ALEX FERGUSON saw Wayne Rooney help Manchester United into the fourth round of the FA Cup and insisted reports of a rift between manager and star player are greatly exaggerated.

THIERRY HENRY’s infamous handball did more than just cost Ireland a place in the last World Cup, according to the new edition of France’s best-selling travel guide.

TABLE-TOPPERS Leinster have named a close to full-strength team for today’s Rabo Pro-12 match against Cardiff.

OVER the years, Munster have learned some opponents should be shown more respect than others and Treviso enter that category at Thomond Park tonight in a hugely important RaboDirect Pro12 clash.

IT has been more of a restive than a festive season in the Premier League and, unless you’re a devotee of one of the big four or five, all the more welcome for that.

ROBERTO MANCINI claims it will take years for Manchester City to match Manchester United’s famous mental strength.

ARSENE WENGER believes Thierry Henry could deepen his legendary status at Arsenal after returning on a short-term loan deal from New York Red Bulls.

EGYPT, winners of the last three tournaments, will not be there when the African Cup of Nations begins in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in a fortnight. Neither will Cameroon, who won in 2000 and 2002.

THE boys were treated like men, and not just any men, but professional sportsmen.

ENGLAND’S new interim head coach Stuart Lancaster admitted his first job will be to “get the culture right” in the wake of the country’s World Cup fiasco.

MUNSTER received a rare fitness boost last night ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Heineken Cup group rivals Scarlets, while their hosts are hopeful young Wales star George North will overcome a leg injury.

PAUL O’CONNELL warned his squad not to limit their focus on Llanelli Scarlets’ World Cup players for tomorrow’s Heineken Cup clash.

MUNSTER boss Tony McGahan is looking to the players within the squad to fill the breach created by Doug Howlett’s season-ending injury before widening the search for replacements to continue the Heineken Cup campaign into the New Year.

CONOR MURRAY’S elevation to the Irish World Cup squad was one of the fairytale stories of the year and the talented scrum-half gives Munster clubmate Ronan O’Gara most of the credit for helping him integrate into the squad.

JERRY FLANNERY accepts that the outcome of a recent visit to an eminent German specialist will decide whether he will ever be able to resume his rugby career.

IRELAND hooker Rory Best has demanded maximum points from Ulster’s next two Heineken Cup fixtures with Aironi if the province is to repeat last year’s run to the quarter-finals.

IF you were in any doubt who calls the shots in professional rugby at present then events of the last two weekends should help to enlighten you.

SEAN O’BRIEN has dismissed the relevance of Bath’s poor domestic form ahead of their back-to-back Heineken Cup fixtures against Joe Schmidt’s reigning champions.

SOME people might like to knock the Late Late Show but its audience on a Friday night remains rock solid.

Jon Corzine has gone from a possible candidate for US Treasury Secretary to the man who presided over the fall of MF Global and the eighth-largest bankruptcy in American history, writes Michael Daly