Irish sprinters Thomas Barr and Phil Healy have welcomed the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until 2021, a decision announced today after talks between Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach.

“This decision, while totally appropriate, will impact on sport and our athletes in different ways, there will be mixed emotions.”

The Games will not now take place in 2020, but will happen no later than the summer of 2021.

They say a picture paints a thousand words. That certainly rang true when studying the crestfallen appearance of new Ireland coach Andy Farrell, writes Donal Lenihan.

Governments should rely on fiscal rather than monetary measures when responding to natural disasters or epidemics such as the new COVID-19, writes Koichi Hamada

World Rugby has announced a reduction in concussion incidents at last year’s World Cup in comparison to the 2018 elite competition average.

Irish tourism is facing more uncertainty after the US issued warnings about travel to parts of Italy and the French authorities closed the Louvre Museum in Paris over concerns for its staff catching the coronavirus from the hundreds of people streaming through its doors.

Irish tourism chiefs are on high alert over the summer season as question marks were raised for the first time about major global sporting events, including the Olympics -- if the coronavirus threat is not contained.

With each team from the EY Hockey League providing at least one player to Sean Dancer’s latest Irish panel, it means there will be a 35-day gap between rounds 15 and 16.

There’s never a good time to have a major disruption to fixtures involving a few countries, but one coming in a Rugby World Cup season is going to exacerbate the situation, with Ireland’s Six Nations clash with Italy on Saturday week set to be the first of many games impacted.

THERE’S a quiet revolution taking place in the background to this season’s Six Nations that could have huge repercussions for Irish rugby.

The country is now confronting its dependence on exports to China and the destructive power of global warming, but all Western nations will shortly have to reckon with both, says Carl Bildt

Jack Conan has returned to on-field training for the first time since suffering a foot injury at the World Cup last October.

Robin McBryde thinks Ireland’s hammering at Twickenham last August will make life easier for Andy Farrell when the team returns to London on Sunday.

It has been reported that South Africa are in negotiations with Six Nations bosses about leaving the Rugby Championship.

Three minutes to go at the Aviva Stadium. Ireland are seven points up on the Scots in last Saturday’s Six Nations opener but camped along their own try line when Hamish Watson makes another surge for the in-goal area and hero status with it.

With the nightmare of the World Cup in Japan finally consigned to history as the Andy Farrell era of Irish rugby got underway, it is somewhat ironic that the new boss’s very first tournament will have a direct influence on Ireland’s next World Cup campaign in France in three years’ time.

For all the elements that make up this brave new world for Andy Farrell and the Ireland team as they head into the 2020 Guinness Six Nations, it is one of the fundamental lessons from the disappointments of 2019 that will register the strongest on matchday one.

Tommy Bowe scored 30 tries in 69 appearances for Ireland so how excited is he by the back three that starts on Saturday, what does he expect to see from Mike Catt’s attack as the Guinness Six Nations progresses and how does he feel about that Croke Park loss to the Scots ten years ago?

Ronan O'Gara rates the six teams vying for Six Nations glory this spring.

Munster have made a major statement of intent for the coming season after confirming the signings of South African World Cup winners Damian de Allende and RG Snyman.

Just five training sessions into his tenure as Ireland attack coach, Mike Catt is nevertheless expecting “some good stuff” from Andy Farrell’s team against Scotland in Dublin tomorrow.

Supporting Scotland is tough going at the best of times, but the last four-and-a-bit months — since that abrupt wake-up call delivered by Ireland on the opening weekend of the 2019 World Cup — has been particularly fraught.

The Leinster out-half was named Ireland captain by Andy Farrell for the upcoming Six Nations, replacing Rory Best, who retired after last year’s World Cup.

Ireland’s first €1m-a-year rugby player could arrive over the next 18 months, according to one of the country’s leading player agents.

The expectation in South Africa is that Felix Jones will continue to work with the Springboks under the new coaching team. As for the man himself, he was tight-lipped on his future yesterday when asked what comes next after his World Cup experience.

The former Munster forward, now 29, will be the first Irish player to play in the league, if not the country itself, joining a who's who of southern hemisphere stars.

Japanese prosecutors have raided the Tokyo home of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn after he skipped bail before a trial on financial misconduct charges and left for Lebanon.

A 1989 official visit by the then Taoiseach took place in the midst of a major corruption scandal — and yet it proved to be a highly successful mission for the Irish, writes Ryle Dwyer

One could hardly imagine a more traumatic political time to visit Japan than late April 1989, when Taoiseach Charles Haughey arrived there

It has been a busy year filled for the most part with uncertainty.

India and China are in the grips of economic slowdown but it brings a lesson that they must learn, write Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.

A “ragbag coalition” combining Fianna Fáil, Labour, the Social Democrats, Independents, or others will not offer the country stability, agriculture minister Michael Creed has warned.

With the rise of China and and an introspective US, the continent faces an uncertain future and a vassal status writes Slawomir Sierakowski.

Connacht coach Andy Friend has told Jack Carty not to panic over his surprise omission from the Irish squad and he’s confident the 27-year old can play his way back on to the international stage.

The US, China, and Russia all resent the EU’s sharing of sovereignty among its states and want to undermine it.

Joe Schmidt appears to be the sacrificial lamb, thrown under the bus not only by Nucifora but later in the day by his captain Rory Best. Long live the king.

There was never going to be a single reason for Ireland’s World Cup no-show, but the IRFU’s report into yet another failure at rugby’s biggest tournament will not sit well with former head coach Joe Schmidt.

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.

The IRFU’s report into Ireland’s World Cup failure in Japan will not be a comfortable read for former head coach Joe Schmidt.

It's 18 months since Jack O'Donoghue damaged ACL and MCL ligaments in his knee when competing at a ruck for Munster against Leinster in a Guinness PRO14 semi-final.