Ireland’s win against Wales last weekend proved something very important. The golden generation was not a once off, writes Steve Neville.

Vern Cotter has extended his Scotland contract until 2017 in a major show of faith from the Scottish Rugby Union ahead of the World Cup.

Ireland’s teamsheet in Cardiff last Saturday held within it no shortage of heart-warming subplots.

Mike Prendergast knows France pretty well by now. 

Still exhibiting the nonchalance which typified his stellar playing career, it says much for the FAI’s €5m hush deal with Fifa that it makes Ruud Gullit fume.

In part four of our special on rural Ireland. Caroline O’Doherty visits O’Gonnelloe in Co. Clare.

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

Millstreet International Horse Show begins in earnest today and the numbers tell the story: Over 6,000 entries, 1,300 stables, 110 competitions, 10 countries represented, and over €200,000 in prizemoney.

Tiger Woods has warned Rory McIlroy to be prepared for a tough week as he returns to action following an ankle injury to defend his PGA Championship title at Whistling Straits.

A nation will shed one giant tear come October when Paul O’Connell peels off an Ireland jersey for the last time, but the legendary lock is refusing to engage in the emotional build-up ahead of the Rugby World Cup that will bring the curtain down on his international career.

South Africans must be patient with the pace of transformation in the country’s national rugby side and will not be asking for more black players at the World Cup, sports minister Fikile Mbalula said yesterday.

Dave Foley, the genial 6’6”, 18-stone giant from Clonmel, laughs quietly at the suggestion he is now the “senior” second row in the Munster squad.

Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke believes Shane Lowry has a tough decision to make over his WGC-Bridgestone Invitational title defence in 2016 but is in no doubt the European Tour made the right decision not to sanction next year’s prestigious tournament.

The injury that rules Tommy O’Donnell out of the World Cup

A strange few days in many ways. New Zealand beaten for only the third time since lifting the 2011 World Cup, confirming you shouldn’t write off the Wallabies approaching next month’s global showpiece tournament.

The trimming has begun.

Karen Buckley had only been in Glasgow for a few months when she was brutally murdered by Alexander Pacteau.

Good evening. Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

His success in the WGC Bridgestone Invitiational has made Shane Lowry a bona fide star of world golf, but followers of the European Tour will remember when he burst onto the scene in 2009, winning the Irish Open as an amateur at Baltray.

Rory McIlroy could have taken a longer, safer route to the 18th green at Whistling Straits. Instead he bounded down a steep hill like a mountain goat who’d just spotted a particularly juicy clump of grass.