Nobody expected Conor Murray to be Ireland’s first choice scrum-half during the 2011 World Cup — or to overtake his Welsh and English rivals in the battle for the No 9 jersey on the & Lions tour last year.

Brian O’Driscoll may be calling time on his stellar career at the end of the season but his former Ireland team-mate Peter Stringer is set for at least another year.

Peter Stringer has signed a one-year extension to his contract at Bath Rugby after a snub by Munster.

Munster scrum-half Peter Stringer will remain at English club Bath until the end of the season after the Premiership outfit and Munster agree terms to extend what was initially intended to be a short-term loan.

The weather tends to be just a little less atrocious each time Munster hand James Coughlan the captain’s armband.

THE silver trophy is in the shape of rugby ball, but, contrary to the instincts of a scrum-half, this was one oval sphere Conor Murray was not keen to let go of.

THE waiting game is always the worst and Denis Hurley is hoping against hope that a scan on an injured right knee will provide good news today.

IT MAY have been Peter Stringer’s opposite number, Samoa’s Kahn Fotualii, who claimed the man-of-the-match award, but Irish players and management were effusive in their praise of their scrum-half in the aftermath of their Test win.

MUNSTER don’t expect a definitive report on the calf injury that forced Jerry Flannery out of last week’s Heineken Cup game against Toulon until later in the week.

SPEAK softly but carry a big stick: that must surely be themantra of Irish rugby coach, Declan Kidney.

THE HEAVENS rained down on Rodney Parade and this Magners League dogfight, but the Newport Gwent Dragons failed to rain on Munster’s quest for a unique League and Heineken Cup double.

MIRACLE matches should now carry a Munster trademark.

ALAN GAFFNEY believes so strongly that Munster are now a “better balanced” side than when he left the province three years ago, that he plans to have a little wager on them to beat Toulouse in the Heineken Cup final on May 24th.

IT all began for Ian Dowling on a lovely spring afternoon in 2004.

THIS morning 30 young Irishmen will wake up in Bordeaux. Like so many millions of Irish people before them they will wake in a foreign place, their hearts full of hope, their ambitions fervently shared by everyone they left behind at home.

THE battle to be Peter Stringer’s deputy at September’s World Cup in France is set to intensify during Ireland’s two test tour of Argentina, which kicks off at Santa Fe on Saturday.

FINALLY he’s a marquee name, Ronan O’Gara, respected now wherever rugby is played as one of the world’s best out-halves.

SHAUN PAYNE, Trevor Halstead and Federico Pucciarello have huge roles to play, but the European champions could never be the same or mean the same to their massive band of supporters without a strong core of home-grown players.

RONAN O’GARA has been tipped to head the Lions challenge in New Zealand next summer by one of the best out halves the world has known.

AMID all the excitement surrounding the win over South Africa, and the reshuffling of manpower to face the USA, the fact that Peter Stringer reached the magical 50-cap milestone against the Eagles has been all but forgotten.