After Sean O’Brien singlehandedly flew the flag for the club during the past decade, Tullow RFC now have a new favourite son in the shape of Ireland U20s prop Charlie Ward.

The quest for back-to-back Under-20 Grand Slams gathered pace in Cork last night as reigning champions Ireland swept to a second consecutive bonus-point Six Nations victory.

After 12 years and 151 tests in charge of Wales, Warren Gatland’s Super Rugby coaching career with the Chiefs began with a remarkable comeback victory over the Blues in Auckland.

It's at times like these you realise hurling never needed to be recognised as a UNESCO-protected cultural activity for it to be fortified.

Despite the gulf in class between the sides in last year’s table, Ireland U20s forward coach Colm Tucker expects Scotland to come out with all guns blazing at Musgrave Park on Friday evening (RTÉ Two, 7.15pm).

He may share the same name and position as an international star of the recent past, but Ireland U20s flanker Sean O’Brien plans to make his own reputation.

The result was never going to be the primary indicator of the worth of this pre-season workout, but in running in six tries and building important momentum, there was a lot to like about the performance from Noel McNamara’s Ireland Under-20s.

Crowley, who won the AIL Try of the Month award for December, is one of three Munstermen to face their home province.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, so what better time then to look at the cattle trade.

Sean O’Brien was among a handful of former Leinster stars who returned to the team HQ this week to set the scene for the province’s ‘drive for five’ ahead of today’s Heineken Champions Cup opener against Benetton.

It would be understandable if Connacht’s Sean O’Brien was feeling sorry for himself this week as he underwent surgery for a shoulder injury suffered within minutes of coming on last weekend against Leinster in his first game in almost a year.

Connacht coach Andy Friend has warned his side can’t afford to get into an “arm wrestle” against Montpellier in their return to the Heineken Champions Cup this weekend.

Munster have moved to ease their fly-half problems by adding academy number 10 Ben Healy to their Heineken Champions Cup squad.

Joe Ó Muircheartaigh Clare SFC final replay

Johnny Sexton insists Ireland’s World Cup squad are all business as they prepare for Saturday’s quarter-final against the All Blacks, a stark contrast to four years ago when he believes they were overly emotional a week too early.

This isn’t the team that Joe Schmidt envisaged naming against Samoa.

It’s easy to forget just how big this weekend will be for the players.

A series of heart-warming videos, in which a five-year-old girl interviews elderly West Cork residents — some of them in their mid-90s — will be launched on YouTube, and other social media platforms, later this month.

I recall that many years ago at the start of a new school year certain students who had failed their previous year’s Intercert French exams used to call out vigorously the phrase “F for French” so as to annoy the French teacher who had previously taught them.

Leinster rugby coach Leo Cullen says they may be forced to send minders along to player nights-out, after last May’s end-of-season controversies.

Hey Jude, let’s start to make it better, be nicer.

Last year when Kerry played a Super 8s match in Croke Park, it didn’t exactly fare well in the TV channel-hopping stakes.

The community of Newport in Co Tipperary has banded together to help raise €100,000 for one of its residents, 29-year-old Kevin Bourke who has a rare form of cancer.

Tom Barron was the hero of the hour as Waterford ended a 13-year wait for a Munster championship win at Fraher Field last night.

The first game of the 2019 Rugby World Cup is still 85 days away and yet Ireland are back in camp almost two weeks already. It’s no wonder that Toner opined yesterday that these summer breaks never feel long enough.

Two former Tipperary forwards are concerned Liam Sheedy’s team could suffer against Limerick in the Munster Final as a result of beating them last Sunday week.

Tipperary defender Cathal Barrett has not yet been ruled out of the Munster final after a scan revealed he suffered a "mild hamstring tear".

Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy is confident the void left by cruciate victim Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher can be filled, even if the 29-year old had been “in full flow” this summer.

It now seems with every week that the GAA are being given more reason to cut down on the numbers populating the sidelines.

If the phoney war taketh away, sometimes the phoney war giveth.

A simple football floating downward like a bubble upon the surface of a descending mountain stream could well demonstrate a very green way to transport people and goods without any practical use at all of fossil fuels like coal, oil or gas.

The long road starts here as the race to make Ireland’s World Cup squad for Japan this September ramped up, after Joe Schmidt named a 44-player training squad.

And before we know it, another season comes to a sudden and dramatic end.

The squad includes two uncapped players –Mike Haley and Jean Kleyn

Leo Cullen wasn’t the only Irish coach breathing a sigh of relief at the end of Saturday’s PRO14 final in Glasgow.

O’Brien missed what should have been his final game for his home province due to a hip injury but captain Sexton asked the Tullow Tank, who will depart Leinster for London Irish after the World Cup, to take the captain’s role and lift the trophy after a hard-fought victory in Glasgow.

Leo Cullen vented his anger last week at what he perceived as suggestions in some media outlets that Jonathan Sexton had been ‘dropped’ for the semi-final win over Munster. He need not have bothered as Sexton’s selection for today’s decider was always going to refute such spin.

Profits at the commercial firm operated by former Irish rugby captain, Jamie Heaslip last year more than doubled to €124,324.

The full-back's contract expires in November after the Rugby World Cup.

Devin Toner’s World Cup ambitions remain intact with the news that the Leinster second row faces just a 4-6 week recovery period from the knee injury suffered against Munster in last week’s Guinness PRO14 semi-final.

Josh van der Flier admits he was a bundle of nerves ahead of Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 semi-final win over Munster.

It’s not often we get a provincial derby between Leinster and Munster these days with both teams fully locked and loaded. Therefore days such as Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 semi-final are occasions to be savoured.

Pet Peeve Corner: the GAA and statistics.

John Meyler has reacted to Cork’s defeat to Tipperary by making four changes for tomorrow’s Munster SHC Round 2 in the LIT Gaelic Grounds.