Today's other stories in brief

Keeping track of travel plans

WITH engineering works taking place on the London Underground, the District Line from West Kensington to Acton Town and Richmond will not be in operation today. The Piccadilly Line is also closed between Hammersmith and Acton Town. The District Line will be operating a full service to Wimbledon, where there are connections for the South West Train service to Twickenham. The Piccadilly Line will be running from Heathrow to Acton Town for a link to the District Line to Ealing Broadway and connections to the Central Line.

South West Trains will be running their enhanced match-day service to and from Twickenham and surrounding stations. The London Overground service will be running as normal from Richmond to North London between 6.45am and 11pm. Local buses will be running as normal, as will the RFU match-day shuttle buses to Richmond and Hounslow town centres.

Fitzgerald has reason to cheer

WHAT DOES an international player do after he makes his debut in the Six Nations? Luke Fitzgerald (above) found the perfect end to last Saturday's romp in Croke Park. The Irish centre/wing/fullback made a dash from the team hotel back to Stradbrook the day after Ireland had fallen to Wales. There his mates were celebrating a victory. Blackrock had beaten UCD on Sunday to win the under-20 league, a match in which Fitzgerald might well have been playing in had his career curve not taken him in another direction.

Irish women face tough challenge

IF IRELAND are facing into a tough game today in Twickenham, pity the women, who also face England at Sunbury.

Nothing, it seems, can stop England from completing the Grand Slam, their third in succession.

The table-toppers ran in 12 tries in a 76-point win against Italy, a team Ireland beat 19-0 in their opening game in St Mary's at Templeville Road.

England also registered a 31-0 victory over their nearest rivals and second-best team in the competition, France.

Clear at the top of the table with 196 points so far from four matches, England are averaging 49 points a match and conceding less than three per match.

Coach John O'Sullivan may well have an idea of how Eddie O'Sullivan might be feeling.

Battle grounds over the years

DUBLIN'S LANSDOWNE Road and London's Twickenham have a certain sacred resonance among Six Nations rugby fans.

But those grounds have not been the only ones to have hosted Six Nations matches between the green and white, as most people will know from last year's historical match at Croke Park.

The very first game between the two nations, back in December 1875, took place in a venue better known for cricket, Leinster's ground in Observatory Lane, Rathmines, where they played 20-a-side.

Having a catholic appetite for playing matches wherever welcome, Ireland also hosted England at Ravenhill Road in Belfast in 1924, the Mardyke in Cork in 1905 as well as Lansdowne Road and Croke Park.

England, however, have been altogether more loose with their arrangements and have faced Ireland in the Kennington Oval, Whalley Range, Rectory Field, Meanwood Road, Athletic Ground, Welford Road and, of course, Twickenham.

Geoghegan makes right move

SIMON GEOGHEGAN, the flying, fair-haired Irish wing of 1994, scored a memorable try against England at Twickenham that same year.

With decoy runners - including Conor O'Shea - taking a number of dummy lines through the centre, Geoghegan finally gathered and outpaced the England right wing Rory Underwood to score Ireland's try in the corner (the current Ireland under-20 coach, Eric Elwood, converted).

According to legend, the move, which started with the current Connacht coach, Michael Bradley, on the right-side touchline was called "O'Sullivan's."

It was named after the person who created the move, none other than the current Ireland head coach Eddie, who back then was part of the backroom staff.