Kavanagh would have made of Twitter? Would he have lost endless afternoons down by the Grand Canal, drowning deep in a wormhole of a thread of a spat between Ginsberg, Neal Cassidy and some faceless wonder with a moniker like @beatpoetssuck, before checking in on whether the dance was actually going ahead in Billy Brennan’s barn that night? Let’s be happy he didn’t have the distraction.

Brilliance. Book-ended by bullshit. Or maybe that should be flipped around.

John Jermyn is set to receive the perfect send-off to his international hockey career this evening as he lines out one last time for Ireland at his home ground of Garryduff against France.