Former rugby internationals that played for University College Cork gathered at their alma mater last night to attend a commemorative dinner hosted by UCC Rugby president, Olann Kelleher, at Devere Hall.

Musgrave Park has hosted some of the greatest days in the history of Munster rugby. 

New Zealand will be hoping to avoid another Halloween horror show when they face World Cup final opponents Australia.

Thomond Park has played host to many chapters in Munster’s storied rugby journey but pride of place remains the game against the otherwise unbeaten New Zealanders on October 31, 1978, an occasion that understandably claims pride of place in a new book ‘Where Miracles Happen - The Story of Thomond Park’, by Charlie Mulqueen and Brendan O’Dowd.

Ever since they first turned out for a rumble on the left bank of the Taff, Ireland have usually made a point of picking something up in Cardiff. 

The family of an Irish sporting legend said they are deeply moved after a walkway near his childhood home was named in his honour.

The death has occurred of Michael Noel Ryan, one of the best-known personalities in Limerick and Munster rugby.

An 83-year-old Limerick man who suffered a heart attack is making a good recovery at Limerick University Hospital, due to the first of its kind procedure carried out in this country.

Another week, another new tournament on the horizon.

THE end is in sight, even if we are not quite there yet.

Few people would relish taking on such rugby greats as Syd Millar, Ronnie Dawson and Tom Kiernan, but a pensioner with pluck has in the Circuit Civil Court.

The organisers of Ireland’s top rugby sevens tournament have promised some serious girl action this year.

Ronan O’Gara has admitted he was racked with self doubt and an inner torment for years and has only recently begun to enjoy rugby.

THE death has taken place of a top Irish sportsman, former Irish cricketer and Munster rugby player Jim Kiernan (80), following a short illness.

IN A tournament devoid of any classic encounter to date, last weekend’s penultimate round of Six Nations Championship provided more incident and controversy than the previous three rounds together.

IRISH rugby star Ronan O’Gara is to be accorded a civic reception in Cork within weeks to mark his 100th Irish cap.

IT SEEMED entirely appropriate at a time of unprecedented activity in the construction sector in this country that Lansdowne Road should finally play host to the demolition experts.

SOMEHOW Declan Kidney managed to patch together an Ireland starting XV yesterday.

THE external bruises from his date with the Cardiff Blues were there for all to see, steri-strips acting as a poor camouflage for yet another cut and bloodied right eye.

IT is hugely disappointing to hear people belittle Ireland’s potential to win the Triple Crown for the fifth time in seven years at Croke Park on Saturday.

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.

IAN McGEECHAN let the cat out of the bag the other week when he expressed a preference for a forward to captain the Lions in the forthcoming tour of South Africa.

THE NEW Thomond Park Stadium is the venue for the third Munster Rugby Awards, a gala evening that will celebrate both the professional and domestic games in the province.

TOM KIERNAN, the first chairman of ERC and one of the founding fathers of the Heineken Cup, was yesterday honoured for his part in the launch of Europe's premier club rugby tournament.

New Zealand coach Graham Henry says his young players will be all the better for having to dig deep and find a late try to defeat Munster 18-16 Munster at Thomond Park.

He captured the iconic images that still command our attention thirty years later. And he’s the only photographer who’ll be there again tonight for the reunion with the All Blacks. Des Barry reflected on past and present with Michael Moynihan.

HUNDREDS bid a fond farewell yesterday to a much-loved man who believed the arts and sport were the heartbeat of humanity.

Charlie Mulqueen talks to rugby legend Gerald Davies about the principles of rugby, touring and being next year’s Lions manager.

NEVER mind that it was the inaugural Munster rugby awards — there will never be a more popular player of the year than prop John Hayes.

SPORTS Minister John O’Donoghue has set January 1 next for the establishment of the National Sports Campus Development Authority.

SIX leading figures in education, sport, the arts and business were conferred with honorary degrees at University College Cork (UCC) yesterday.

FOREVER more, they’ll be spoken of in the same awed tones as the Munster team that defeated the All Blacks in 1978.

AND so it ends. Planning permitting, the wrecking balls will demolish Lansdowne Road this year, paving the way for an historic Six Nations championship at Croke Park next year.

YOU’D never think so today but there was a time when Shannon and Garryowen were close allies! Legend has it that towards the end of the 19th century and for much of the 20th, Shannon were the junior partners and annually passed on the cream of their crop so that Garryowen could dominate the coveted Munster Senior Cup for years.

JERRY O’CONNOR was last night awarded the Jury’s Cork Hotel Supreme Sport Star Award for 2005 at The 25th Annual ceremony, which took place at the Aula Maxima, University College Cork.

FRIDAY sees one of the most formidable collection of legends in one room since Homer sat down to write the Odyssey.

THE SURVIVING 22 Munster Rugby Lions - and the three Wallace brothers, Richard, Paul and David in particular - will be honoured at a corporate lunch at the Maryborough House Hotel, Cork, on January 27.

The Irish Rugby Football Union last night confirmed its 2006 summer tour schedule in which the Irish team will play New Zealand twice and Australia once on the trip to the Southern Hemisphere.

LIAM YOUNG of Bantry Rowing Club won the 33rd Cork Sculling Ladder, while his club-mate Alison Downey won the women’s event for the fifth successive year.

Ireland have made one change in personnel and three positional switches for their second and final Test against South Africa at Newlands Park, Cape Town on Saturday.