Portsmouth’s £2.3m (€3.3m) record signing Diomansy Kamara has been ruled out for six weeks with the severe knee injury he sustained in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Manchester United.

British rural affairs minister Alun Michael ran the gauntlet of pro-hunting demonstrators as he arrived for a conference in London today.

Arsenal managed to find a breakthrough against a resilient Charlton as Arsene Wenger’s side aim to continue setting the pace in the Barclays Premiership.

George Best is not ruling out the possibility of Northern Ireland ruffling England’s feathers when they meet in a World Cup qualifier at Old Trafford on Saturday.

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY 19 OLD BELVEDERE 16

Connacht 14 Gwent Dragons 32

Corner forward Paddy Bradley was the toast of Derry this evening as he hit 3-9 in his side’s 5-17 to 0-4 defeat of luckless Waterford in Ballinascreen.

Sebastian Coe admitted today he had a “mountain to climb” as he carried out his first official engagement as chairman of London’s 2012 Olympic bid.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been hit with a major defensive headache today after the FA delivered its judgement on the ugly scenes at Old Trafford last month.

Defender Sol Campbell has dismissed the tunnel fracas involving both sides during England’s 0-0 draw against Turkey in Istanbul last night as nothing more than “handbags”.

worldcup.ie's Tokyo diarist Carrie Tighe celebrated Ireland's draw with Cameroon and ended up dressing John Salako as a Leprechaun and drinking with David Beckham's mum and dad.

Canada 26 Scotland 23

Howard Wilkinson has admitted that he under-estimated the task ahead of him when he took over at Sunderland.

Ryan Giggs finished off Wes Brown’s dangerous cross with clinical efficiency to give injury-hit Manchester United the interval lead against Parma in Amsterdam tonight.