Wales are expected to provide more than a third of this summer's British and Irish Lions tour squad when the 38-man group is unveiled today.

As kids they played together in the same high school soccer and rugby teams in their native Cardiff.

Saturday’s game against England at Twickenham will be Ireland’s 14th test game in eight months and will have a defining influence on how that period is judged.

A kicker’s lot is proof that, sometimes, there is an ‘I’ in ‘team’. I miss. We lose.

CHRIS PATERSON will now reflect on a record-filled Scotland career after yesterday announcing his retirement from international rugby.

STUNG at his relegation to third in the world rankings, Tiger Woods emerges from his winter hibernation in this week’s Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego.

HUNDREDS of mourners lined the streets of Hawick yesterday to pay their respects to veteran rugby commentator Bill McLaren.

TRIBUTES have poured in for legendary rugby union commentator Bill McLaren, who died yesterday morning, aged 86.

I AM astounded that Brian O’Driscoll has been sensationally passed over for the International Rugby Board player of the year award for 2009 in favour of New Zealand’s Richie McCaw.

THE accolades continue to accumulate for Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning captain Brian O’Driscoll, who was yesterday named as the RBS Six Nations Player of the Championship for the third time.

FORMER Lions captain Gavin Hastings has tipped Ireland skipper Brian O’Driscoll to pip Paul O’Connell when head coach Ian McGeechan decides who should lead the team to South Africa.

Former Lions captain Gavin Hastings has tipped Ireland skipper Brian O'Driscoll to pip Paul O'Connell when head coach Ian McGeechan decides who should lead the team to South Africa.

GAVIN HASTINGS yesterday urged Lions selectors to retain Brian O’Driscoll as skipper for next summer’s tour to South Africa.

British & Irish Lions legend Gavin Hastings backed Brian O’Driscoll as the man to lead the Lions to tour South Africa in 2009.

WALES coach Warren Gatland has hailed nominations for two of his Grand Slam stars to contest the IRB’s prestigious player of the year award.

Ian McGeechan is expected to be confirmed as head coach of the 2009 British and Irish Lions later this morning.

Gavin Hastings is convinced Ian McGeechan will rebuild the unique aura of the British and Irish Lions after the “disaster” and “circus” of the 2005 tour of New Zealand.

FORMER British and Irish Lions captain Gavin Hastings believes a London Wasps triumvirate of Ian McGeechan, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards should lead the 2009 tour to South Africa.

Former British and Irish Lions captain Gavin Hastings believes a London Wasps triumvirate of Ian McGeechan, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards should lead the 2009 tour to South Africa.

EXPERIENCED half-back pair Stephen Jones and Dwayne Peel are in line to start against Italy a week on Saturday after coming off the bench to guide Wales to victory over Scotland.

Wales 30 Scotland 15

Gavin Hastings has hailed Jonny Wilkinson as the right man to succeed him as the World Cup’s record points-scorer – but predicted another player would eventually smash the new mark.

England 36 Tonga 20

FLY-HALF Jonny Wilkinson has called for “an enormously committed” England display in tonight’s World Cup eliminator against Tonga.

England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson has insisted personal milestones are "just not important" in the context of his country's stuttering World Cup campaign.

FRIDAY sees one of the most formidable collection of legends in one room since Homer sat down to write the Odyssey.

PLATINUM One, the sports management business run by former RTÉ authority chairman Fintan Drury, has snapped up the sponsorship company owned by former Scottish rugby international Gavin Hastings.

THE SURVIVING 22 Munster Rugby Lions - and the three Wallace brothers, Richard, Paul and David in particular - will be honoured at a corporate lunch at the Maryborough House Hotel, Cork, on January 27.

NEW ZEALAND centre Conrad Smith expects little-known teenage All Black Isaia Toeava to begin his path to super-stardom at Murrayfield on Saturday.

England’s World Cup coaching team is set to be reunited for the Lions tour of New Zealand next summer.

Gordon D'Arcy and Jamie Heaslip have both been short-listed for the IRB World Players of the Year awards at London's Royal Lancaster Hotel on November 28.

Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium is set to host the Lions next May in a warm-up game for their tour of New Zealand.

Wales is to stage the Ryder Cup for the first time in 2010 - and Scotland in 2014.

Scotland legend Gavin Hastings paid tribute to his British Lions predecessor Gordon Brown and admitted some of the laughter had gone out of the game with his passing.