Donal Lenihan on the three areas Ireland need to master in today’s World Cup quarter-final

Four years on from that famous defeat in Brighton, and South Africa are again playing second-fiddle to Japan.

France secured their place in the World Cup quarter-finals with a 23-21 victory over Tonga at the Kumamoto Stadium.

The scenarios in Pools A and B may already became clearer ahead of Ireland’s kick-off against Scotland yesterday but asking South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus about quarter-final permutations following this defeat was a fool’s errand.

Today’s meeting between New Zealand and South Africa will be their 99th.

Hard to believe four years have elapsed since Ireland’s painful World Cup quarter final exit at the hands of Argentina in Cardiff. As Joe Schmidt enters the twilight of his spectacularly successful reign at the helm of Irish rugby, the next six weeks will shape the epilogue of a brilliant period for Irish rugby.

It was just one week before South Africa played Ireland in Aviva Stadium in November 2017 that Rassie Erasmus bid an emotional farewell to Munster.

Ireland’s win over Italy at the weekend told us little about the eventual destination of the Webb Ellis trophy this year – for that you had to look to the other side of the world.

New Zealand centre Sonny Bill Williams has hit out at media claims that he is "under pressure" to make the All-Blacks squad for the Rugby World Cup.

New Zealand remain hopeful that Brodie Retallick will be available for Rugby World Cup selection after the lock dislocated his shoulder during the Rugby Championship clash against South Africa on Saturday.

The All Blacks may have suffered a major blow to their chances of retaining the Rugby World Cup after influential lock Brodie Retallick left today's 16-all draw with South Africa with an injury.

South Africa produced late drama to hold New Zealand to a 16-16 draw in their Rugby Championship clash at Wellington.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen named four uncapped players in an extended 39-man squad for the Rugby Championship as he looks to finalise his World Cup selections over the next six weeks.

Designing and building your dream house should not be the preserve of only the rich and famous, says Kieran McCarthy.

Dig around through the entrails of Leinster’s last ten years of European triumphs and there are surprisingly few threads connecting them all.

It is a measure of the quality in play at tomorrow’s Heineken Champions Cup final that there is so much mutual respect between the two teams, respect borne out of the shared experience of a successful British & Irish Lions tour two summers ago.

Ireland and New Zealand’s exchange of coaching know-how is set to continue with Sean Dancer swapping hemispheres to take on the role as Green Army head coach.

With the kids at school on Monday, Jessica and I went walkabout to a spot intriguingly called Taylors Mistake. Apparently, a ship captain with a bottle of rum too many ran aground around Godley’s Head looking for Summer Bay.

For 23 years the name Crusaders was a source of nothing but pride in Christchurch, the uncontroversial identity of a franchise that claims, with some justification, to be the most successful non-national professional rugby team in the world.

Between the idle chatter about France and the build-up to the weekend’s nicely poised Champions Cup quarter-finals, one of the most important rugby stories slipped through unnoticed this week.

Take a former Test player with an evolving philosophy about what it means to be a coach, send him on a mission to absorb the best a champion Super Rugby side can offer and then bring it back to an enabling environment with players just as eager to embrace anything that can help them develop their game.

Bertram Allen returns to the scene of a memorable victory this weekend as he lines out in Bordeaux at the final showjumping qualifier in the European division of the 2018/2019 FEI World Cup series.

The year is getting off to a familiar start for Irish riders based in the US as the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) commences in Wellington, Florida today and continues for three months.

A second win over the All Blacks in the last three meetings is a significant enough achievement for Ireland but what is even more satisfying is the team which got the job done this time around.

The last time the reigning Grand Slam champions dared to beat the All Blacks, they followed up by winning the World Cup within a matter of months, writes Peter Jackson.

Chicago, November 2016 will forever be seared into the minds of Irish rugby supporters, for obvious reasons. The place and time of a first victory over New Zealand in 111 years has that effect and it was a moment to be savoured.

For 13 years, Brian O’Driscoll and Tana Umaga have each been fielding questions on “that tackle” for an audience fascinated by the events of the Lions’ first Test against New Zealand which defined the relationship between the two great midfield warriors.

It mightn’t be the Six Nations but in a World Cup year, the autumn series of Tests is what GAA fans feel at the start of the national leagues every spring, writes Ronan O'Gara

Watching New Zealand and South Africa there was that very rare feeling - it lasted only a few minutes, like viewing the aurora borealis, where you are mouthing quietly to yourself: this is unbelievable, writes Ronan O’Gara.

This delicately poised Test series in Australia represents the best possible preparation Ireland could have hoped for a year out from the World Cup, writes Donal Lenihan.

Andy Farrell is hoping the pain of defeat to Australia will reveal the size of Ireland’s heart for the battles ahead on this tour Down Under.

 

The man who rules European rugby astride a turbo-charged zimmer frame is contracted to make his last stand next year at the age of 37, assuming he lasts that long.

Ronan O’Gara says this Ireland team should want to complete the Grand Slam, then go to Australia in the summer and win a Test series down there.

There were some positive moves for Irish riders in the latest Longines rankings issued by the world governing body, the FEI, yesterday.

Ireland’s show jumpers could be in line for a notable treble as they tackle the Wellington Nations Cup this weekend during week eight of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida.

“You don’t win nations cups without jumping clear rounds and we didn’t jump enough of them,” said Michael Blake after he had seen the Irish show jumping team he managed fall short of repeating last year’s success in Ocala, Florida on Sunday evening.

Ireland has two show jumping teams in action this weekend for the first of this year’s nations cup fixtures. Michael Blake takes charge of affairs for the five-star meeting in Ocala, Florida, while Taylor Vard will be overseeing matters at Abu Dhabi’s five-star contest in the UAE.

There’s hardly a dressing room or workplace or TED talk you’ll come across these days that does not go on about ‘culture’ and ‘values’.

The recent cold snap afflicting the US has lifted just in time for the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) which begins today at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida. 

That drawn series was undoubtedly my rugby highlight of the year, writes Donal Lenihan

Like Ronan O’Gara, Welsh rugby coach Alistair Rogers understood the maxim about travel broadening the mind, says Brendan O’Brien. 

As he reflects on his latest honour, newly-crowned Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland Player of the Year Conor Murray is also wary of the dangers of admiring his work for too long.