HARLEQUINS qualified for the Heineken Cup next season in dramatic fashion as they won the Amlin Challenge Cup, Europe’s second-tier knockout tournament, for a record third time.

CARDIFF BLUES stayed firmly on course for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals last night, after subduing Harlequins’ spirited resistance at a windswept Arms Park.

WITH a surname straight from the heartland of Ireland, most Americans could have been forgiven for thinking that Senator John Forbes Kerry of Massachusetts is another in a long line of Irish-American politicians who have made it big in Boston.