Leinster go into action this weekend on home soil facing Northampton Saints at the semi-final stage of the Champions Cup for a second consecutive year. Both sides have had contrasting campaigns in their respective leagues. Leinster have only lost twice in the URC while Northampton are 7^th in the Premiership.

This would lead you to believe that Leinster will win pulling up but I have a feeling Northampton will come out all gun blazing and whether this will be good enough is the big question. Memories of last season’s game in Croke Park will weigh heavily on Northampton.  

Leinster will have demons to banish as they have been to three finals in recent years and have tasted defeat each time. They brought Jordie Barrett in to supplement RG Snyman’s signing and both of those men have played key roles in Leinster’s march to Saturday’s game in Dublin.

Snyman has signed a fresh 1 year deal to stick around come what may but Barrett will head back to New Zealand at the conclusion of his 6 month deal with he will hope a URC winners medal and a Champions Cup winners medal.

This is the time of the year where Leinster up to 2021 knew how to cross the winning line but in recent years they have found French sides in particular a tough nut to crack in the Champions Cup while Munster and the Bulls have done for them in the URC over the past couple of years.

The investment in Snyman, Barrett and Reiko Ioane has suggested that Leinster will look to continue to dine at the top table over the next year or two at least. They have another bunch of young talent coming through and that will supplement what is already in the squad in the coming years.

For now though, Northampton on Saturday at 5.30pm will occupy the minds of the Leinster squad who rested an entire 23 last week with an eye to the upcoming challenge. They have been here many times over the past 4 years in particular and will hope the pain of losing the previous 3 finals will stand to them, only time will tell on that front.

Leinster in recent months have begun to play the attacking all court game they have honing and will hope this will see them past Northampton but for their part Saints will feel they need to start quickly to stand any hope of knocking Leinster off their perch.

I hope Saturday’s game lives up to the billing and both sides go out and have a go and we will then see who will come out on top.

Northampton have some good players in their ranks like Fin Smith, Henry Pollock, Alex Mitchell and George Furbank. They will hope all the afore mentioned men stand up and are counted in what will be a tough encounter and will be fierce at the break down in particular, where Doris, Van Der Flier and Conan will take on Alex Cole, Juarno Augustus and Henry Pollock.

In another Lions audition, Sam Prendergast will go up against Fin Smith, both of these men will go a long way to helping their sides pick up the win on Saturday. This game promises much and will be close on the scoreboard with only the bare minimum between them by the 80^th minute on Saturday. I feel Leinster might just have enough to get to a 4^th Champions Cup final in a row…

Toulouse will take Bordeaux Begles on Sunday in the second semi-final after Toulouse defeated Toulon with the final kick of the game in their quarter final with Toulon in the Stade Felix Mayol a few weeks ago. Bordeaux beat Munster in their quarter final to set up an all French semi-final.

This will be a tight game where both sides have two good packs of forwards as well as the attacking game plan to cut each other apart at will. Like the first semi-final, this game promises much and let’s hope it will deliver. Toulouse don’t have Antoine Dupont to call upon as his recovery from his ACL injury continues.

If Bordeaux have fixed there leaky defence since the Ulster and Munster games I give them a fighting chance to overturn Toulouse but if they concede as many points as they did in those two games they won’t be able to get past Toulouse as if it becomes shoot out, one feels Toulouse’s experience in big games will be enough to get them past Bordeaux.

Two exciting semi-finals await in the Champions Cup and I will stick my neck out and say Leinster will play Bordeaux Begles in next month’s show piece in Cardiff….

Jonathan Sexton has been confirmed as British and Irish Lions kicking coach taking over the role from Wales legend Neil Jenkins who held the role over a number of tours. Jonathan Sexton had been involved with Ireland on a part time basis through the November series of 2024 into the 6 Nations 2025.

First though before he goes back to the IRFU on a full time basis, he will have a British and Irish Lions tour in Australia to be involved with. He joins three other Irish based coaches in the Lions coaching ticket namely John Fogarty, Andrew Goodman and Simon Easterby.

Andy Farrell has clearly gone for men he trusts and who will challenge his position in terms of team selection and player selection when the squad is being picked before being announced on May 8^th. Sexton will have to learn on the hoof as this particular tour will flash by.

He of course can look back on his time as a player on the 2013 and 2017 tours as a reference point but this time he is a coach and will need to draw on his early experience in the Irish set up to help him bed in and settle quickly.

After his duty on the tour in Australia is over he will then return and take up a full time position with the IRFU as a coach who will help out with numerous teams including underage Irish teams and up to and including the senior team. It is smart move by the IRFU to get a man of Sexton’s quality back on board, his brother Mark is moving to be part of Richie Murphy’s staff in Ulster beginning next season.

The IRFU are doing good ground work to help evolve and improve Andy Farrell’s coaching ticket and you can be certain that Johnny’s brains will be picked in an attacking sense and he will support the 10s in the Irish set up including young talent as well as established players like Prendergast and  Crowley.

He will have an impact on the Lions tour you can have no doubt while working alongside Richard Wigglesworth in particular they will come up with a few unseen trick plays no doubt using the play book of Joe Schmidt against him.

