ST GEORGE’S, Grenada,  CMC – Stylish left-hander Darren Bravo fashioned his second half-century of the tour as West Indies fought off lethargy to beat Zimbabwe by five wickets and sweep the...

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• 'I didn't realise how much a part of my life it was'
• World champion has been practising with a takeaway driver

If Ronnie O'Sullivan pulls off an achievement he says would rank alongside his greatest in snooker, in returning to the sport after a year away to retain his world championship title, then his Chinese takeaway delivery driver will be entitled to an extra tip.

Claiming to have played "probably 10 days in nine months", he did admit that the man who delivers his dinner had been roped in for some practice sessions, during which he realised he was hitting breaks of 80 or 90 and thought: "Wow, I'm playing OK".

He said: "It was only practice and I wasn't playing anyone any good, just my mate who is a Chinese takeaway delivery driver. He delivers, that's all he does, he's not a snooker player. He comes round and plays me in the day, and then delivers Chinese food in the evening. His name is Alex and he's a good lad." His food, incidentally, is also "very good".

The 37-year-old has played only one competitive match since lifting the world championship in May – a lacklustre defeat to the lowly-ranked Simon Bedford in September. In November he announced plans for a year-long sabbatical, sparking renewed speculation the most gifted player of his generation would retire altogether. But his decision to defend his title, ensuring he retains his ranking points and does not have to return to the massed ranks of the qualifiers for major tournaments, marks another eye-catching U-turn from a career littered with them.

Ever the contrarian, O'Sullivan said that he realised he could not live without the game and that there was more to life than snooker. More than anything, he says, he was "bored" of rising in mid-morning and spending his days out to lunch.

"Boredom was a big factor. I missed travelling. I didn't realise how much a part of my life it was. I missed the playing."

O'Sullivan, whose rollercoaster career has included bouts of depression, illness and fits of pique alongside dizzying brilliance and a charisma that left the game yearning for his return, also said that his time away from snooker had left him with a better perspective on the part it played in his life.

"I had a nice year out. I had a lot of fun and I needed the rest. I just thought it was time to get back to doing what I've done for a lot of my life. I have a different perspective on it now," said the four-time world champion.

"I moaned about the pressures and not playing well but I thought two or three months ago: 'I'd take that back like a shot now'. Hopefully I won't be as hard on myself, hopefully I will enjoy it more and enjoy playing rather than putting myself under pressure in tournaments to succeed."

Which is not to say that he did not enjoy his time off. Asked what he had been up to, he smiled and drew a discreet veil: "You don't want to know mate. Trust me. It has been good, though. Very good."

"Personal issues" that played a part in his sabbatical remain unresolved and undiscussed publicly. He deflected all questions about his private life, pointing instead to his new book that will come out in the autumn and would, he said, allow him to explain the saga "in context".

"I'm all right. I am here to talk about snooker, not my private life. I need to grow some shoulders, roll my sleeves up and have a go. I will give it my best and see what the outcome is," he said.

As he spoke, O'Sullivan was surrounded by paraphernalia from his new sponsors – a company whose portfolio appears to range from vodka to water purification systems and will soon launch an energy drink called "Roket Fuel". He was flanked by his friend Jimmy White, who is a "global ambassador" for the company.

Afterwards White, who reckoned O'Sullivan may have been hustling a little in playing down the extent to which he had been practicing, said he would be training with him in the six weeks they had left before they got to Sheffield. The defending champion will return to the Crucible on 20 April as the No1 seed and as such should be able to play his way into the tournament.

For all that he flits between showmanship and shyness, White said O'Sullivan's abundant talent should not obscure his capacity for hard work, predicting that he would go on to beat Stephen Hendry's record of seven world titles.

"They're different animals. Hendry had the killer instinct and the dedication, but Ronnie has been away partying and doing what he wanted to do in life. But now it's time to prove what he's got. He's had every head guru there is, but at the end of the day he knows it's just down to himself."

World Snooker impresario, Barry Hearn, was also predictably delighted about the return of his No1 box office draw. Bookmakers immediately installed him as 10-1 fifth favourite – but also offered 2-1 that he would walk away from the professional table again by the end of the year.

O'Sullivan predicted his return would form the basis for a fresh phase of his career that could last "two or three" or even "seven or eight" years. On the other hand, he conceded, it could all end tomorrow.

"I just need to get back to potting some balls and getting back to winning. Snooker is a means to an end. You only get one life, I want to make the most of it."

