WHEN a GAA president expresses his confidence clubs will identify their troublemakers you know he’s not putting his hand out to be slapped.

LAST Thursday, some of the most powerful men in all of Irish sport met in Leinster House.

MARTIN JOHNSON has described the damning fallout from England’s World Cup campaign as “one of the worst things I have experienced in the game”.

LEINSTER’S much-vaunted strength in depth served them well earlier this season but it will be put to the test again in their RaboDirect Pro12 clash at the Stadio Comunale do Monigo against Benetton Treviso this afternoon.

IT’S not that they hate each other, they just hate to lose to each other.

Yes, says Larry Ryan. No, says Liam Mackey

GUS POYET says he would die in defence of his fellow Uruguayan Luis Suarez against the Football Association’s charge of racist abuse. The Brighton & manager is not a man given to understatement.

WHEN it comes to clinching an argument in football, the traditional line of last resort is “show us yer medals”.

WHO would be a hooker with Munster? With Jerry Flannery out indefinitely and Mike Sherry missing for the next six to eight weeks, it’s not been a good time for the doughty men whose skills are so vital at set-piece time.

TOMMY BOWE has urged Ireland’s ‘Golden Generation’ not to hang up their international boots following their World Cup heartbreak.

THE Sonny Bill Williams publicity machine was working hard during the Rugby World Cup — with the All Black topping player searches using Google during the tournament.

JUST before she left her seat on flight EY460, the Australian woman who had been sitting beside me for 13 hours from Abu Dhabi welcomed me to her native city.

FRESH from his remarkable 11 strokes victory in front of his home fans in Castellon on Sunday, Sergio Garcia has moved down the coast in western Spain to Valderrama where the €3m Andalucia Masters gets underway tomorrow.

MUNSTER training might have had a stellar appearance to it yesterday but look a little closer and the creases on coach Tony McGahan’s furrowed brow were all too evident.

MUNSTER coach Tony McGahan yesterday moved to separate the fact from the fiction in terms of the province’s reasons for not splashing the cash on a pre-World Cup Hollywood signing.

I AM now officially parking RWC 2011.

ESTONIA coach Tarmo Ruutli has been rewarded with a new contract for taking his side to the Euro 2012 play-offs against the Republic of Ireland.

SUNDAY’S World Cup final was a pleasure to behold for many reasons, not least the honesty of endeavour and the sportsmanship on display from both sides.

DEFLATED French hooker Dimitri Szarzewski claimed his side were “playing 15 against 16” in their Rugby World Cup final defeat against New Zealand due to the passionate home support in Auckland.

SOME of Leinster’s big names will return for Friday’s RaboDirect Pro12 meeting with Edinburgh at Murrayfield (kick-off 7.30pm).