FRANCE coach Raymond Domenech has restored Patrick Vieira to the captaincy following the retirement of Zinedine Zidane.

Austin Healey will fly to Australia tonight as World Cup injury cover for England.

Toulouse and Northampton Saints will play their Heineken Cup quarter-final on April 12 in the 36,500 capacity Stadium Municipal de Toulouse.

England’s Chelsea pair John Terry and Ashley Cole will both miss this week’s World Cup qualifier away to Belarus because of injury.

FRANCE central midfielder Benoit Pedretti was yesterday ruled out of the World Cup qualifiers against Ireland and Cyprus next month.

Catch up on this morning's headlines...

Pele has called on world governing body FIFA to ban defending teams setting up walls after conceding free-kicks close to the box.

World Cup organisers have admitted that the deadline for completing two of the five stadia being built for the 2010 finals in South Africa is “very, very tight”.

Joe Schmidt fears Canada could prove "an incredible banana skin" for an Ireland side chasing their best-ever World Cup return.

They think it’s all Eau-ver.... pop beauty Rachel Stevens is reaching some new top notes by launching a World Cup fragrance.

Film director Spike Lee has joined the board of the USA Bid Committee for the 2018/2022 World Cups, the United States Soccer Federation announced on Monday.

And that includes World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, which has been stunned by the huge numbers being racked up in terms of television viewers and social media engagements as well as the good old-fashioned barometer of jersey sales.

Shay Given is to hold talks with Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni about coming out of international retirement.

FORMER Wallabies coach Alan Jones has joined the growing chorus Down Under backing England to win the World Cup.

CLIVE WOODWARD yesterday issued a confident and upbeat message to English fans ahead of tomorrow’s World Cup showdown with France at Telstra Stadium.

THE coaches of Uruguay and Ghana last night brushed aside conspiracy theories claiming English referee Howard Webb was replaced as the man in charge of today’s World Cup quarter-final because of the controversy over Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal.

The Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic wanted his country's special needs side to have the chance to do what he could not - play in a World Cup this summer.