• Ronnie O'Sullivan
• World Snooker Championship
• Snooker

Owen Gibson
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The Olympic gold medallist is prepared to pay Toni Minichiello's wages as she refuses to let her coach's dispute with UK Athletics affect her mission to regain the world heptathlon title

On a bitterly cold afternoon in Sheffield, Jessica Ennis sighs a little at the mention of her coach, Toni Minichiello, and his row with the sport's governing body, UK Athletics. Outside the snow dusts the South Yorkshire hills, while inside we are drinking hot tea in a school staff room – following several giddy hours in the sports hall with a group of teenagers learning about life as an elite athlete.

The students' screams of delight as Ennis made her entrance – one girl flushing red and bursting into tears – were a hopeful indication of the new regard in which athletes are held by children in this country. Superstars. But six months on from becoming Olympic champion, away from the ticker-tape parades and awards celebrating their triumph – Ennis for European athlete of the year, Minichiello for coach of the year – long-standing tensions between the coach and governing body have resurfaced amid ugly headlines. Ennis has always avoided controversy, but with her coach not receiving a salary despite continuing to work a six-day week, it is a subject that even she would not want to gloss over.

Asked if she would be happy to pay Minichiello's wages, Ennis does not hesitate. "Yes obviously," she says of the man with whom she has achieved world, European and now Olympic gold. The pair have been working together since she was 13 and are famously close. Ennis speaks softly and with real affection when she adds: "I would love to see him in a much better position than he is now. We had such a great year both of us last year, but, yeah, whatever works to allow him to be at the track to coach and do what he does – not just what he did last year but it's been years of coaching and hard work."

Does she feel for him? "Yes. I just think it's not a nice situation really, but I try not to get too involved. I just want to support him the way I can and obviously he's got big life-changing things happening as well so we're trying to just focus on the positives at the moment."

Minichiello recently became a father for the first time and Ennis chuckles fondly at the thought of him bringing the newborn to the track in a sling. She says she intends to call herself "Auntie Jess" and is astonished that so many people have questioned whether she will remain with Minichiello following the dispute. "Quite a lot of people have said: 'Will he still be coaching you?' It will be exactly the same. He's just going to have to decide what's best for him [in sourcing an income], whether that's another job, or whether I help fund him, or whatever it will be, we're just going to stay the same and focus on Moscow [August's world championships]."

Minichiello, a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, publicly rejected UKA's offer made by the head coach, Peter Eriksson, and accused the governing body of a "lack of respect" for suggesting he work in return for what he believes lacks parity with other leading coaches. Eriksson in turn has accused Minichiello of "doing the dirty laundry in public", but Ennis laughs off the suggestion that she wishes her coach would be more discreet.

After all, this is not the first time that relations with the governing body have soured. From the accusation that the former head coach Charles van Commenee put Ennis under pressure to relocate from Sheffield to London ahead of the Olympic Games, to allegations that a senior figure at UKA described Ennis as "overweight" – resulting in a disciplinary hearing for Minichiello – Eriksson's ultimatum to "take it or leave it" over the job offer was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Minichiello told the media he would rather leave it, and that was the end of that. Anything for a quiet life, eh? "We are who we are," Ennis says of Minichiello, with a wry smile. "We are different but I am the way I am and he is the way he is and sometimes he just needs to vent and so I just leave him to it." Is she ever tempted to call him up and tell him off? "No, no we don't ever argue that much or have stern words," she says, laughing through the sarcasm before adopting a more serious tone.

"No, I just leave him to it and we don't really talk about it that much at training. Because if we talk about it at training it's distracting and taking away from what we want to achieve. It doesn't create a nice atmosphere, so we just try and get things sorted. I'll support him where I can and hope we get things in a position where we can get on with it, really. Do what we've always done."

While UKA attempts to maintain good relations with the athlete Van Commenee dubbed the "jewel in Britain's crown", pledging its unwavering support, Ennis has quietly gone about refocusing her mind for the season to come. Other Olympians may still be partying in LA, or joining celebrity TV shows, or throwing in the towel, but Ennis was quick to return to her old life in Sheffield. She may be skipping the indoor season, but running up hills in the snow and grafting hard, hers remains an unrelenting schedule, six days a week.

