Steve Neville (@SteveNeville_) and Peter McNamara (@PeterMcNamara_) look ahead to the World Cup final and discuss where it will be won. 

With the winter drawing in, flowers and other plants are taking their last chance at casting their seed in the hope of growing again next year.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

It is a list so illustrious, you don’t even have to use their first names.

Making the extraordinary feel routine is a trick only the greats can master, and while Rory McIlroy is favourite to win his third Race to Dubai crown in four years, Shane Lowry has a fast-track to the Ryder Cup in mind at this week’s Turkish Airlines Open.

Who is the star of this Germany team? It was goalkeeper Manuel Neuer who joined Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on a stage in January in Zurich when he came third in the Ballon D’Or vote for the world’s best player.

Sean St Ledger still hasn’t given up hope of an international recall...

England head coach Stuart Lancaster is convinced Sam Burgess will remain a rugby union player, despite speculation he will return to league rugby after the World Cup. Odds have been shortened on Burgess ending his cross-code adventure after only a year and one bookmaker has stopped taking bets, amid reports he is set to join Leeds Rhinos.

With Sunderland searching for a new manager following the departure of Dick Advocaat, a former occupant of the Wearside hotseat has pointed the finger at the Stadium of Light powers that be and suggested that had he been allowed to get on with the job, he might still be at the club.

Australia yesterday lost Michael Hooper, one of their two star opensides, for Saturday’s Pool A encounter with Wales in London, but blindside flanker Scott Fardy doesn’t give the impression of a guy who will lose sleep over the news.