#rugby-politics

#rugby-politics

Murphy expressed frustration over a spectator's comment during his match, stating, 'Just a friendly reminder that if you're sat on the front row in the Crucible and I play a shot that may not work for a particular reason, it's probably best not to say s*** shot' out loud. I've got ears.'

The fallout from Munster's decision to hire Chiefs coach Roger Randle continued over the weekend with a number of members of the club's Commercial Advisory Board (CAB) resigning from their positions.

Unfortunately, our application for a period of grace to fulfil the required criteria for our SFA bronze licence was declined by the SPFL board. On this basis we are not eligible to participate in the pyramid play-off competition.

Working-class footballers lost hundreds of millions to financial mis-selling, but the V11 group is still being pursued for tax on money they never had.

Kilkenny found their form in Salthill, reeling off the last four scores without reply, showcasing the scoring prowess of Eoin Cody and TJ Reid.

Dublin would derive nutritional value from Leinster Championship success, with Wicklow first on the menu.

"You are playing in front of a sold-out crowd at Allianz, you have just won a World Cup, and the next minute you are back playing over the road in front of a slither of the amount of people."

Martin Johnson, England's World-Cup winning skipper, believes there is no huge mystery to being a great captain. If you haven't got a good team it doesn't matter how good a captain you are. To suggest that calm, sure-footed leadership is irrelevant in top-level sport, however, is another matter. Even the greatest sides need decisive, intelligent direction, regardless of who supplies it.

Henry Pollock has been such a prominent figure in the recent rugby landscape that we had to double check that Saturday will be the first time he has started a game for England. Such has been the meteoric rise of the effervescent 21-year-old, it's easy to forget that up to now, each of his seven Test caps has come from the bench. That will all change against Ireland at Twickenham this weekend.

As the official social media services supplier for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Meta has got the ball rolling by drumming up early enthusiasm ahead of the tournament, opening the eyes of fans to the role technology can play in heightening their appreciation of the game. A campaign developed by BETC Paris, Havas Play and Unit9 uses the event to showcase what the metaverse can do, with Meta harnessing its full suite of apps from Facebook to Instagram and WhatsApp to thrust spectators on to the field in virtual and augmented reality.

In one of sport's weirder coincidences, England are about to play must-win games against Scotland in both rugby and cricket on the same day. The forecast 3C temperatures for the Calcutta Cup encounter may be cooler than in Kolkata appropriately the venue for the T20 World Cup group fixture but a white-hot contest inside a chilly Murrayfield can be absolutely guaranteed.