A scintillating goal from Neymar drew him level with Romario in Brazil’s all-time top scorers list as they cruised to a 3-0 win against Austria yesterday.

England’s players have been warned about the “truly devastating consequences” of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) given its prevalence in the area around their World Cup base.

All good things come to an end and for Rob Kearney, losing for the first time in 15 months and 13 Tests may be no bad thing for a core of this Ireland squad so accustomed to winning.

This time last year, David Pocock was working on a farm in his native Zimbabwe, taking a break from rugby and relying on his cousin to text him with Wallabies updates.

Belgium’s Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 WRC) edged out champion, Sebastien Ogier (Ford Fiesta WRC), on the final stage to win round seven of the World Rally Championship, Rally Italia Sardegna, by just seven-tenths of a second.

It starts officially tomorrow although celebrations have been underway for a little while. The 30th anniversary of Ireland’s Euro 88 adventure. Specifically, tomorrow marks 30 years since Ray Houghton’s goal.

Greg Feek has taken a rather different route than the rest of Ireland’s touring party to reach Australia, yet two months in to a new career in Japan, the scrum coach could not be happier with his lot.

Tottenham 4 Stoke 0: Harry Kane’s emergence in the Tottenham Hotspur side inspired chants of ‘He’s one of our own’, with the player accorded cult hero status almost immediately.

Ronan O’Gara served as chaperone when Conor Murray stepped blinking into the white heat of Test rugby on an August night in Bordeaux six years ago and the Munster scrum-half has returned that favour more than a few times since.

They sat side by side on the same subs bench on a summer’s evening long ago, father and son far from the madding crowd in the English countryside.

Whether you’re a French fan or an Irish fan, this weekend you are going to have to fork out to enjoy the Six Nations clash in Dublin.

Two weeks since the last round of Six Nations games and Ireland’s annihilation of Italy in Rome all but ensured that the vacuum would be at least partly filled by the sort of big picture debate that is only ever held in the absence of any live distractions.

Donnacha Ryan is, as is often the case, in jovial form as he parks his considerable frame into what looks like the smallest of chairs at Carton House. Just named in Ireland’s second row for today’s Six Nations battle with France, the conversation is cheery and wide-ranging.

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IN a world often too glum, in a world where scepticism is increasingly a plausible reaction to nearly any suggestion, we use escapism as a refuge. We use it as a safety valve so we might not, as Col Brandon threatened in Sense and Sensibility, run mad. 

Exotic, crazy, colourful Marrakesh, so many intriguing cultural experiences but for the cook it’s a brave new world of tagines, cous cous, pastilla, meschoi, briouts, tangia.

Leicester City could make another attempt to lure Martin O’Neill from the Republic of Ireland hotseat after sacking title-winning boss Claudio Ranieri 

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