ULSTER’S All Black World Cup winner John Afoa is relishing his provincial debut in today’s RaboDirect Pro 12 derby clash with Connacht at Ravenhill.

THE International Series has provisionally been given the go-ahead for 2013 and 2014 after the GAA and AFL’s chiefs met in the Gold Coast yesterday.

THERE were plenty of household names, old friends, familiar faces and League of Ireland veterans in the Aviva Stadium the other night for the launch of a new book about the FAI Cup.

WHEN we are asked to sum up what Alex has achieved at United, the simplest method is to travel back those 25 years and do as every student: ‘compare and contrast’.

TONIGHT’S RaboDirect Pro12 clash between Irish heavyweights Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium hardly needed a publicity spin to sell it to the rugby public.

CONNACHT out-half Niall O’Connor is looking forward to playing in Ravenhill again tomorrow night when he hopes to pull one over on his former Ulster colleagues in the RaboDirect PRO12.

SHANE JENNINGS took exception to the suggestion when it was put to him earlier in the week that the season really only starts tonight for Leinster and Munster but there is more than a grain of truth in such a line of thinking.

STEVE BRUCE has predicted Alex Ferguson’s all-conquering reign at Manchester United will never be bettered.

RABOBANK Pro12 officials will continue to schedule derbies such as tonight’s Leinster-Munster games a week before the first round of the Heineken Cup in order to give their teams the best chance of achieving European success.

SAM WARBURTON has admitted he got it wrong and insists there will be no hard feelings towards Alain Rolland after the Irish referee sent him off in the World Cup semi-final.

MANY elements combine to produce the unique chemistry of a Leinster-Munster fixture and one of the more fascinating in recent years has been the head-to-head rivalry between the province’s out-halves.

MUNSTER coach Tony McGahan has made no promises to front-line players ahead of tomorrow night’s RaboDirect Pro12 clash with arch-rivals Leinster.

ULSTER’S latest signing arrived at Belfast airport yesterday with a confident pep in his step.

SHAUN EDWARDS has left his position as head coach of Aviva Premiership side Wasps.

OUT for dinner in Melbourne the other night a journalistic colleague recalled the night he interviewed Roy Jones Jnr.

Cork’s ArtTrail festival of the visual arts tackles the subject of the National Interest in this year’s programme, says Carl Dixon

CLIVE WOODWARD has claimed the RFU has reduced England to a “laughing stock” and is doomed to make the same mistakes again as they seek to replace Martin Johnson.

IAN McGeechan believes the English RFU should take its time in appointing Martin Johnson’s successor as England manager.

A COUPLE of weeks ago, Joe Schmidt talked about the process of reintegrating his massive World Cup contingent and pointed out that it had taken three games for the kinks to be ironed out when his stars returned from a late summer break the season before.

CASTRES out-half Pierre Bernard has paid tribute to his opposite number Ronan O’Gara following Munster’s last gasp win in Toulouse on Saturday.