There is a reason for grafting. Ennis has unfinished business. While winning Olympic heptathlon gold in London was the "greatest achievement of her life", the year preceding it was tough. In the space of six months Ennis's unquestioned dominance was dealt a body blow. Losing two world titles only months out from the London Games – just when she most needed a confidence boost – was earth-shattering for a woman who had enjoyed such a long unbeaten streak. "Oh God," she says at the memory. "I think Istanbul [the world indoor championships pentathlon in March 2012] was the worst for me. It was Olympic year and I had done all my training through the winter and I was really ready, I was in great shape. It was like: 'Right, this is the most important year of my life, I want to start off good' – and then – silver. And then obviously she [Nataliya Dobrynska] did the world record." Ennis searches for the words. "I was … 'Oh my God this is just' … I found that really hard. It was difficult to lift yourself again. You can't then say to yourself: 'Oh there's another year and some more winter training to do,' you've done it, you just have to deal with what you've got."

Coupled with failing to defend her world outdoor heptathlon title, did she doubt her chances in London? "Initially I did," she nods. "I thought: 'Oh, I've done all that hard work and [it's] still not good enough'. I was really disappointed because we were getting really close to the Olympics and I felt in great shape and I thought I was ready to do it there [in Daegu in August 2011], but things just fell apart."

That hurt, or "slight bitterness" as she describes it, will fire her up for the rematch in Moscow this summer where she will face the defending world champion, Tatyana Chernova, in her own backyard. "In Russia, Chernova's probably going to be the poster girl," says Ennis of the Russian who failed to improve on the Olympic bronze she won in 2008 when she competed in London. "It's going to be hard because I know how I felt after Daegu and I wanted to come into the next year and win and be the best. And I know Chernova's going to be exactly the same this year."

Back at Newfields school and the British sprinter Jeanette Kwakye is introducing her GB team-mate while the students look on, open-mouthed. "She's a real person, not a statue," says Kwakye of Ennis, before giving in to the excitement with a theatrical roll of the eyes and a big grin. "Oh, OK, everyone look at her. Wave, get it all out of your system." Before long Kwakye has Ennis roped into a challenge that involves teetering about on gym benches – the Olympic champion giving all those watching a nervous time as she leaps about the PE equipment with glee.

Ennis is Sky Sports' Living for Sport scheme's most high profile recruit, and it is impressive that she has committed several days of her time to engage with the students. Asked why she did not defer to take part in a quieter year, Ennis replied: "This is the best time to do it because the Olympics are still fresh in everyone's mind … Even a few years ago kids wouldn't have been able to name athletes, it's been a massive U-turn in our sport and that's why you've got to get involved in things like this to keep it going."

As Ennis gets into her sports car and drives away, a group of girls chase after her, while teenage boys wait for her car at the end of the school drive and make heart signs with their fingers. She waves. Her Olympic triumph has won them over, but for the diminutive star 2013 is a whole different ballgame. "I have to put [2012] behind me now. That's hard because it's the Olympics and you just want to think about that all the time but I have to, once I start competing. It's great what I did last year but I have to get focused again." She pauses and then scrunches up her face in mock irritation: "I've got to do it all over again haven't I?" she says, laughing.

Jessica Ennis is an ambassador for Sky Sports Living for Sport, a UK-wide initiative using professional athletes and sport skills to improve the lives of thousands of young people. Schools can sign up at skysports.com/livingforsport

• Jessica Ennis
• Athletics

Anna Kessel
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Middlesbrough are out of form in the Championship but their manager believes the pressure will be on Rafael Benítez

Tony Mowbray has given up chocolate for Lent. "I'm not particularly religious but you have to test yourself," says the Middlesbrough manager before revealing that his young children are under strict instructions to keep their confectionery supplies hidden from view at all times.

The stash of chocolate biscuits at Boro's training ground represents a further source of temptation but, right now, Mowbray is in the mood to be challenged. Mildly exasperated by criticisms of his management style on social media he not only intends to halt the run of one win in nine Championship games which threatens Boro's promotion hopes, but is also keen for his team to confound their doubters against Chelsea at the Riverside in Wednesday's delayed FA Cup fifth-round tie.

That latter task is complicated because the Chelsea manager, Rafael Benítez has a point to prove as well. "There's no hiding from the fact that we're not in great form," says Mowbray. "But there's no pressure for league points and we'll try and enjoy it – although if Chelsea are five up and we aren't getting a kick we won't be."

