Rhys Ruddock has been ruled out for Leinster. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

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• Ireland’s Rugby World Cup bid and GAA in Ulster both took a hit with news that planning permission for Casement Park’s redevelopment had been refused.
• Leinster’s injury list lengthened as it was confirmed that Rhys Ruddock is out for over a month.
• Tommy O’Donnell says that Munster ‘must improve’ and he knows where they should start.
• Former Dublin boss Anthony Daly has landed a new job with Limerick it was confirmed this evening.
• Roy Keane did not leave scorched earth behind him at Villa says Paul Lambert.

The Champions League draw in full. Champions League / Twitter Champions League / Twitter / Twitter

Away

• Manchester City will be the least happy of the Premier League clubs after drawing Barcelona in the Champions League last-16 stage. 
• The news was not much better for Celtic in the Europa League after they were paired with Italian giants Inter Milan.
• Dan Carter is taking the horse to France and making his way back to the northern hemisphere after next year’s World Cup.
• Kobe Bryant broke another of Michael Jordan‘s NBA records while you were sleeping last night.

On the record

Andy Lee is still basking in the glow of his world championship win. Raymond Spencer / INPHO Raymond Spencer / INPHO / INPHO

If I didn’t stop the fight there, if he had managed to hold and or get through that, I would have punched myself out. It seemed like forever [before the ref stopped the fight].

Ireland’s new world champion Andy Lee on just how relieved he was when Kenny Bayliss stopped his opponent during their world title bout on Saturday.

The best thing we shared

It’s an advert, yes, but Eurosport‘s promo for their sports coverage in 2015 is pretty slick:

Mongénéral / Vimeo

Where we were today

Murray Kinsella was making his way home from France but still had time to check out what the papers were saying about Clermont’s defeat of Munster in a totally original feature.

Elsewhere, Will Slattery was listening to Guy Easterby defend Leinster’s style of play at their weekly press conference while Fintan O’Toole was at the launch of the Leinster GAA O’Byrne, Walsh & Kehoe Cup competitions but they didn’t make him stand on the roof like these players.

Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

The fixture list

• Week 15 of the NFL wraps up in early hours of Tuesday morning as the hapless Bears host the equally awful Saints.

Showbiz, baby!

An Irish reporter got on the wrong side of Louis van Gaal yesterday:

“If two lads boxing the heads off one another isn’t a sport, I don’t know what is.”

Manchester City paired with Barcelona again as Arsenal and Chelsea to face French clubs

Ais Daly’s debut victory and the talking points from the UFC double-header