Sunderland boss Steve Bruce backed Darren Bent’s claims on a place in England’s World Cup squad after seeing him fire Arsenal to their first defeat in 14 games.

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 0

Republic of Ireland defender Richard Dunne is coming to terms with being “cheated” out of a place in next summer’s World Cup finals.

Bacary Sagna expects a “crazy game” when France travel to Dublin to face the Republic of Ireland in the first leg of their World Cup qualifying play-off on Saturday.

Donoughmore (Cork) 2-6 Carnacon (Mayo) 1-8

Kerins O’Rahillys (Kerry) 1-11 Clonakilty (Cork) 0-10

Bray Wanderers 1 Bohemians 1

Fernando Torres returned to Liverpool’s Melwood training complex today after a whistle-stop trip to Valencia for a second opinion on his groin injury.

Biarritz 41 Glasgow 20

Wolves 2 Crystal Palace 2

Ospreys 17 Leicester 12

Manchester United’s controversial £504m bond issue has been over-subscribed.

Saints coach Jim Mallinder is confident Northampton can come away from Munster with the win that would send them through to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals at Thomond Park on Friday night.

Virgin Atlantic blew the whistle on an alleged price-fixing cartel with British Airways because it wanted to win the race for immunity and save itself millions of pounds, a British court heard today.

Four British Airways executives fixed the price of fuel surcharges in a secret deal with Virgin Atlantic, a court heard today.

Chelsea 7 Stoke 0

Hibernian 0 Rangers 1

Sligo 0-19 Antrim 1-11

Limerick 1-16 Waterford 1-14

Hull 0 Sunderland 1