It was 1995 when a certain “tall, gangly looking fella with a red head of hair” arrived at Young Munster for the first time.

Their time together in the Ireland team may have been limited to just 15 prior appearances but Keith Earls and Luke Fitzgerald will be delighted if tomorrow’s meeting with Canada goes as well as their first joint-venture against the Canucks.

Athletics: All the favourites obliged at the GloHealth Munster Schools Cross-Country Championships at Cork IT yesterday.

Munster Senior Cup: Crescent 10 CBC 0

One of the most promising distance runners in the country, Kevin Mulcaire, was the star of the Aviva/Munster Schools’ Track and Field Championships at Cork IT on Saturday.

Mike Ruddock has no desire to see talents like Sean O’Brien disappear to France but the Ireland U20 coach believes their loss would at least have a silver lining for the next generation.

It was not just the Wallabies downed in Australia at the weekend by men who had travelled halfway across the globe.

An impressive double by 18-year-old Clonmel athlete Sean Tobin was the highlight of the 13th annual Leevale T&F meeting which took place at the Cork IT track in dry but windy conditions on Saturday.

With little fanfare, Barry O’Mahony has rejoined the Munster ranks of professional rugby and he is arguably the perfect advertisement for the domestic amateur club game.

Chances are that, unless you are part of that the minority among us who claim membership of the athletics community, you have never heard of Sanura Eley O’Reilly.

With their differing views on tidiness, the merits of Home and Away and other issues crucial to modern life, Denis Leamy and Rory Best may seem like the archetypal Odd Couple. Yet there are bonds between the players that run much deeper than any room-sharing squabbles or, for that matter, interprovincial bragging rights, writes Simon Lewis

FOR 15 years Ronan O’Gara has been the pivot at the centre of progress of a highly skilled group of Irish and Munster rugby players.

IRELAND’s rugby World Cup pool C opponents — Russia — are suffering in the New Zealand heat as they ramp up their preparations for the tournament.

FACING a heavy workload in the next 72 hours, Devin Toner will have little time to fret about his International debut against Samoa at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

PRESENTATION BROTHERS COLLEGE, Cork, and Rockwell College, Co Tipperary, two of the traditional strongholds of the game, clash in this afternoon’s (3pm) final of the Avonmore Munster Schools’ Senior Cup at Thomond Park.

SUCH is Leo Cullen’s excitement about donning the irish jersey against Fiji at the RDS today, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was his first cap rather than his 20th.

Connacht utility back Danny Riordan, 24, has been given a short-term, five-month contract with Munster.

ASHTON SCHOOL go into today’s Munster Senior Schoolboys Cup final at Garryduff (2.30pm) against Bandon Grammar School hell-bent on returning the balance of power to Cork city after a six-year famine.

GLENSTAL ABBEY bid to build on the promise of their maiden Limerick City Cup win when they meet Crescent College Comprehensive in the Avonmore Milk Munster Senior Schools Cup quarter-final at Clanwilliam today.

LUKE FITZGERALD and Keith Earls might be on opposite sides of the fence in provincial rugby, but there will be no divide when Ireland take on Canada at Thomond Park today (5.15).

PRESENTATION Brothers College, Cork put their Avonmore Munster Schools Senior Cup title on the line at Clifford Park, Limerick today (3pm) against an inexperienced Castletroy College side.

FORMER Scotland and Lions international winger Roger Baird will have plenty reason to cheer the Scotland Under-20’s at Dubarry Park tonight (7.30pm).

STEPHEN IRELAND might still be on a self-imposed exile from international football but that hasn’t stopped him being nominated for a Young Player Of the Year gong in the 18th eircom/FAI International Awards, which will be broadcast live on RTÉ in February.

ULSTER RUGBY announced yesterday that Andrew Trimble has agreed a new three-year contract with the club which will keep him at Ravenhill until June 2009.

IRISH athletes competing in this week’s World Universities cross-country championships in Algiers must each contribute €1,115 towards their travel, accommodation and gear.

IT’S an indicator of how fast Robert Kearney’s career is progressing that the Leinster back was disappointed not to be involved in Ireland’s Autumn internationals last month.

Ireland 27 England 19

Irish Schools 20 Irish U19’s 5

The following are the Ireland Schools teams to play Ireland U19s and Ireland Youths over christmas.

MATURITY is supposed to come only with age but Leinster’s rookie flanker Shane Jennings appears to be an exception.

old David Ruddy, with a magnificent level par 72 gross, powered Thurles CBS to victory in the Irish Schools (East Munster) qualifier at Co Tipperary Golf & Country Club.

In the second of our series of interviews celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Irish Examiner/TV3 National Junior Sports Stars, Hugh Farrelly looks back and forward with Munster and Ireland back-row Anthony Foley, an award winner in 1991. This year’s award winners will be announced on March 18.

THE last four years have been the happiest of James Blaney’s professional rugby career — even though his centre stage appearances are rare. He has had to live and work in the shadow of Frankie Sheahan as second choice Munster hooker, but now he finally gets his day in the sun when he makes his first home start in the Heineken Cup.

The Ireland U21 and U19 teams to play Irish Schools have been named.

IRELAND prop Marcus Horan has given the thumbs up to the All Ireland League as the ideal mechanism for developing international players of the future.

Cork Constitution 34 Dolphin 17

IT wasn't so much an argument as a debate, but Toulouse coach Guy Noves certainly won on points.

Perpignan are set to be without former Irish Schools forward Phil Murphy for the next fortnight after a calf injury, although the Catalans insist he should be ready for the Heineken Cup Final in Dublin on May 24 against Toulouse.

The Irish Schools selectors have named an unchanged side (from the one that started against England) for the game against Welsh Schools in Narbeth on Sunday April 27 (2pm).

The Irish Schools team will attempt to continue their run of victories when they take on the England Schools in St Mary's RFC in Dublin on Saturday at 3pm.

CLONTARF, Lansdowne and Ballymena will be joined by either Buccaneers or Belfast Harlequins in the top four play-offs for the AIB League title this weekend.

The big Belfast rivals RBAI and Methodist College will go head to head in a schools cup semi-final showdown at Ravenhill next Tuesday.