Ireland

Ninth place semi-final: Ireland 52-26 Samoa

In a power-packed first-half performance that brought four tries for the forwards, front-rowers Ronan Kelleher and Peter Cooper crashed over from pick-and-goes before second-row Fineen Wycherley used all his 196cm frame to reach out and plant the ball down under the posts.

Having seen big second-row Theodore Solipo charge over from 30 metres, Samoa appeared to be building momentum as the half came to a close, but Ireland took advantage of Howard Tagoai’s yellow card for not retreating 10 to score on the stroke of half-time through Oisin Dowling.

Samoa U 20s pose a threat to Ireland

Captain Paul Boyle said Samoa is a big challenge for Ireland.

“They're going to be a good physical team and we're really looking forward to playing them. It's at the stage where if you lose you're in a relegation play-off, so it's a really, really big game for us and for Samoa.”

"I'm sure they've done a lot of preparation, but we're focused on our own game and getting our own performance right. There's a few aspects of our game which we haven't got right in the last few matches, so if we get them right we're confident going into it," Boyle said.

Republic of Ireland 1 Austria 1 Walters' late strike salvages vital point

With leaders Serbia facing Wales in a later kick-off on Sunday, Martin O'Neill's side needed just a point to - temporarily at least - move top of what is proving to be a tightly contested group.

And, despite a flat first-half performance, a late glut of pressure from the hosts resulted in Walters thumping home a deserved equaliser to cancel out Martin Hinteregger's opener.

Shane Duffy thought he had snatched a winner two minutes later, only for the referee to disallow the header for a foul by the defender, who led with a raised arm.

Ireland set to have first gay PM

The 38-year-old will become the first gay taoiseach and will also be the country's youngest ever leader.

Mr Varadkar beat his rival, Housing Minister Simon Coveney, with 60% of the votes to lead Fine Gael - the biggest party in the coalition government.

He will succeed Enda Kenny as leader of the centre-right party within weeks.

The former GP is the son of an Irish nurse and a doctor from India and much of the media coverage of his victory has focused on Mr Varadkar's background, age and sexuality.

Jones says England's World Cup plan is still on track

The Six Nations champions headed to Dublin in search of a record-breaking 19th Test victory only to barely fire a shot as they fell 13-9 to an Ireland side that could have won by much more.

England are attempting to arrange an additional fixture with the All Blacks at Twickenham in November, but media reacted with scorn to their failure to claim a place in history.

Among the words used to describe the display at the Aviva Stadium were "thuggish", "brain dead", "arrogant", "wrecking balls in chains" and "back to square one".

Ireland deny England grand slam and world record

Joe Schmidt's Irish team secured a top seeding for the 2019 World Cup draw as a try by lock Iain Henderson after 23 minutes proved the difference between the sides.

While the Eddie Jones coached England improved after being completely dominated in the first half, they failed to make a serious dent in the Irish defence.

England sealed victory in the tournament last week with a 61-21 thrashing of Scotland, but the Six Nations trophy will be awarded to a downcast English team, the third in 16 years to be denied a grand slam in Dublin on the final day of the tournament.

Wales end Ireland's Six Nations hopes

North had been warned about his form by defence coach Shaun Edwards in the build-up to the game and responded by demonstrating his quality and power as Wales scored three unanswered tries in a hard-worked win.

RNZ reports Wales led 8-6 at half time.

Jamie Roberts clinched the game with Wales' third try in the 78th minute.

Ireland's New Zealand coach Joe Schmidt said his side paid a high price for a yellow card handed to first five Johnny Sexton which saw Wales score 10 points in six minutes either side of half-time.

Ireland protests abortion ban on International Women's Day

Traffic ground to a halt in parts of Dublin Wednesday as women and abortion rights activists sang along to Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" during a raucous dance party on O'Connell Bridge.

After sundown, a second, separate demonstration -- also in protest of abortion rights -- commenced with Irish police estimating 10,000 to 12,000 people on the capital's streets.

Ireland overpower France to top Six Nations

Ireland, who last year beat all three southern hemisphere giants but suffered a surprise defeat in Scotland in their opening game of the championship, went ahead after 29 minutes through a converted try from halfback Conor Murray.

First-five Johnny Sexton, returning to the side after a spate of injuries, gave Ireland a 10-point lead with two penalties and a drop goal early in the second half.

The loss left France, on five points, in the bottom half of the table where they have finished every Six Nations championship for the past five years.

Three-try Woodman helps Black Ferns to big rugby win over Ireland

Centre Portia Woodman scored a hat-trick of tries as the Black Ferns eased past Ireland 38-8 in their rugby international in Dublin to complete their season unbeaten.

Fullback Selica Winiata also scored two tries and first five-eighth Kelly Brazier one in the Black Ferns' comfortable six-try win to make it three wins from three on their northern tour.

Prior to the tour-ending Dublin international, the Black Ferns had also beaten world champions England 25-20 in London and Canada 20-10 in Dublin.