RBS Six Nations: England 47 Italy 17: England full-back Mike Brown receives medical attention for a head injury.

Jeremy Guscott: Questioned mental resolve of Irish players

Brian O’Driscoll looks set to end his British and Irish Lions career by captaining the tourists in a Test series decider.

Rob Howley today laid bare the levels of bravery and desire that will be required when the British and Irish Lions go for Test series glory against Australia.

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

Jim Telfer, the legendary Scottish and Lions forwards coach caused a bit of a furore before the Six Nations when he called the Welsh team lazy and the English arrogant.

Hopes, plans, dreams — all scaled back yesterday at the Aviva.

Last Saturday’s victory in Cardiff was a moment and a spectacle to savour for Irish rugby but the stakes will be even higher in the Aviva on Sunday, a win and Ireland will not only be favourites for the championship but can dream of another Grand Slam.

British and Irish Lions hero Jeremy Guscott says a failure to stick with a regular Test fly-half has prevented Ireland from translating Heineken Cup success to the international arena.

TOBY FLOOD has urged his England teammates to start taking responsibility for their actions off the field and pull together on it to strengthen their bid for World Cup glory.

Nick Easter last night provided an insight into England’s true feelings after their 17-12 victory over Italy when he said: “God, that was boring”.

WILLIE JOHN McBride has been voted the greatest ever Lion by best-selling magazine Rugby World – though there is no place in the Top 50 for 2009 captain, Paul O’Connell.

SSPRINGBOK captain John Smit warned the British and Irish Lions early last week of the lung-bursting experience at altitude in Loftus Versfeld, but he said nothing of the heart-breaking experience they’d leave it with.

IT’S A LIONS tour, but not as we know it. Something is missing. That manic fervour and commitment that the All Blacks were subjected to last November in Thomond Park has been strangely absent in the first five games of this tour – and it’s also missing off the field.

South Africa 26 British and Irish Lions 21

Twelve years ago, Keith Wood returned from the Lions tour to South Africa a global rugby star, but not all his Lions memories are good ones. He spoke to Brendan O’Brien.

SOUTH AFRICA captain John Smit will lead the Springboks into the rarefied atmosphere of a Test series against the British and Irish Lions today with one fierce message to his men — it is now or never.

FOR Tomás O’Leary, the wait for the squad announcement was filled with as much suspense as it was for everyone else. With no prior notification forthcoming, the Munster scrum-half was in the dark until yesterday’s lunchtime announcement that he had bagged one of the coveted spots on the 37-man panel.

SOUTH AFRICA have the players to overcome any challenge the British and Irish Lions throw at them during their three-test tour, former World Cup-winning Springbok coach Jake White said yesterday.

LUKE FITZGERALD, eminently likeable guy that he is, tends to give away next to nothing in interviews, so it pays to sit up and take notice when his replies begin to stretch beyond the cursory few sentences.

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.

ENGLAND, based on this display, will be handing over the William Webb Ellis trophy early in the autumn.

IT WAS fitting that the Man of the Match should have the last say, and when Peter Stringer hoisted an 84th-minute kick into touch at the Millennium Stadium, Munster’s long wait for Heineken Cup glory was over.

JEREMY GUSCOTT says England will not retain the World Cup unless they revamp their style of play in the wake of the shock loss to Scotland.

BEAUTY, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder and one man’s “incredibly exciting back division” is another’s team of robots.

Gareth Llewellyn hopes to achieve a notable career double against England next Saturday – even if it has been 12 years in the making.

LIONS legend Jeremy Guscott has tipped Munster’s Marcus Horan to win a place on the tour to New Zealand this summer.

RUGBY greats Jeremy Guscott, Keith Wood, Ian McGeechan and Scott Gibbs were honoured with the presentation of Parliamentary Rugby Medals at a dinner at the House of Commons last night.

IRELAND offered a compulsive case again on Saturday that aggression and possession win matches.

England World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson has retired from international rugby.

Bath scrum-half Martyn Wood was tonight preparing for a flight to Australia as England’s World Cup camp assessed the extent of injuries to Matt Dawson and Kyran Bracken.

Ben Cohen is relishing the prospect of England’s World Cup campaign – two years after a “mindless” Lions tour to Australia.

England ended 40 years of hurt in Australia by beating the world champion Wallabies today after 10 failed attempts Down Under.

IN his playing days Jeremy Guscott was the suave, side-stepping English centre of excellence. And time hasn’t eroded his ability to dodge the oncoming hit.

MUNSTER are unlikely to cite Brett Sinkinson for the stamp on outhalf Ronan O’Gara at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

CANCEL that obituary. Reports of Munster’s demise are, to borrow from Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated.

BEATING Gloucester by three tries and 19 points at Thomond Park on Saturday next to stay in the Heineken Cup has to be the tallest order to confront a Munster side, especially one suffering more and more injuries.

England boss Clive Woodward has claimed that ‘‘no-one should read anything’’ into Martin Johnson’s surprise appearance on the bench for Sunday’s Lloyds TSB Six Nations Championship appointment with Italy.

Australia will have a gaping hole to fill when their legendary lock John Eales hangs up his boots after the Tri-Nations clash with New Zealand on September 1.