The former West Bromwich Albion and Celtic manager has a strategy by which his team of free transfers, bargain buys and academy graduates can avoid such a scenario. Mowbray talks about needing to "hurry Chelsea up," with real feeling. "Athletically, we'll have to cover more ground than they do," he says. "We'll have to close people down, make tackles, make life difficult for them. Chelsea can rely more on their technique and talent to pick the right pass.

"When you haven't got world-class players, you have to, first and foremost, have a work ethic. You try to condense space, try not to be isolated one-on-one in certain areas of the pitch. I doubt we are going to leave three up front.

"And yet, you have to balance that off with having an attacking threat. You have to try to score a goal and if you've got everybody back, it's very unlikely. That's the challenge."

Although a calf strain has denied Jonathan Woodgate the chance for involvement in what would have been a fascinating sub-plot also featuring Demba Ba or, more probably, Fernando Torres, and Josh McEachran is ineligible to play against his parent club, Mowbray will name his strongest available side.

He is disappointed Sammy Ameobi, newly arrived on loan from Newcastle, is Cup-tied but hopes that a positive performance will galvanise Boro ahead of Saturday's key Championship game at home to Cardiff.

"As soon as we get back in the Premier League the more secure people working at this club will be in their jobs, the girls in the office, the girl in the laundry," he says. "Our results affect their lives."

Benítez is under a very different sort of pressure but Mowbray sympathises. "Chelsea's a tough job," he says. "It's unfortunate what's happened for Rafa with the supporters. But he's a good football man, I've got great respect for him. I know from managing Celtic that being expected to win every game brings its own problems. Whenever Chelsea lose people say it's Rafa's fault, whenever they win nothing is said.

"Rafa's won trophies at Valencia, he's won the Champions League at Liverpool so he's earned the right to manage Chelsea. I'm sure he and Roman Abramovich would have wished things had worked out better but they can still win the Europa League and the FA Cup and finish second or third in the Premier League.

"And they can't just keep on changing the manager every time something goes wrong. Chelsea's players should be feeding off adversity and becoming stronger and more unified and I'm sure that will happen."

Mowbray senses a mood of increasing agitation around the game fuelled by social media. "You do need a thick skin to be a football manager," he says. "Anyone who tells you criticism doesn't hurt them is a liar. We are human beings. The harshness of the some of it is hard when you've come into work all week in the pitch black, gone home in the pitch black and then, on the Saturday, your centre-half forgets an instruction, makes one mistake and you lose.

You must make decisions all the time and you have to hope you get more right than wrong. You have to be very, very single-minded in 2013 because of the social media aspect of the world now, everybody can do your job, everybody has an opinion."

• Middlesbrough
• FA Cup

Louise Taylor
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Two weeks ago, Leicester City lay second in the Championship, but one point from three games had seen the Foxes begin to slip down the table, albeit with games in hand. In the circumstances, and with leading scorer David Nugent unavailable with a neck injury, manager Nigel Pearson would have taken any sort of win, however scrappily obtained, so the ease with which his team dismembered a disappointingly poor Blackburn side, particularly during the latter stages of the first half, can only have delighted him.

Surprised him too, perhaps. Since being appointed on 11 January, Michael Appleton has made Rovers more defensively solid, but they looked anything but secure last night. The three goals that Leicester scored, close range headers by forwards Chris Wood and Harry Kane, and midfielder Andy King, were a minimal return on the home team's superiority during a long spell when they looked capable of scoring at will.

What will surely concern Pearson, however, is the extent to which they eased off in the second period, though even with Leicester sitting off, Rovers could not create a chance worthy of the name. Even so, it was disconcerting to see Appleton take off top-scorer Jordan Rhodes with 20 minutes remaining. The former Portsmouth manager has suggested that the Championship play-offs are not yet out of reach, but on this evidence they may yet be looking over their shoulder before the end of a season everyone at Ewood Park will be happy to put behind them.

Two 30-yard efforts in the first few minutes, one not so far over the bar, one not so far wide, was a reminder that David Bentley – signed last week by Rovers on loan from Tottenham – may lack consistency, but he has never lacked confidence. Kane too had an early shot which troubled Jake Kean more than perhaps it should have done, the Rovers goalkeeper reacting late to push the ball round the post.

Having delivered a couple of useful crosses from the left, one of which was headed just wide by Andy King, Leicester's young French winger Anthony Knockaert drifted inside to thump in a drive which Kean parried away, and the open nature of the game was emphasised soon afterwards, when Kean's opposite number, Kasper Schmeichel, pulled off a remarkable save from Pedersen, turning direction in mid-air to palm the deflected shot over the bar.

