Rhys Patchell admits that he has endured “a challenging year” ahead of his return to the Wales Test team.

Rory Best has been struggling and, no, we don’t mean the line out.

Joe Schmidt makes his final trip to the Aviva Stadium this afternoon as he takes charge of Ireland on home soil for the 34th and last time.

Irish society is bankrupt, fears Pat Daly, who is heading up the new GAA ‘Going Well’ programme aimed at cultivating well-being among secondary school students.

Neutralise your impact on the environment and choose a holiday that is committed to sustainable tourism, writes Ciara McDonnell

Rebel county we may be, but Rebel Army we are not. In fact, looking at ourselves in the main sporting fields at present, “Southern Fried Chicken” would be a better description.

Had a thought this morning. If Joe Schmidt was offered a pass on tomorrow’s final World Cup warm-up game against Warren Gatland’s Wales in Dublin, would he take it?

Ireland supporters are about to discover whether their team’s trials and tribulations of the past few months will have been worth it when the World Cup squad gets put through its final paces before Japan at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow.

There’s many means of changing the mood music.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned through Trump and Brexit and any number of other modern misadventures then it must be the depressing truth that facts and logic come a distant second to raw emotion and an indignant sense of righteousness.

Ireland supporters will have breathed a little easier on Saturday night following this victory at the Principality Stadium.

These are the hours Joe Schmidt has been dreading.

A statement from his family said that he had suffered a spinal cord neck injury.

Andres Romero opened up a one-shot lead heading into the final round of the Omega European Masters but Ryder Cup stars Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy were well in contention in Switzerland.

Peter O’Mahony said his team had put some pride back in the Ireland jersey after he captained the side to a much-needed 22-15 victory over Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.

Jack Carty got the official prize, but who was your man-of-the-match?

Jacob Stockdale’s interception of a wayward Aaron Shingler offload on 28 minutes was expertly finished by the Ireland wing to notch his second try of the first-half and establish a 12-point cushion that allowed the Irish to release the pressure valve that had been tightening for the past week.

Simon Lewis looks at how Wales and Ireland shape up ahead of their World Cup warm-up.

Jack Carty turns 27 today. He has spent a long time proving himself but it is an age since he faced a test — with a small ‘t’ — like this.

Joe Schmidt believes just one more additional player on the plane to Japan would be enough to ease his selection headaches as he finalises his 31-man Ireland World Cup squad this weekend.