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

DAVID PIPE is intending to run Great Endeavour in the Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup at Cheltenham this weekend.

Even Socrates regretted not getting to close the deal with the most beautiful woman in the world. But as he said, it can happen, and he could always say he at least got to dance with her

TIGER WOODS thinks his late father would have been proud of him for finally ending more than two years without a win — and especially the way he did it.

TWO out-halves with very contrasting memories of the World Cup come face to face at Bath’s Recreation Ground on Sunday afternoon and Jonathan Sexton will be hoping for a reversal in fortunes.

I NCONSISTENCY surrounding the issuing of yellow cards is fast becoming an issue in the Heineken Cup and impacting on the performance and results of teams across the board.

DARREN FLETCHER put his own health at risk in order to help the Manchester United cause before finally admitting defeat yesterday.

BRIAN O’DRISCOLL may be out of the game for the foreseeable future with injury but it is the “missed opportunity” that was the Rugby World Cup rather than any missed game time which will go down as his greatest regret of 2011.