Agri-food companies can capitalise on farm output increases in new EU member states once CAP reforms are introduced in Jan 2014, according to a new Rabobank report.

You could have substituted South African World Cup-winning captain John Smit’s comments after last week’s trip to Thomond Park with those expressed by his illustrious Springbok predecessor Francois Pienaar all of 13 seasons ago.

Tim Smit will be in Kinsale to talk about Eden, his plant project that blossomed in a Cornwall clay pit, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

Rough seas off Italy's Tuscan coast have forced a delay in the start of the operation to pump out half a million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise liner Costa Concordia.

THE captain who allegedly abandoned the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner will be released from jail and placed under house arrest.

The Italian operator of the Costa Concordia has today accused the ship's jailed captain, Francesco Schettino, of causing ship to run aground, saying he made an "unapproved, unauthorised manoeuvre'' to divert the vessel from its programmed course.

Preventing pollution in the sea surrounding the sunken Costa Concordia will be a “race against time”, but the ship could be sailing again in future with a lot of hard work and a lot of money, according to a maritime expert.

Saracens 20 Biarritz 16

Five players who’ll stamp their class on the pool stages

AUSTRALIA crept into the World Cup semi-finals after James O’Connor landed a late penalty to send champions South Africa crashing out.

South Africa captain John Smit stopped short of claiming the underdog tag ahead of Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final but acknowledged Australia have had the upper hand over them in the past two years.

SOUTH AFRICA head coach Peter de Villiers believes his side are ready for the World Cup knockout phase after advancing from Pool D with a 100% record following a bruising win over Samoa at North Harbour Stadium.

South Africa 13 Samoa 5

JASON LEONARD has warned England they must perfect the art of winning close games if they are to stand any chance of regaining the World Cup.

Australia 39 South Africa 20

John Smit has been retained as South Africa captain for the upcoming international season, with Victor Matfield also remaining as vice captain.

South Africa skipper John Smit will miss the Springboks’ November tour to Great Britain and Ireland.

South Africa captain John Smit accepted there was plenty for his side still to work on after yesterday’s 44-31 Tri Nations victory over Australia in Pretoria.

JOHN SMIT admits it will take a very long time for him to get over yesterday’s Tri Nations defeat to New Zealand in Johannesburg.

IN-FORM Australia fly-half Quade Cooper has been suspended for two weeks after being cited for a dangerous tackle during Australia’s Tri Nations Test 30-13 win against South Africa.

SOUTH AFRICA lock Victor Matfield was yesterday despairing at the way Irish referees Alan Lewis and Alain Rolland have policed the breakdown, following his side’s second successive Tri Nations defeat to New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday.

South Africa coach Peter de Villiers has made two enforced changes for the second Tri Nations Test in Wellington on Saturday as his team look to make amends for their humbling loss to New Zealand.

SOUTH AFRICA lock Bakkies Botha has apologised to his team-mates after being banned for his head-butt on New Zealand scrum-half Jimmy Cowan.

NEW ZEALAND coach Graham Henry knows only too well the pressures that coaching Wales can bring and can probably empathise with the situation Warren Gatland finds himself in heading into Saturday’s final Test between the two countries.

FRANCE coach Marc Lièvremont blamed his team’s horrific opening 20 minutes for their 42-17 loss to South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday.

IT WAS so cold last Saturday evening in Croke Park that we had to rely on gossip about the world’s most famous golfer to keep ourselves warm.

Ireland bring down the curtain on their autumn internationals with one eye on avenging the Lions’ Test series defeat by South Africa.

THE CLASH of the Northern Hemisphere grand slam winners and the Tri-Nations and world champions at Croke Park this afternoon assumes even greater significance now that both sides are able to field as close to full-strength as makes no difference.

IT WON’T happen too often, so you might as well make a note of it – four Irish-based players in front row action for a Test against a southern hemisphere side.

IRELAND and South Africa meet for the 19th time this afternoon and it promises to be a belter of a contest. How could it be otherwise given South Africa’s status as world and Tri-Nations champions against the host nation who captured the Six Nations Grand Slam for the first time in 61 years.

BIGGER THAN the Lions, and bigger than the Tri-Nations decider. That’s how the visiting World Cup champion Springboks are looking at tomorrow’s clash with Ireland in Croke Park, according to assistant coach Gary Gold, who said yesterday that he “had not encountered anything as big as the build-up to Saturday . . . the pressure and expectations are bigger than they were before the first Lions Test in Durban or that final Tri-Nations clash in Hamilton.”

Brian O’Driscoll has scoffed at suggestions South Africa are a team in decline as Ireland target the prized scalp of the world champions at Croke Park on Saturday.

HARD man to second guess, is Declan Kidney.

SOUTH AFRICA captain John Smit may return to the middle of the front row for his side’s visit to Dublin to take on Ireland next weekend.

WORLD champions South Africa suffered a second successive loss on their northern hemisphere tour as France triumphed in Toulouse last night.

JOHN SMIT is not getting carried away with South Africa’s good start to the Tri-Nations and insists his side “haven’t really done anything yet” ahead of today’s clash with Australia in Cape Town.

South Africa coach Peter De Villiers today named an unchanged team for Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash with Australia in Cape Town – a decision he described as “easy”.

South Africa 31 New Zealand 19

SOUTH AFRICA captain John Smit has put his personal milestone aside and vowed to concentrate only on beating New Zealand today as the world champions aim to continue their winning start to the Tri-Nations.

South Africa captain John Smit will become the most capped captain in Test rugby when he leads his side out against New Zealand in Durban.

NEW ZEALAND were left to lament costly errors after going down 28-19 to South Africa in the Tri-Nations match in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

CAPTAIN John Smit has told South Africa to fulfil their potential against New Zealand in Bloemfontein today in the second match of the Tri-Nations series.

SOUTH AFRICAN captain John Smit has backed Ian McGeechan’s assertion that the British and Irish Lions brand is the biggest in world rugby.

THE smiles were back and promises kept as the 2009 British and Irish Lions produced the performance of this South African tour to emphatically avoid a whitewash at Ellis Park, Johannesburg on Saturday with a victory that highlighted just how unlucky they were to lose the three-game Test series.