Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan has failed to overcome a groin injury and will sit out their Ulster football championship preliminary round clash away to Donegal on Sunday.

Convention tells us that, for 80 minutes at Lansdowne Road this evening, men who are good friends and teammates on international weeks will put aside their friendships and substitute them with animosities born of blood.

The Tipperary 2012 glory story continued in McDonagh Park, Nenagh last night, the third leg of the Munster Grand Slam completed with this win over Clare in the Munster intermediate hurling championship final, adding to the senior/minor double won in Cork a couple of weeks ago.

MUNSTER plan to finalise a shortlist of candidates to replace coach Tony McGahan by the end of this week.

UCC capped a superb week by claiming their third successive All-Ireland Freshers (1) hurling crown, to complement Saturday’s Fitzgibbon Cup triumph, in an absorbing decider against UL in Mallow yesterday.

Tomas O'Leary's agent Niall Woods has said the player will decide this week if he will sign a deal with French Top 14 side Perpignan.

CONNACHT RUGBY is set to undergo a radical administration change, with a new board of directors taking over its operations.

CLARE have injury worries over goalkeeper Ronan Taaffe and wing-forward Cathal Malone ahead of next Sunday’s ESB All-Ireland MHC semi-final against Dublin, with both players set to undergo fitness tests tonight.

TOMMY BOWE, Keith Earls and Jamie Heaslip are the nominees for the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Rugby Union Players Association ‘players’ player of the year’ award.

WITH four Top 14 sides in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, this is shaping up to be the ‘Year of the French’ and it’s a surge sourced by economics off the pitch as much as élan or elbow grease on it.

PAURIC Mahony scored 2-8 as former champions De La Salle maintained their perfect record in this season’s Dr Harty Cup.

THE organisation representing Ireland’s professional players is seeking an urgent International Rugby Board review of the sport’s disciplinary process.

The Irish Rugby Union Players Association (IRUPA) has "grown exceedingly frustrated and disappointed with the continued inconsistencies in the application of disciplinary sanctions to players".

LEINSTER and Ireland centre Brian O’Driscoll, was last night voted the Bord Gáis Energy IRUPA Players’ Player of the Year by his fellow players at the 7th annual Bord Gáis Energy IRUPA Rugby Awards.

Tomorrow’s Croke Park stand-off is an indicator of Irish rugby’s rude good health. But it didn’t happen by accident – it’s vindication of the IRFU’s policy of keeping their players at home when rugby went pro. MICHAEL MOYNIHAN reports.

The IRUPA have revealed the nominations for the Bord Gáis Energy IRUPA Players’ Player of the Year 2009.

St Flannan’s (Ennis) 0-15 Árd Scoil Rís (Limerick) 2-9

ST FLANNAN’S advanced to the Harty Cup knock out phase following a comfortable victory over Midleton at Cashel yesterday.

ULSTER and Ireland winger Tommy Bowe, was last night voted the BT IRUPA Players’ Player of the Year.

Ulster and Ireland winger Tommy Bowe has been voted the 2008 Irish Rugby Union Players' Player of the Year by his fellow players at the sixth annual IRUPA Rugby Players Awards, hosted at UCD's O'Reilly Hall tonight.

Scrum half Eoin Reddan, No.8 Jamie Heaslip and wing Tommy Bowe have been nominated for the IRUPA Players' Player of the Year for 2007/2008.

LEINSTER and Ireland centre Gordon D’Arcy, was last night voted BT IRUPA Players’ Player of the Year.

IRISH and Munster second row Paul O’Connell, was last night voted the BT IRUPA Players’ Player of the Year by his peers at the 4th annual Awards Dinner at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin.

THE IRFU has been urged to start immediate contract negotiations with some of its top players as at least nine internationals will be out of contract next June.

Colm O’Connor

Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll has been nominated alongside fellow Ireland internationals Paul O'Connell and Johnny O'Connor for the 2005 BT IRUPA Players' Player of the Year award.

JASON HOLLAND plays his 100th game for Munster in tomorrow night’s Celtic League tie with Edinburgh at Thomond Park (7.30pm).

CONSIDERING he was left in international rugby limbo for three years between 1997 and 2000, it is an even more exceptional achievement for Anthony Foley to be winning his 60th cap at the age of 31 against England at Lansdowne Road tomorrow.

THE Irish Rugby Football Union is on a collision course with player representatives IRUPA.

The Irish Mortgage Corporation has announced a sponsorship partnership with the Irish Rugby Union Players Association (IRUPA) for the 2004/2005 season.

THE IRFU and the Irish Rugby Union Players Association will meet tomorrow to thrash out the issues of match fees and win bonuses which have cast a doubt over Ireland’s summer tour to South Africa.

GORDON D’ARCY was named the O2 IRUPA Players Player of the Year at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin last night.

Simon Easterby, Gordon D'Arcy and Paul O'Connell are the front runners to land the O2 IRUPA Players' Player of the Year Award.

THE IRFU and Frankie Sheahan’s club Cork Constitution have both welcomed the decision to reduce the Munster hooker’s ban.

FRANKIE SHEAHAN could make a sensational return to representative rugby in Dublin on Friday, thereby opening the way to winning a place in the Ireland World Cup squad.

THE Irish Rugby Union Players Association has issued its “full and unconditional support” for Frankie Sheahan in his bid to overturn a two-year suspension imposed by ERC for a doping offence.

MALCOLM O’KELLY last night scooped the inaugural IRUPA Mira Players’ Player of the Year award.

REPORTS published yesterday that the Dolphin and Sunday’s Well clubs are amalgamating have been emphatically denied.

NIALL WOODS is the very personification of why the Irish Rugby Union Players Association had to be founded.

Here are some facts for the Tetley's Bitter Cup.