Johann van Graan has signalled his intent to make Munster a more dynamic attacking force next season with the signing of Irish-qualified Sale Sharks full-back Mike Haley.

Eight tries in your first seven internationals isn’t the sort of strike rate we’ve seen all that often. Not outside New Zealand, at any rate. Jacob Stockdale, though? He’s known hot streaks like this before.

Former Sale player Tom Arscott has received a written warning over the passing of inside information to his brother Luke before the Sharks’ Aviva Premiership match at Bristol.

Irish captain James Ryan expressed his pride in his teammates’ performances at the World Rugby U-20 Championship and will look back on great memories from the event, but was bitterly disappointed to come up short in the final.

England 45 Ireland 21: Twenty-one points was enough to win each of the two previous World Rugby U20 Championship finals and only twice has a team scored more than that and lost, but you got the impression at the AJ Bell Stadium on Saturday evening that no matter what Ireland scored, England would nab more.

Coach Nigel Carolan has urged his men to play the game and not the occasion when they take on England this evening (7pm) in the World Rugby U20 Championship at the AJ Bell Stadium in Greater Manchester.

Former Westmeath minor footballer Conor O’Brien might this week be preparing for a Leinster SFC semi-final showdown with Kildare in Croke Park, but instead it’s the World Rugby U20 Championship final.

Ireland 37 Argentina 7: Irish coach Nigel Carolan says they will treat next Saturday’s World Rugby U-20 Championship final in much the same way as they have approached every other game in the tournament and try not to dwell on the significance of their appearance.

European Champions Cup Pool 1

The difference in the perceived challenges facing Munster and Leinster over the weekend is reflected in the fact that Leinster find themselves roundly criticised despite their win over Harlequins, while Munster have received a very positive response for their achievement in rescuing a bonus point in defeat from a game that could have run away from them at one stage, writes Donal Lenihan.

The big guns are back from Ireland duty, Thomond Park is a sell-out and Munster fans are finally getting the Saturday evening European blockbuster they have craved.

The Champions Cup is well and truly up and running.

The praise, for once, is valid, as Simon Zebo anticipates the head-to-head contests between the wings of Munster and Saracens in their Champions Cup Pool 1 clash at Thomond Park tonight.

The bangs and knocks of last Saturday’s encounter with Sale Sharks are clear as Munster captain Peter O’Mahony sits down 48 hours later to discuss his team’s next Champions Cup mission.

European Champions Cup Pool 1

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Different tournament, same drama. Munster are simply incapable of doing things the easy way.

Ian Keatley had a shot at glory. The clock showed 79:47 as Conor Murray flung the ball towards the Munster fly-half, deep in the pocket, his side trailing 26-24 in the dying seconds.

Munster coach Anthony Foley paid tribute to the cool head of Ian Keatley after he kicked his side to a last-gasp win over Sale in the opening match of pool A in the European Champions Cup.

A 40-metre drop goal from Ian Keatley in the last action of a gripping European Champions Cup clash completed a remarkable comeback from Munster against Sale.

Few men epitomise their club as Steve Diamond does Sale Sharks.

New competition, new Munster and a new approach.

Battling his brother Neville as a youngster gave Robin Copeland the aggressive edge that’s serving him well in his professional day-to-day life.

Anthony Foley has named his squad for Munster’s first game in the new European Champions Cup competition - an away match against Sale Sharks.

Conor Murray has helped steer Munster to two Heineken Cup semi-finals and though the chances of making it a third seem far slimmer this season, the Ireland scrum-half insists the belief remains that his province can still be European contenders.

Munster fly out of the province today on their latest European adventure as the players prepare for tomorrow’s Champions Cup Pool 1 opener against Sale Sharks in England’s north-west.

European Champions Cup Pool 1

With five Heineken Cup successes over a magical seven-year period between 2006 and 2012, European rugby had become a happy hunting ground for the Irish, writes Donal Lenihan.

ANOTHER league game, another rave review, but CJ Stander is taking nothing for granted when competition for places in the Munster back-row places is so intense ahead of Saturday’s European opener at Sale Sharks.

Potentially seismic back-to-back clashes with Clermont Auvergne await Munster in December after the fixtures for the new European Rugby Champions Cup were confirmed yesterday.

Guinness Pro12 title holders Leinster will entertain Wasps in round one, the London club having qualified through the new play-off system at the end of last term.

Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers rolled back the years tonight as they lined up together in a ’Class of 92 and friends’ XI for a friendly against Salford City, the non-league outfit they bought between them this year.