Leicester's pressure was growing though, and shortly after Michael Keane had somehow fired over from inside the six yard box, the Foxes took the lead. Ben Marshall beat Rovers' full-back Karim Rekik on the right and delivered the sort of cross which demands a big centre-forward take advantage . Chris Wood obliged, the former Millwall striker's ninth goal in as many games for his new club.

From then until half-time Blackburn were in danger of being overrun. Time and again Leicester, with full-backs Ritchie De Laet and Paul Konchesky both getting forward, played their way through Rovers' midfield screen and into the penalty area, but it took a corner to produce their second. Marshall delivered the ball from the left, and Kane, well inside the six-yard box, nodded the ball past Kean.

The second half, after an opening burst during which both Kane and Marshall shot over when they should have scored, was pretty much a non-event. Rhodes, who with 20 goals has been the Lancashire club's only real positive this season, looked expressionless when he was taken off, but Pearson's introduction of Lloyd Dyer livened things a little. Wood went close, and Marshall saw Kean touch his free-kick over the bar, but it was added time before King, from a Martyn Waghorn corner, gave the scoreline some sort of resemblance to reality.

• Championship
• Leicester City
• Blackburn Rovers

Richard Rae
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World number one Novak Djokovic beats Viktor Troicki 6-1 6-4 in Dubai in his first match since early February.

The adventure is over for Oldham. Matt Smith scored one more towering FA Cup header and the League One side again defied their status to unnerve Premier League opposition, but it was not enough to derail Everton at the second attempt. David Moyes's team were too clinical to let a home quarter-final against Wigan Athletic slip from their grasp.

Moyes had conceded the tie marked the start of a two-week period that would define Everton's season and probably his future at the club ,with Champions League qualification disappearing from view. They made no mistake in the FA Cup thanks to goals from Kevin Mirallas, Leighton Baines and Leon Osman although, like Nottingham Forest and Liverpool before them, it was never straight-forward against the men from Boundary Park.

Everton were made to fight for every ball and every break by a fiercely committed Oldham team. A comfortable half-time lead was reward for the home side's insistence on passing their way in behind the League One defence, no matter how often the plan broke down, but did not reflect the problems they encountered along the way. The night would easilyhave been transformed had Jose Baxter not had the misfortune to strike a post on his first appearance back at Goodison Park since leaving the club last summer.

The scourge of Merseyside in the FA Cup this season, Smith, was again left on the bench as he recovered from a shoulder injury sustained in the fourth-round win over Liverpool. Everton relief was tempered by recollections of the panic he caused when coming off the bench in the first meeting, and the stoppage-time header that earned the League One strugglers the lucrative, richly deserved replay.

Moyes' team were clearly intent on ending the contest before Smith could have an impact, though Oldham continued to unsettle their opponents in his absence.

Oldham's caretaker manager, Tony Philliskirk, did not tread with caution, deploying a two-man attack comprising the former Scotland international Chris Iwelumo and Lee Barnard, and a commitment to get numbers forward at every opportunity. The visitors received ample encouragement from a raucous travelling support of around 5,000. One of their most celebrated fans, Paul Scholes, also looked on with his son from the main stand as a scrappy yet entertaining contest unfolded.

Everton, minus the injured Marouane Fellaini, struggled to find any rhythm as Oldham pressed and harried relentlessly but they made an early breakthrough thanks to Mirallas and a costly defensive lapse. Phil Neville, Seamus Coleman and Darron Gibson worked patiently down the right, a route exploited all night by Everton, and when the Republic of Ireland midfielder sent over a sweeping cross Mirallas was on hand to divert an excellent first touch beyond the goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis. Mirallas has been asked for more from his manager following a quiet return from injury and he was assisted by slack Oldham marking for his first goal since September.

The visitors were almost level before the Everton celebrations had ended. Barnard won a long ball on the edge of the area that rebounded off Phil Jagielka into the path of Baxter. The midfielder from Bootle checked on to his right and curled a delightful shot over Tim Howard but with the equaliser beckoning, the ball struck the post and rebounded out. Oldham's misfortune increased when Jagielka's clearance struck Gibson on the arm only for the referee Michael Oliver to wave play on. A series of baffling decisions ensured him the wrath of the travelling fans at the interval.

