As you may have seen during the week, the good folks from O2 have pledged to pump /12 million or thereabouts into Irish rugby over the next couple of years, which is nice of them, but their new branding on all official Irish merchandise did cause a few problems on Monday.

That morning, Ireland were due to hold a training session in front of the cameras at the University of Limerick but the Irish squad's gear was completely branded with O2 a full day before their sponsorship agreement was due to kick-in. Not wanting to annoy anybody, the IRFU simply decided to lock the photographers out.

While we're on the issue of branding, it was nice to see Pat Kenny wearing a Munster jersey on The Late Late Show a couple of Friday's ago. It was a just pity that he took the famous shirt off after five minutes of the interview, although we've been assured there was a good reason behind it. You might notice that Renault are sponsors of the programme and you might also have noticed that Toyota have their name splashed across the Munster jersey. Apparently Pat got word a couple of minutes in that his show's sponsors weren't all that happy and he took it off as soon as was physically possible. Still, a nice little coup for Toyota all the same.

WHERE EXPERIENCE IS DEFINITELY REQUIRED

The under-21 World Cup gets underway in France next Friday, with Mark McDermott's Ireland facing the hosts in their opening game (6pm Irish time). From there, they'll face Argentina on Tuesday, 13 June (4pm) and their "nal pool game will be against Georgia Saturday, 17 June (3pm).

After a reasonable performance in the under-21 Six Nations, where they lost narrowly to both Scotland and Wales having beaten Italy in their opening game, McDermott will undoubtedly be looking for some kind of improvement but it's not going to be easy. Many of the side's Ireland will be facing over the coming weeks are littered with players who've already made their senior debuts with their clubs while in Ireland's case, the likes of Devin Toner, Jonathan Sexton and Paul Marshall are the only ones who have been anywhere near their respective provincial squads this year.

It just goes to show that the coaches of the Irish provinces, bar Leinster's Michael Cheika, are extremely wary of blooding youngsters. Which, of course, doesn't help McDermott's cause one bit in the coming weeks.