Bob Paisley didn’t want the job of Liverpool manager in 1974.

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.

Officials from the Department for Sport will meet the IRFU later to discuss the FAI's stake in the Aviva Stadium.

With the Six Nations kicking off in less than two months, it is the first squad meet-up since the national team returned from Japan.

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

With his globetrotting Barbarians adventures concluded, and his first week of retirement finally upon him, Rory Best could easily have put on his slippers and emptied his mind of all rugby thoughts.

Leave the IRFU to the World Cup post-mortem, Irish rugby’s focus is firmly fixed once more on its four proud provinces with the new Heineken Champions Cup campaign now in full view.

Former Munster winger Zebo also took aim at departing coach Joe Schmidt's team selection, saying that players "playing the best rugby of their careers" were overlooked.

Ireland’s Rugby World Cup ambitions appear to have hit a speed bump before the opening game with fears over the fitness of Robbie Henshaw.

Pichot's take on the decision, aired via Twitter on Monday, follows on from his assertion last week that the world rankings were “ridiculous” given Warren Gatland's Wales had usurped New Zealand as No.1 despite never having beaten the All Blacks.

Best was poor in Twickenham last Saturday when Ireland shipped over 50 points to a rampant England side.

The retired Ireland and Leinster player proposed while on a romantic trip to Adare Manor.

The IRFU has said it asks employees not to express their personal beliefs in a way that will be associated with the rugby body, after a former Munster player claimed he was told to stop tweeting his opinion on the Middle East.

It was four summers ago that Tommy O’Donnell feared the worst for his playing career, never mind his future at Test level.

A Test match to kick off the World Cup warm-up campaign is an unusual jumping-off point for pre-season but Ireland intend to hit the ground running when they face Italy this Saturday.

World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont has expressed his disappointment the game's global governing body abandoned plans for a new 'Nations Championship'.

Tom Willis’ last-minute try ruined the Ireland Under-20s’ final quarter fightback as England won a titanic play-off 30-23 in awful underfoot conditions in Rosario.

The five-try display means that the Irish did all they can to stay in the hunt but must now await the results of France v Argentina (5pm) and South Africa v New Zealand games this evening.

Tommy Bowe believes Ireland’s players will have been “rattled” by their Six Nations defeat to Wales last March.

Johnny Sexton has rejected suggestions that Ireland have peaked a year too early.

It won’t prompt an update from the AA Roadwatch team but the steady traffic of players switching provinces will continue this summer on the back of IRFU performance director David Nucifora’s vision to maximise the playing pool.

Tributes have been paid to Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald who will retire from the role next month.

Rob Kearney has agreed a “nine-month extension” to his IRFU contract and will play with Leinster next season.

The IRFU has hit back at suggestions made by Rob Kearney’s manager that there is a significant gulf between the two parties in ongoing contract negotiations.

Nothing less than a World Cup semi-final appearance in Japan later this year will constitute a good World Cup for Ireland, said a straight-talking David Nucifora, as the IRFU performance director threw down the gauntlet to Joe Schmidt and his squad yesterday.

IRFU Performance Director David Nucifora backed Johann van Graan as the right man to take Munster forward and pledged to surround the head coach with experience and support in the province’s new-look backroom staff.

Ireland U20s coach Noel McNamara insists his full focus is on the upcoming Junior World Cup despite suggestions that he could be a possible candidate for a role with Munster under Johann van Graan.

There has been a surge in stories lately about who’s going to end up where in 2020 and not all of it has been about your columnist.

Leinster scrum coach John Fogarty is set to join the IRFU in the summer.

Your Sunday rugby round-up.

We’ve been down this road before, on seven different occasions now since Paul O’Connell, in tandem with Ronan O’Gara, lifted the Heineken Cup aloft in Cardiff 11 years ago after Munster beat the tournament’s greatest side to that point in a memorable 16-13 win over Toulouse.

The commercial firm owned by Irish rugby legend, Paul O’Connell last year enjoyed a bumper year as accumulated profits topped €2m for the first time.

I read with interest the recent proposals from the Cork County Board to revamp their championship structures in an effort to cater for the differing demands and requirements of their club and county players.

Robbie Henshaw says Ireland must develop a New Zealand state of mind if they are to have any chance of winning this year’s Rugby World Cup.

Johann van Graan has admitted Joey Carbery’s latest hamstring injury is “a big concern” as he failed to give a timeframe on his first-choice fly-half’s recovery with a European semi-final date less than three weeks away.

Leinster qualified for their 11th European Cup semi-final just 36 hours earlier, but a “bizarre mood” hung over the province’s HQ on Monday morning.

Johann van Graan gave no indication about the quality of his Sunday night’s sleep but given the Munster boss watched a playback of Saracens’ seven-try demolition of Glasgow Warriors before bedtime, a fit of the night terrors would have been understandable.

Andy Farrell will begin his reign as Ireland boss with a Six Nations clash with Scotland at the Aviva.

Fergus McFadden says Joe Schmidt is still the best man to turn around Ireland’s recent poor form.

Tommy Bowe expects Ireland to deliver their best display of the year in Cardiff this weekend.

There was no doubting the satisfaction Joe Schmidt took from the heights Ireland scaled against France last Sunday, and yet the Kiwi coach wasn’t slow in pointing out how the collective performance fell off a cliff towards the end.

Tadhg Furlong admits he has little idea what to expect from France’s young and unpredictable side this Sunday.

Chris Henry says Seán O’Brien should start for Ireland this weekend — to help ease some of the pressure on Ireland’s ‘untouchables’.

Over a month now since England struck that unexpectedly heavy blow at the Aviva Stadium and, for all the debate and doubt, it seems that we are none the wiser as to why one defeat could have left a side that had climbed so high feeling so low.