As Australian rugby still smoulders, Lions' hero Jonathan Sexton stepped into the cloistered calm of Adare’s 13th century Holy Trinity Church to marry his schooldays sweetheart, Laura Priestley.

A late-night outing turned into a six-hour nightmare after an American was gang-raped aboard a public transit van in an incident that has shocked the city as it gears up to host 2014’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.