Don’t worry, I’m not expecting sympathy. The real cost of relegation comes when you see a flood of staff members with their lives packed into cardboard boxes that they pack into banged up old cars

Everybody accepts that the accused, and even the convicted, have the right to legal support, writes Terry Prone.

Even on the back of a painful hiding, one game into a new campaign might seem a bit too early to be talking about crisis.

HEINEKEN CUP POOL 6:

It’s a tragedy O’Grady never really got the time and space he needed in a management job

The signals being sent out to prospective whistleblowers are obvious, writes Michael Clifford.

In sport and in life, everybody wants to be like Eddy Merckx – the outrageously gifted Belgian cyclist whose natural talent and extra-terrestrial strength allowed him to brush aside his rivals with contemptuous ease.

ANOTHER summer gone by without me swimming with dolphins. All I can ever boast is swimming with jellyfish.

Northampton 7 Leinster 40

Ahead of the international trials in Ireland, Paul D’Alton goes sheep-herding with Con McGarry and his dog, Megan

If Jamie Heaslip had suggested before this Champions Cup semi-final that Leinster’s semi-final clash with Toulon would be akin to a boxing match, it may have conjured an image of a mismatch in the eyes of many observers.

Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) v Kilmallock (Limerick) Today: Croke Park, 2pm TV: TG4

Here is the thread of the game. As Waterford supporters streamed onto the turf in Semple Stadium yesterday after a comprehensive victory in the NHL final, a trim gent in his thirties threw his arms around a player in white and blue.

TIPPERARY 1-15 CORK 3-8: Another giant step forward in the development of Tipperary football as Tommy Toomey’s young charges foiled Cork’s five-in-a-row bid to secure the county’s second Munster U21 title.

Middlesbrough 0 West Ham 1

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho today insisted that any punishment from the Football Association for his comments concerning Alex Ferguson or the antics of his players would be unacceptable and unfair.

Martin O’Neill’s men squandered a golden opportunity to lay their hands on a precious first Champions League away victory after 10-man Anderlecht snatched the three Group A points in the Stade Constant Van Den Stock despite having captain Glen de Boeck sent off.

The fans stood in the stands and cheered and whistled as Colin Montgomerie swept up the 18th fairway in the light drizzle of Royal Lytham & St Annes.