The Morning Sports Briefing

Rugby: Six Nations

Irish centre Robbie Henshaw is relishing the challenge of facing England in the next Six Nations encounter and he's been fine tuning his partnership with Jared Payne by pitting his wits against his own Connacht team-mates back on familiar soil, in a full-on 50 minute training session.

The Irish camp have played down the absence of Tommy Bowe and Keith Earls from that open session yesterday, they say Jamie Heaslip remains the sole injury concern ahead of the visit of the English.

Heaslip was of course left with three broken vertebrae in his back after a knee from French second row Pascal Pape. France must sweat further his continued availability after his disciplinary case over the incident was adjourned until Thursday morning.

GAA: Shefflin’s future

He may be 36 but seek Henry Shefflin has yet to rule out a tilt at a possible 11th All-Ireland title with Kilkenny this summer. His performance last Saturday week, as Ballyhale eased past Gort to set up a St Patrick’s Day showdown against Limerick champions Kilmallock, proved age is merely a number – he scored 0-5, and earned himself the man-of-the-match award.

He says he will make his decision on retiring a couple of weeks after the All-Ireland club final in March.

Soccer: Keane’s longevity

Robbie Keane has confirmed he is in talks with LA Galaxy about a new contract that would extend his MLS career well beyond the end of this coming season with the 34-year-old reiterating his desire to play on for another four or even five years.

Cristiano Ronaldo somewhat answered his critics last night, putting his so-called post-Ballon d'Or hangover to bed with a goal and an assist as Real Madrid beat German team Schalke 2-0 in their away first-leg of the Champions League last 16.

Meanwhile the man who was blocked from boarding a Paris Métro train by racist Chelsea supporters on Tuesday night has called for those involved to be jailed - he says he was ashamed to tell his wife and children about the incident.

Golf: Ryder Cup

Europe's newly confirmed 2016 Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke says there won't be any major changes to the template left by his predecessor Paul McGinley although he will bring his own brand of emotion and passion to the task.

In Ireland’s group in the Cricket World Cup, our next opponents United Arab Emirates were defeated by four wickets by Zimbabwe.

What to watch out for:

In the early hours of this morning the Central Appeals Committee upheld IT Carlow's appeal and overturned the decision to award the Fitzgibbon Cup fixture between IT Carlow and Mary I to Mary I - therefore today's two scheduled quarter finals have been postponed.

While in the Europa League Liverpool plot their side-route into next year's Champions League against Beskitas at Anfield.

UTV from 7.45pm

Whilst in California the Northern Trust Open begins today where Sergio Garcia will begin his season.

Sky Sports 4 from 10pm