It's not like Graham Rowntree to need a bedding-in period and he was characteristically relaxed on his first outing in front of the Munster media.

Munster coach Johann van Graan believes that his squad’s recent contract extensions mean that Munster’s hand will be stronger than ever going into tomorrow’s extremely testing clash with the Scarlets in Llanelli and for the remainder of what promises to be an demanding programme of matches in the PRO14 and the European Champions Cup.

Kenya’s Geofrey Ndungu successfully reclaimed his Dublin Marathon title in a time of 2:11:09 this afternoon.

AN ATTEMPT to smuggle a mobile phone inside a candle into prison was intercepted last week.