O’Driscoll’s 45th try moved Ireland to 17-9 in the second half and with players all stepping up tot he mark the space was created for Keith Earls to celebrate his 24th birthday with two-tries. O’Gara added four penalties and two conversion to take his points tally to 16. Sexton on as a replacement for O’Gara also added a conversion and a penalty.

A front row of Healy, Best and Ross was more than a match for the expected struggle in the scrum and the back row of O’Brien, Ferris and Heaslip were dominant throughout.

The unlucky player of the night was Tommy Bowe, who had a first half try disallowed and went so very close to scoring in a frenzied second half!

Whoever loses the Pool D clash faces a trip home, but that won’t force the Ireland management’s hand into risking O’Connell. If Ireland win there’s likely to be a quarter final against Wales and possibly more…

O’Connell has resumed running and hopes to make a return to training tomorrow.

Conor Murray and Ronan O’Gara ran through the session with most of the front-liners suggesting that they will start ahead of Sexton and Reddan. Trimble is also pushing for a starting place but you would expect the team to remain largely unchanged from the starting lineup against Australia.

Sexton finally scored his third penalty (what is it about this ball and kickers in this RWC?) and the score remained at 3-0 until the dying seconds of the first half  when Tommy Bowe crossed the line after taking an inside pass from Sexton to score the 17th of his Irish career. Sexton converted to end the half 10-0.

Paterson was to kick the Eagles first points of the second half, only to see Best peel off from a maul in the 56th minute and charge over the line, then O’Gara miss the conversion.

Three minutes later quick ball (finally) through the Irish backline saw O’Driscoll passing back inside for Bowe to get a second, this time O’Gara found his mark to get the extras.

Ireland’s attention focussed on what could be a very lucrative bonus point if they could find it….

However, a loose pass from Gordon D’Arcy allowed Paul Emerick to intercept and race for the line to score a try for the Eagles.

O’Driscoll will return after missing the last two defeats against Scotland and France in what seems to be an almost full strength Ireland squad.

D’Arcy gets his first game of the season, moving Earls from centre on to the left wing. O’Brien will move to number six with Heaslip and O’Connell to start. Stephen Ferris returning after a serious knee injury in January is named in the replacements.

The hotly contested half-back partnership is made up of Sexton and O’Leary this time.

Kearney is not included after his groin injury at the weekend but should be back in training by the end of the week. Bowe has been involved in full training but sits out this one.

With Kidney naming his squad on Monday this is the last chance to make an impression for some players, as you’d have to expect Kidney to have most of the team already inked in.

The 25 year old named man of the match scored 28 points including two tries to bring Leinster back from the jaws of defeat, essentially they didn’t play in the first half as Northampton tore into them taking a 22-6 half time lead.

20 points in 28 minutes all from Sexton sealed the deal.. Now if only he can perform like that on the international stage!

It is thought that Heaslip has signed an improved deal in the region of €400,000-€500,000 per year with incentives, and Sexton’s deal is likely to be in the region of €350,000-€400,000, including incentives.

O’Driscoll turned 32 a fortnight ago and is thought to have accepted a reduction in his basic package.

There are tax breaks for players remaining in Ireland along with more lucrative commercial opportunities which are thought to have helped value an Irish deal more highly than French valuations for these players.

Declan Kidney must be relieved to see pen on paper ahead of the games beginning for this years Six Nations

Parks kicked a penalty in the sixth-minute after O’Connell was penalised for not rolling away, four minutes later Sexton showed pace and innovation to setup O’Driscoll for the first try of the game. Sexton converted to put 7-3 on the scoreboard inside 12 minutes.

Scotland bounced back with Morrison passing to Beattie who ran through tackles from Murphy, O’Connell and D’Arcy to touch down in the corner, Parks failed to convert.

With half an our on the clock, Sexton sent a 45m penalty wide whilst Parks was more successful with his 37th minute penalty after O’Callaghan failed to roll away. Parks then landed a drop goal from 35m out in the last minute of the half, leaving it 14-7.

After the break Sexton was again off-target and Parks wasn’t putting the Scottish 17-7 up. Sexton finally got a straightforward kick in front of the posts before he was taken off for O’Gara.

Parks unusually missed a penalty before Bowe worked a great third try of the tournament with O’Driscoll and D’Arcy. O’Gara converted from the tight angle putting it all square at 17-17.

With seven minutes to play Parks slotted a penalty and O’Gara levelled again through a penalty.

Parks put a long kick deep into Irish territory to put Rob Kearney under massive pressure, opting to run the ball out as Simon Danielli and Nick de Luca closed him down before being penalised for holding on in the tackle.

Parks stepped up, slowly, very slowly to boos from the Irish crowd to convert a winning penalty from the left touchline.

O’Driscoll’s 100th game was a win, but not particularly entertaining!

An early setback for Ireland had us worried when D’Arcy limped off with a leg injury, fortunately in-form Kearney came off the bench. Only for Wales to put themselves down to 14 men with Byrne sin-binned for killing the ball.

Keith Earls cored in the 23rd minute thanks to O’Driscoll’s offload, and O’Leary followed it up with one of his own shortly after on the half hour mark. Earls got a second in the second half to close out Wales who’s entire 12 points were Stephen Jones penalties.

Had it not been for Sexton’s poor kicking form Wales would have lost by a lot more (I know we need to get him ready for the World Cup but this is getting silly!), he missed three of his five first-half attempts including a straightforward conversion. He made up for some it with a late drop-goal.

In a soggy Twickenham Ireland got it just about right! The line-out fired, and the scrum looked improved. Sexton came off not early enough in our book, never have we screamed so much for O’Gara to enter the field of play, when he did he put a sublime kick in for Tommy Bowe’s try.

Wikinson had just kicked into the lead for England at 16-13 when Bowe again broke the defensive line from the lineout to score his second.

Earls also got try, with Dan Cole getting England’s only try of the game.

Ireland and England both now have 4 points, two behind France

Wallace has spent most of his rugby at inside centre for both Ulster and Ireland in recent seasons and will partner Stringer with 91 caps. This should give Stringer some game time if anything happens to Sexton or O’Gara.