Victor Costello

The plan was to sit back until the last 300m and then kick blindly to the line. There was no sure or best way of winning, only the dream way, and when(...)

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it is likely to be the attitude of Andy Farrell and his assistant coaches when he unveils his starting XV and replacements(...)

Andy Farrell’s 45-man squad, his first as the new Ireland coach in succeeding Joe Schmidt, offers a selection of the old and the new, many borrowed fr(...)

Leinster never needed to lose a final to learn how to win a final. There had been enough suffering by the time we got to Murrayfield in 2009. Leo Cul(...)

Jamie Heaslip will walk on the pitch before Leinster v Saracens. “Mick Dawson told me this morning they are at just south of 50,000.” Imagine they b(...)

It could be a cautionary tale about professional rugby. Then again Jamie Heaslip follows Luke Fitzgerald and Kevin McLaughlin, two of the more recent (...)

Michael Cheika, day one in Leinster, made Jamie Heaslip his number eight. Des Dillon was primed to be Victor Costello’s successor, but Cheika saw an u(...)

It began with a rumour out of St Munchin’s College in Limerick. Brendan Foley’s son. Shannon had him for their glory years – the four-in-a-row. And th(...)

The first time I played against Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley was in 1989. I was at number eight for St Clement’s and Anthony was at number eight for St Munch(...)

Two years after the power struggle to rule European rugby, where the English and French clubs so obviously prevailed, what are we left with? This. Th(...)