New Ireland head coach John Bracewell will seek a meeting with Boyd Rankin in a bid to persuade the England fast bowler to play for Ireland again.

The Walker Cup captain will not be there but Cormac Sharvin reckons the R&A selectors that come to Royal Dublin this week will be looking for fireworks from the home brigade when the Irish Amateur Open tees off today.

Former England manager Graham Taylor has insisted he would never have blocked black footballers’ path into the national team and denied that two Football Association members tried to cap numbers.

Leinster chairman John Horan has defended the province’s decision to keep the Dublin footballers in Croke Park.

Saturday’s Champions Cup final proved a far better game than anticipated in advance. 

Conor Murray believes Paul O’Connell will want his career to end with a bang rather than a whimper but that might not be for another year yet.

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique insists his side’s Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich is about far more than Pep Guardiola.

Cormac Sharvin will go into this week’s Irish Amateur Open Championship full of confidence after claiming a top-five finish at the prestigious Lytham Trophy over the weekend.

Toulon are after winning the European Cup for the third year in a row and owner Mourad Boudjellal has a cheque book which could sign any player in the world, but inside the dressing room Paul O’Connell is the one they want. 

Luke Fitzgerald will play no further part in Leinster’s season after undergoing shoulder surgery on the weekend. However, the province are confident that he will be fit for the World Cup.

Some of the more light hearted stories from around the world.

Maybe there will have to be a law against Toulon, one denouncing them as bad for business because they are too good for everyone else.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says Thierry Henry is “wrong” to claim Arsenal need to buy four new players and cannot win the title with striker Olivier Giroud.

Liverpool 2 QPR 1: With just one more Anfield performance to go in a career that marks him down as one of Liverpool’s greats, Steven Gerrard gave another reminder of just how badly he will be missed.

FLOYD Mayweather described the biggest fight of the generation as just another day at the office, and he was right.

Ireland centre Gordon D’Arcy has been given a handful of games to prove he is worth being given a World Cup swansong after announcing he will retire at the end of this autumn’s tournament in England.

Ireland is underachieving in sport tourism despite having the capacity to be a major global player, the Shannon Group European Sport Tourism Summit in Limerick has been told.

European Ryder Cup heroes Victor Dubuisson, Jamie Donaldson and Miguel Angel Jimenez have become the latest stars to confirm their plans to play Royal Co Down in two weeks as the entry deadline closed for this year’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

It may prove an omen that Cian O’Connor rides Good Luck in today’s Furusiyya Nations Cup at La Baule, France, but the Olympic bronze medallist believes the team has enough ability to create its own fortune.

Ireland’s senior women will lose coach Darren Smith after June’s Olympic qualifiers — regardless of whether they get to Rio or not.