For all the superlatives rightly thrown in the direction of Joe Schmidt’s team the past couple of days, one aspect of Soldier Field has probably still not been fully appreciated.

There were heartbreaking scenes as the young son of champion jockey John Thomas McNamara asked angels to look after his dad, who passed away last Tuesday from injuries sustained three years ago, in a horror fall at Cheltenham.

The strength of the squad available to Irish U20 coach Nigel Carolan was apparent on Tuesday night when he made 13 changes and still brushed Georgia aside 35-7.

When Irish players lined up for a World Cup debut in 1987 — chests puffed out, ready to make history — they were played into battle by... ‘The Rose of Tralee’. Peter Jackson reports

‘Drop-goal on. Drop-goal taken. Drop-goal good!’ Michael Kiernan is one of only a few people who know what it’s like to get the score to beat England to win the Triple Crown.

It’s funny the things you remember.

SO much physical and mental energy goes into preparing for an international test match that to have it called off as you are literally about to leave the dressing room must be emotionally draining.

TWENTY-FOUR years ago Ireland suffered a mortal blow at a Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, losing a pool game to Wales.

KARL CAULFIELD was the goalscoring hero yesterday as his strike saw the Munster Senior League defeat their Leinster counterparts 1-0 to reclaim the FAI Umbro Intermediate Inter-League Cup, which they last won in 2008, in Tullamore yesterday.

A BIG funeral for a giant of a man.

OVER 2,000 complaints were made by members of the public to the Garda Ombudsman Commission last year.

The Court of Criminal Appeal has imposed a six-month suspended sentence on a former garda who assaulted a young student while on duty, after it upheld a bid by the State to have the leniency of his punishment reviewed.

LET’S put the scale of Saturday’s Heineken Cup semi-final into perspective. The Champions League final featuring Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow last season attracted an audience of 67,310.

THE ENGLISH rugby team arrive in Croke Park today as rank outsiders. Their results and performances in the Six Nations so far have been well below the standards set by so many of their predecessors.

A STUDENT who took off a garda’s hat in Cork city centre ended up being knocked unconscious by the officer and left bleeding on the ground.

ONE HUNDRED and twenty eight years after the first ball was kicked in anger, the curtain finally came down on international action at the world’s oldest rugby arena yesterday.

Long before the thousands jumped onboard the Heineken Cup bandwagon, a hardy few followed Munster rugby in good times and bad.

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

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.

Stars of the rugby world will be taking to the fairways of Galway Golf Club next month for a special charity Classic.

CHRISTCHURCH is a town said to be more English than England itself. Much like the Lions’ Test team really, and with just as many Irish theme pubs.

“IT’S just another game but this time there’s a big prize at the end of it.”

DAVID WALLACE has gone from wondering if he might ever play for Ireland again to figuring in one of his country’s biggest games of recent seasons - Saturday’s Triple Crown clash with Scotland at Lansdowne Road.

THE hard men of Irish rugby have swapped their Munster jerseys for mafia-style suits — all in aid of a worthy cause.

COLIN CORKERY was last night fêted as the outstanding Cork sports person for 2002 at the annual Jurys Cork Sports Star awards banquet.

Ireland 32 Italy 17