MUNSTER assistant coach Anthony Foley has described the knee injury to veteran international flanker David Wallace as ‘a personal tragedy.’

AS if things weren’t bad enough, our key Pool C World Cup rivals Australia produced their best performance in years to capture the Tri Nations on Saturday morning.

AUSTRALIA’S five-point win over New Zealand in the Tri Nations decider has left Robbie Deans with a number of selection dilemmas to sort through before the World Cup.

IT might be a little too soon to be circling the wagons but Andrew Trimble says Ireland’s World Cup squad are determined to stay positive.

DECLAN KIDNEY remains fiercely optimistic Ireland can enjoy a fruitful World Cup despite a succession of pre-season defeats and the loss of one of his most influential players.

AS if the physical pain of this final World Cup warm-up were not enough to bear for Ireland’s squad heading to New Zealand tomorrow, the mental anguish of a thorough going over by England threatens to be even more damaging.

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS claims to have no problem with the fact that, at 33, he is the same age as some of his players, and one of them, Frank Lampard says he does not feel threatened by the youngsters arriving almost daily at Stamford Bridge.

WE had our plans about what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go but circumstances overtook us, as they overtook quite a few people last Saturday.

IRELAND’S eventers will be hoping a good performance in today’s cross-country will push them up the leaderboard at the European Championships in Luhmühlen, Germany, having finished a poor eighth of 10 countries after the dressage phase.

THE squad is set, the seats on the plane to New Zealand have been allocated and all Ireland need now is to ensure there is no unwanted baggage travelling with them to the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

WORLD referees boss Paddy O’Brien is confident there’ll be no video howlers at the Rugby World Cup after firing off a memo instructing match officials to stay within IRB guidelines when calling on the man upstairs for a ruling.

AT last, the waiting is over. The Rugby World Cup squads have been announced and the players can get down to the business of fine-tuning their games for the challenges ahead.

ALEX FERGUSON has accused the FA of failing to acknowledge Manchester United’s status within the English game and treating the Old Trafford club “like s***”.

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS has warned Chelsea fans they may have to wait until after the international break to see Juan Mata in action for the club.

THE US space agency NASA should expect a thank you card from Stephen Ferris.

MARTIN JOHNSON views today’s Ireland game as the perfect launch-pad for England’s campaign in New Zealand, which begins against Argentina on September 10.

GEORDAN MURPHY goes into today’s final World Cup warm-up against England convinced both he and the Ireland squad are moving in the right direction ahead of the tournament in New Zealand.

DECLAN Kidney has poured cold water on concerns European player of the year Sean O’Brien could be ruled out of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup opener next month through injury.

DUBLIN are better positioned to deal with the hype going into this All-Ireland knock-out game against Donegal than when the counties met nine years ago, believes Ray Cosgrove.

IRELAND’S cricketers suffered an 11-run defeat to England in yesterday’s RSA Challenge one-day-international in Dublin.