He knows better than anyone that he isn't out of the woods yet. Only the ultimate success every New Zealander has craved since 1987, winning the Rugby World Cup again, can transform Graham Henry from public enemy No 1 to national hero.

A major split has opened up within the Springboks coaching management team, sources close to South African rugby alleged last night.

Irish referee George Clancy followed his fellow countryman Alain Rolland into South Africa's bad books with his first performance in a Tri-Nations match, at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.

Ireland will host a training camp today for the players who were unavailable to tour Australia and New Zealand.

Denis Leamy feared for his future in rugby as he battled to come back from the devastating injury which sidelined him last season.

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Have the Springboks played into Australia's hands with their team for this morning's Tri Nations Test in Brisbane?

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers could face censure from officialdom after making critical comments about two Irish referees regarding the South Africans' opening Tri Nations matches.

ULSTER new boy Pedrie Wannenburg is raring to go.

He must wish now that he had never said them. Just two little words -- but will they come back to haunt Robbie Deans and ultimately condemn to failure his Australian coaching tenure?

Tommy Bowe is going back to Ulster for the start of the new Magners League season as his Welsh outfit Ospreys will begin the defence of their crown by travelling to Ravenhill on the opening weekend.

IRELAND out-half Ronan O'Gara believes that he might have been better served by sitting out Ireland's ill-fated tour to the southern hemisphere earlier this summer.

ULSTER have been given a golden opportunity to get their 2010/11 Heineken Cup campaign off to a winning start.

Friday October 8

MUNSTER have been handed the most difficult task of the Irish provinces on the opening weekend of the Heineken Cup as they face a trip cross-channel to face London Irish at the Madejski Stadium.

A strange, alien sighting was glimpsed in the skies above Wellington's Westpac stadium last Saturday night. Or rather, it was something that wasn't there that was so bewildering, so baffling.

So now we know it wasn't a fluke. And the challenge New Zealand's attacking game plan will present to every team in next year's World Cup has been spelled out in clear, exciting terms.

New Zealand 31

New Zealand have a problem ahead of tomorrow's second game of the 2010 Tri Nations competition.

Bakkies Botha caught an airplane out of New Zealand late on Sunday night, the start of a long flight home to South Africa in which shame and humiliation would have been the only dish on his personal menu.

In the land where they filmed 'The Lord of the Rings', the world champions certainly had rings run around them.

A world-champion performance, but not from the reigning world champions.

A certain arrogance suffuses the Springboks, from their coach through his squad. The world champions are good, and they know it. They don't like criticism or views that run counter to their own. They see their own opinions as the only ones that matter.

Whatever side Springbok coach Peter de Villiers announces for Saturday's eagerly awaited opening Test of the 2010 Tri Nations against New Zealand here in Auckland, one thing is already abundantly clear: South Africa can do the game an enormous favour by producing rugby in this tournament that sets the standards the world ought to be aiming at.

I remember the 1979 Irish rugby tour of Australia very well. It came at a time when I was beginning to take a big interest in rugby, so much so that I kept a scrapbook of the newspaper reports. And my interest was richly rewarded because it was the most dramatic of tours.