As if we ever needed reminding, Saturday’s World Cup final highlighted that so much of modern-day sport is played out in the head.

Valentia Island is the spectacular setting for a festival of chamber music this weekend that brings musicians from far flung destinations.

At least 51 people are confirmed dead following severe flooding in the region of Durban in South Africa .

There was a time when the stinginess of the Scottish Rugby Union knew no bounds, when players were given one pair of socks per year and instructions to hand them back with the rest of the kit at the end of the season, writes Peter Jackson.

When Pádraig Harrington won three major championships in little more than a 12-month span in 2007-08, he said he received an honorary membership at nearly every club in Ireland.

The Munster squad arrived into 25°C heat in South Africa at the start of a two-match tour which will also double up as preparation for their Champions Cup semi-final showdown with Racing 92 in Bordeaux.

South African triathlete Mhlengi Gwala is undergoing surgery after three men reportedly attempted to cut off his legs with a chainsaw.

Of all the drop goals in all the world, Johnny Sexton’s is destined to keep flying ever higher on its steep climb towards the heavens.

If Chris Cloete’s introduction to Irish rugby is any guide, the South African flanker’s European debut for Munster tonight is set to go off with a bang.

SPEAKING before his death almost exactly 11 years ago, Ian Smith, prime minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979 and a controversial figure by any standards, said that he would happily walk down any street in Harare — Salisbury in his time — but that his successor Robert Mugabe dare not.

So much for transparency. For all the good intention of overseeing the most open, least questionable bidding process for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, governing body World Rugby is this morning as big a loser as South Africa, whose bid it unanimously recommended on October 31.

The IRFU has doubled down on its doubts over South Africa’s suitability to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with the union continuing to push for answers on aspects of the technical review which last week recommended the Rainbow Nation.

All’s fair in love and war and, it seems, the bidding process for major sporting events.

It’s just over three years since 29-year-old tight-head prop Wiehahn Herbst packed his bags and headed from Durban in the hope of starting a new sporting life in Belfast.

Tickets for the Rugby World Cup games in 2023 could be as low as €20 if an all-Ireland bid for the event is successful.

The Minister for Transport has said he will consider supporting a bid for Northern Ireland to host the Commonwealth Games.

If things had worked out a little differently, John Plumtree might possibly still be Ireland’s forwards coach, and still accompanying Joe Schmidt on unscheduled detours on the way home from Ulster matches.

South Africa’s revival in 2017 has been built on their intensity in defence and vigour at the breakdown, which was on display again in the dominant 35-12 victory over France at Ellis Park on Saturday that saw them sweep the home series 3-0.

The Bull was on the farm in Cappamore when the call came.

Ulster 17 Leinster 13: Thankfully it wasn’t all about the game itself on a bright summer’s day at the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday. At least two stand-out moments came from the two Ulster players who were bidding farewell to a venue they had graced on numerous occasions.

World Cup winner Ruan Pienaar will get to say his farewells in front of a full house at the Kingspan Stadium this evening when Ulster take on top dogs Leinster in a Guinness PRO12 dead rubber derby.

A signed letter from Muhammad Ali to Nelson Mandela offering his condolences on the death of an anti-apartheid leader has sold at auction in England for £7,200 (€8,500).

A signed letter from Muhammad Ali to Nelson Mandela offering his condolences on the death of an anti-apartheid leader will be sold at auction.

Allow me to set the scene — in 2013, Dr Cian O’Neill arrived in Cork Institute of Technology to head up a new department called Sport, Leisure & Childhood Studies.

New Zealand overcame the absence of suspended half-back Aaron Smith to seal a clean sweep in the Rugby Championship with a nine-try, 57-15 victory over South Africa in Durban.

The All Blacks’ ability to seal the Rugby Championship with two rounds remaining highlighted the burgeoning gap between the world champions and the rest of the sides, though the team were not prepared to let their final games become footnotes.

When Allister Coetzee touched down in Port Elizabeth with his team last Sunday afternoon, he had a spring in his step, and not just from the previous night’s series-levelling victory over Ireland.

Ronan O’Gara looks forward to what promises to be an exciting weekend of rugby action and warns that Ireland should not underestimate Argentina who, he suggests, are playing better than ever before.

They paid €20m to be ringside in Cardiff yesterday for the collision of Europe’s only two unbeaten contenders and the rewriting of one family’s tragic World Cup story.

Bryan Habana had just turned 12 when he chased Jonah Lomu into the bathroom of an upmarket hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.

A group of about 450 West Cork businesses has demanded a strategy for the county’s airport that will contribute to the economic success of the region.

If the London Olympics of four years ago is the yardstick by which the Rugby World Cup is to be judged then the tournament organisers have set themselves an incredibly high standard.

Vern Cotter has extended his Scotland contract until 2017 in a major show of faith from the Scottish Rugby Union ahead of the World Cup.

A strange few days in many ways. New Zealand beaten for only the third time since lifting the 2011 World Cup, confirming you shouldn’t write off the Wallabies approaching next month’s global showpiece tournament.

Irish mining firm Kenmare Resources has repatriated 62 South Africans working at its titanium mine in Mozambique for their safety after anti-immigrant attacks back home.

All of the focus may be on the Six Nations and World Cup next year but Ireland are also looking beyond that, with a three-match summer tour to South Africa confirmed for 2016.

Over the next couple of weeks you will probably spot large groups of swallows perching on roof-tops and telephone wires and ‘chattering’ to each other.

There has been a dramatic increase in gun crime in Dublin over the past four decades, with greater use of handguns resulting in more deaths.

*plummet*