Irish Examiner rugby writers Brendan O'Brien and Simon Lewis look ahead to the World Cup quarter-final meeting with New Zealand.

Irish Examiner rugby writers Brendan O'Brien and Simon Lewis look ahead to the World Cup quarter-finals.

Irish Examiner rugby writers Brendan O'Brien and Simon Lewis on a World Cup weekend in disarray.

Irish Examiner rugby writers Brendan O'Brien and Simon Lewis try hard to extract the positives from Ireland's scrappy World Cup win over Russia.

As Ireland hunkers down for the arrival Thursday of Hurricane Lorenzo (has a weather event ever sounded as masculine?), over in Japan the boys in green are slowly moving on from the wreckage of last Saturday’s storm in Shizuoka.

Not that Ireland haven’t enough to be getting on with, but there was little evidence in Scotland’s 34-0 defeat of Samoa in Kobe today that Gregor Townsend’s men are ready to rain on Japan’s World Cup parade come their decisive Pool A clash at the World Cup on Sunday October 13th.

Irish Examiner rugby writers Brendan O'Brien and Simon Lewis pick the bones out of Ireland's World Cup meeting with Japan. And we hear from CJ Stander on Ireland's options and stadium humidity.

Conor Kane has been appointed as South East correspondent with RTÉ News.

Thousands of Irish motorists may be driving around with “time-bomb” airbags made by Takata, a company whose inflation mechanism was deemed responsible for the deaths and maiming of dozens of people worldwide.

A man, who claims he was misled about his right to avail of Nissan’s ‘Massive €4,000 Scrappage Offer,’ has been told by a judge he must pursue any perceived grievance through arbitration, rather than the courts.

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland’s (ASAI) has found that 17 advertisements breached their code on the grounds of Misleading Advertising, Principles, Taste and Decency, Safety and Promotions.

The Nissan Ireland Nationwide Apprenticeship Scheme is now open for applications from the ‘technicians of tomorrow.’

The Nissan Qashqai has been voted ‘Continental Irish car of the year, 2015’, by the Irish Motoring Writers’ Association (IMWA).

NISSAN is gearing up for a major assault on the Irish car market and they took a bunch of motoring hacks — yours truly included — to Bratislava recently to see three of the cars which it hopes will spearhead this bid to restore the company to the top of the sales charts in this country.

THE MONTGOMERIE course at Carton House near Maynooth, Kildare is set to be confirmed today as the venue for next year’s Irish Open.

YOU can sense the air of optimism amongst those connected with the 3 Irish Open but nobody is insisting that all past difficulties have been resolved.

IRELAND’S global reputation as the home of golf’s greatest links courses will be further boosted this year with the confirmation that the Co Louth club at Baltray will stage the Irish Open Championship on May 14-17.

An out of control 14-year-old boy, who has been involved in a spate of trespassing and burglary offences, has been detained for nine months by Judge Ann Ryan at the Dublin Children’s Court.

The case of a 13-year-old boy, who stole a patient’s handbag as she was being treated in a physiotherapist’s clinic, has been adjourned while the teen is the subject of a psychological and educational assessment in custody.

IT’S not always easy to feel sorry for touring golf professionals given the money and lavish lifestyle they enjoy.

THE Irish Open at Carton House on May 18-21 is likely to be the last sponsored by Nissan Ireland, but chief executive Gerard O’Toole is unlikely to declare his intentions until at least the final day of the tournament.

NISSAN IRELAND confirmed that it will continue its sponsorship of the Irish Open Golf Championship in 2006.

WITH so many of their top players turning their sights towards the US Tour with all its wealth and perks, the European Tour is finding it increasingly difficult to put fields together that will attract serious public interest.

RYDER CUP players Paul Casey, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Lee Westwood, double Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal and Angel Cabrera, Graeme McDowell and Nick O’Hern are the latest players to confirm their participation in the Nissan Irish Open at Carton House Golf Club, Maynooth, from May 19-22.

THE 2005 Nissan Irish Open will be played in May for the first time in the modern era.

TO INSURE or not to insure? That was the dilemma facing Gerard O'Toole, executive chairman of Nissan Ireland, once he decided to offer the new state-of-the-art Nissan Murano to the first golfer to hole the 15th in one at this week's Irish Open.

ERNIE ELS last night called on European Tour bosses to schedule a tournament on a links golf course in the week prior to the British Open Championship.

FOLLOWING consultation with David Probyn, tournament director of the PGA European Tour, Tom MacKenzie of the Donald Steel design team and local member Des Smyth, it has been agreed that the Baltray links will play to more than 7,050 yards with a par of 72 for next July’s Nissan Irish Open.

County Louth Golf Club in Baltray, one of Ireland’s great links courses, will host the Nissan Irish Open for the first time next year.

THE NISSAN Irish Open will be played in the greater Dublin area for the next two years – but where isn’t exactly clear just yet and won’t be for some time.

There is no possibility that Bernhard Langer’s winning total of 19 under in 1987 will be equalled at Portmarnock this week,insists Charlie Mulqueen.

PLANNING the year’s schedule is one of the most important tasks for any top ranking professional golfer. The temptation to play in just about everything is always there given the enormous sums of money on offer almost every week.

NISSAN IRELAND has launched the Nissan Irish Open website at www.nissan-irishopen.ie.

Nissan Ireland will sponsor the Irish Boys Close Championship 2003.

PORTMARNOCK Golf Club, Nissan Ireland, Bord Fáilte and the European Tour came together in Dublin yesterday to triumphantly announce that the future of the Irish Open is secure for at least the next two years.

Nissan Ireland are the new sponsors of the Irish Open golf tournament to be held at the Portmarnock golf club in Dublin.