Crystal Palace have confirmed Ian Holloway as their new manager on a four-and-a-half-year contract.

Supporting Premier League football is proving a costly pastime, with clubs squeezing high prices out of fans, writes Tony Leen

Owen Farrell, Brad Barritt and Phil Dowson will make their Test debuts in Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash with Scotland as part of a new-look and inexperienced England team.

England hooker Dylan Hartley has signed a new deal to keep him with Northampton until at least 2015.

England hooker Steve Thompson has been forced to retire with immediate effect after suffering another neck injury.

IN THE END, perhaps the only way to rid the English rugby team of the arrogance and self-righteousness that has pervaded their squad since 2003 was with a stick of dynamite planted firmly in the centre of the Twickenham pitch.

England 67 Romania 3

HT England 34 Romania 3

MARTIN JOHNSON insists England’s preparations for tomorrow’s clash with Romania will not be thrown off course by the arrival in Dunedin of Zara Phillips.

Lewis Moody has returned from injury to captain an England team featuring nine changes for Sunday’s Rugby World Cup clash with Georgia.

Lewis Moody has returned from injury to captain an England team featuring nine changes for Sunday’s Rugby World Cup appointment against Georgia.

ENGLAND scrum coach Graham Rowntree has steeled his men for the ultimate challenge of facing Argentina’s set piece in Saturday’s Rugby World Cup opener.

THE squad is set, the seats on the plane to New Zealand have been allocated and all Ireland need now is to ensure there is no unwanted baggage travelling with them to the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

MARTIN JOHNSON views today’s Ireland game as the perfect launch-pad for England’s campaign in New Zealand, which begins against Argentina on September 10.

Joe Worsley is set to miss out on playing in his fourth Rugby World Cup after being cut from England's training squad.

Matt Stevens’ return from the ignominy of a drugs ban continued today when he was confirmed in England’s 45-man Rugby World Cup training squad.

England's World Cup winner Ben Cohen has announced his retirement from rugby.

Wasps have signed Leeds Carnegie’s World Cup winner Steve Thompson for the 2011-12 Aviva Premiership season.

Jamie Noon has disappeared from Martin Johnson’s radar since moving to France, but he sees today’s Amlin Challenge Cup clash with Munster as his chance to lay down a marker. Alan Good talked to Brive’s Mr Dependable

BRIVE coach Ugo Mola believes his side can ambush Munster’s Amlin Challenge Cup hopes at Stade Amédée on Saturday following their pressure-relieving victory over Top 14 minnows La Rochelle last weekend.

Ireland 24 England 8

Martin Johnson called on his young England team to produce a “big finale” to their campaign and clinch the Grand Slam with victory over Ireland.

Mark Cueto will be proud to collect his 50th England cap at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday – but what he really wants is a Grand Slam winners’ medal.

England manager Martin Johnson will discover today whether he has captain Mike Tindall and Matt Banahan available for this weekend’s Grand Slam showdown with Ireland.

JAMES HASKELL believes Saturday’s clash with Ireland is the biggest game that any of the England side will have played in and is wary of a backlash from their hosts after their controversial defeat in Wales.

Martin Johnson has no intention of banning the phrase ’Grand Slam’ from the England camp this week as they build up to Saturday’s decisive showdown in Ireland.

Ospreys coach Sean Holley has billed tomorrow’s Heineken Cup clash against struggling London Irish as a season-defining game.

Louis Deacon has been recalled to the England squad for the RBS 6 Nations as a replacement for banned Gloucester lock Dave Attwood.

Australia forwards coach Jim Williams has no problem with Dylan Hartley lining up against the Wallabies in Saturday’s Cook Cup showdown.

ENGLAND manager Martin Johnson did not once seriously consider his position despite criticism prior to Saturday’s win over Australia in Sydney.

Australia 27 England 17

Bath centre Shontayne Hape will make his England Test debut in Saturday’s Cook Cup clash with Australia at the Subiaco Oval in Perth.

LEWIS MOODY believes Leicester’s Guinness Premiership title-winning stars can inspire England to a successful tour of Australia and New Zealand.

England 35 Barbarians 26

England today suffered the first withdrawal from their summer tour to Australia and New Zealand when Dylan Hartley pulled out with a knee injury.

Sunderland 2 Burnley 1

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.

France 12 England 10

Lewis Moody has been dropped for England’s Calcutta Cup game against Scotland on Saturday.

Jonny Wilkinson today shrugged off the critics and vowed to keep his cool in the face of mounting criticism.

Jonny Wilkinson has been retained in an unchanged England team for Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations showdown with Ireland at Twickenham, despite concerns over his form and fitness.

MARTIN JOHNSON is not the sort of man who indulges in mind-games, but yesterday he braced himself to face a wounded animal when Ireland head to Twickenham a week on Saturday.