A walkout by British postal staff in the capital was starting today amid the spectre of a much more crippling national strike.

The first national postal strike in the UK in a decade was threatened today after union leaders decided to ballot 130,000 postmen and women over industrial action in a row over pay.

The National Boy 1,2 & 3 Championships commenced at the National Stadium in Dublin yesterday with thirty seven preliminary round and quarter final bouts in the Boy 1& 2 categories.

Bath 23 Leinster 27

Hopes of a breakthrough in the postal workers’ dispute faded tonight as union leaders and managers struggled to resolve a row which has crippled mail deliveries across Britain.