Rejected penalty claims evened up when the referee failed to penalise the Oldham defender James Tarkowski for pulling Nikica Jelavic to the floor as they tussled for another cross from the right by Everton. He eventually pointed to the spot when Jelavic collapsed again under a challenge as Coleman clipped a ball into the box from the byline, though not for that reason. The ball cleared the fallen Croat and struck Connor Brown on an arm. Baines, who had gone close earlier with a 25-yard drive, just about found the bottom of the net with a penalty kick that Bouzanis almost saved.

Everton should have had a third early in the second half as they prospered again from right-wing crosses but Jagielka took a clear opening off the toes of Jelavic only to blaze over and Osman volleyed softly into the arms of the Oldham keeper from Coleman's inviting delivery. Then came Smith, 10 minutes after the restart as part of a double substitution with Robbie Simpson, and the entire mood of the contest changed.

Oldham suddenly had the initiative and Everton the jitters as a series of high balls dropped into their area. Moyes screamed at Mirallas and Steven Pienaar to close down the visiting full-backs.

The tie appeared to be beyond Oldham when Osman did deliver a third for Everton with a glancing header from a Pienaar cross that Bouzanis, distracted by Jelavic, allowed to squirm through his grasp. But seconds later Smith brought renewed hope to Oldham with a repeat of his 95th-minute goal in the first meeting between the teams. Brown swung over a corner from the right and the centre-forward easily escaped Neville and Sylvain Distin to head beyond Howard. But it proved the final act of Oldham's impressive run.

• FA Cup
• Everton
• Oldham

Andy Hunter
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Gary Glen's late goal moves Ross County to third in the Scottish Premier League after beating Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

• Exiles face points deduction for fielding ineligible player
• Welsh just one place off the bottom of the Premiership

London Welsh's efforts to survive their first season in the Aviva Premiership will hinge on a disciplinary hearing next week when the club will be asked to explain why the scrum-half, Tyson Keats, played for the first three months of the season despite not being registered. If found guilty of fielding an ineligible player the Exiles face being deducted league points.

Keats, a 31-year-old New Zealander who joined the Welsh from defunct Italian club Aironi last summer, made nine Premiership appearances, which included their four victories, before London Welsh notified the Rugby Football Union that there was a problem with his registration.

Keats missed the next two league rounds before the issue was resolved and he has since made four appearances. London Welsh will appear before an RFU competitions hearing in London on 5 March charged with fielding an ineligible player in nine matches.

The case will be heard by a three-man panel, which includes the Premiership Rugby chief executive, Mark McCafferty, and potential punishments range from a warning to a fine and the deduction of points. London Scottish were docked three Championship points in December after fielding an ineligible player in one match.

Mike Scott, London Welsh's former rugby manager, will face a separate hearing relating to Keats's registration at a date to be decided. He has been charged with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Union or the game by allegedly supplying false information.

"This is a serious matter which the club has not only brought to the attention of the RFU but is also working closely with the Union to provide full co-operation whilst the case is being prepared," said the London Welsh chief executive, Tony Copsey. "No fault resides with the player. Due to the sensitive nature and the impending hearing the club is unable to make any further comment at this time."

London Welsh are second-last in the Premiership, three points above bottom side Sale, having picked up that number in their past six matches and their next three games are all away, to Saracens, Gloucester and Bath.

Scott used to be the team manager at Harlequins, whose director of rugby, Conor O'Shea, has reiterated his intention to remain with the Premiership champions for the duration of his contract, which runs until the end of next season, despite being linked with the position of Ireland head coach. O'Shea, a former Ireland full-back, is the popular choice to take over from Declan Kidney, whose contract is up at the end of the Six Nations. An opening-round victory over Wales in Cardiff has been followed by defeats to England and Scotland, making next week's clash against France more relevant to the wooden spoon than the destiny of the title.

"I am contracted to Harlequins until the end of the 2013-14 season," said O'Shea. "I am honouring that commitment and, I hope, continuing beyond it."

Irish bookmakers have made O'Shea the odds-on favourite to take over, but with his commitments to Quins, the Premiership leaders, he may prefer to wait until after the 2015 World Cup before making himself available.

• London Welsh
• Premiership 2012-13
• Premiership
• Rugby union

Paul Rees
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Swansea boss Michael Laudrup says is delighted for the people of the city after leading the club to their first silverware in their history by winning the League Cup on Sunday.