Only time will tell of course whether this move will work out on a full time basis but you have to admire the IRFU for taking the chance and appointing Sexton to full time position…..

Reiko Ioane has confirmed the news that broke this morning that he has taken up the option to take a 6 month sabbatical for the latter part of the 2025/2026 season. He will join Leinster for 6 months in December from the Auckland Blues before returning to New Zealand at the end of next season.

He will follow in the footsteps of New Zealand players Brad Thorn and Jordie Barrett who have taken up a short term opportunities to play in the blue of Leinster.

Numerous other New Zealanders have made similar moves to Leinster since 1995 like Nathan Spooner and latterly both Cameron Jowitt and Bryce Williams who were both part of the Leinster squad in the 2005/2006 season.

Leinster will replace one All Black with another as Jordie Barrett will return to the Hurricanes when his commitments with Leinster have ended. It is another big move by Leinster. Munster had two World Cup winners in their squad for two and four seasons respectively when RG Snyman and Damian De Allende signed on for 2 years at that stage back in 2019.

Injury ruined Snyman’s time with Munster and he only played 20 times over the 4 years he was with Munster after signing a contract extension in 2022. De Allende for his part played over 50 times in his two seasons in red.

It just goes to show how much Irish rugby is admired throughout world rugby. Yes the cynic will say the financial boost these players receive is the leading factor in them joining on these short term deals.

Rugby is a physical sport and who can blame these lads for taking up short term deals that will help them financially when there career’s come to an end. Many South Africans and now a growing number of New Zealanders have also decided on taking these breaks or sabbaticals in Japan as well as in Europe.

Reiko Ioane will join Leinster who have Gary Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Hugh Cooney, Charlie Tector, Liam Turner as midfield options at this current moment. This move while it will likely cause more friction in the immediate aftermath of the IRFU decision to up the payments on certain contracts from 30% to 40% from August 1^st 2026.

Any money gained from this will be kept aside to assist Munster, Connacht and Ulster in bringing through the next generation through their respective player pathways.

Ioane has been capped 81 times by New Zealand and like Thorn and Barrett before him will be used to impart wisdom and help out with younger players as well as trying to help Leinster win trophies in his short spell with them. Exciting times ahead for Leinster and their supporters….

Leinster will face Northampton Saints in a 2^nd successive semi-final of the Champions Cup after dismantling Glasgow by beating them 52-0. Leinster will be delighted that many aspects of the much wanted all court game they want to use is beginning to come together for them at the right time of the season.

They started strongly and just motored through the gears led by RG Snyman, Jordie Barrett and Sam Prendergast with all three men have positive impacts on the overall performance.

Glasgow were missing a number of players through injury but one feels that even if those players were available Glasgow would still have struggled with the form Leinster showed in both defence and attack. Leinster are back where they feel they deserve to be in both the URC and the Champions Cup.

The big thing for Leinster now is how they mix and match over the next few weeks before they face Northampton in the semi-final. They have a play-off spot in the URC secured but will need to keep winning to stay clear of Friday’s opponents in the race for a home quarter final.

Leinster will know well they have been here many times since the last trophy was won in 2021. In that time they haven’t managed to get over the line and while they have been consistently in the shake up this group as a whole hasn’t crossed the winning threshold and again look set to do that after the clinical performances against Harlequins and Glasgow of the last two weeks.

They also will not want to lose top spot in the URC and that will keep them focused in the next few games. There are players to come back from injury as well as a number of guys trying to play their way into the reckoning for the crucial final part of the year.

They made a huge statement of intent and sent a clear message to the other sides left in the competition that they are going to be a force to reckoned with and will do their utmost to win that elusive 5^th European title.

Munster fought back from a huge deficit after trailing 29-10 at half time in Bordeaux. The Munster set piece started well but then in spectacular fashion the line out in particular deserted them and they couldn’t seem to get back in the groove .

When they did win ball it wasn’t clean ball and then a number of missed placed passes or knock on’s happened it just doubled down on the efforts to try and get back into the game. Munster will know today that they left chances behind them and when they look back at the game they will wince when they see how badly the line out faltered.

A large number of missed tackles didn’t help the cause either but the way in which they came out swinging in the 2^nd half will hearten them for the last 4 games in the URC. Bordeaux will also know they have shipped almost 60 points in the two knock games to date conceding 31 against Ulster in the last 16 and then conceding 29 against Munster in the quarter final which in both games could have been more…

This will show the remaining sides in the semi-finals including their potential opponents of Toulon and Toulouse that they will give up chances and will concede heavily. Unless Yannick Bru and his coaches plug the leak, there porous defence could be there undoing in the quest for European honours. Yes they have an attack that is the envy of a lot of sides that is drilled by Clare man Noel Mc Namara, who was Ireland under 20s coach before a spell in South Africa and now he is running the Bordeaux attack but Leinster have shown that you need to be ruthless on both sides of the ball in trying to win the Champions Cup.

Yesterday’s loss for Munster marked the end of Conor Murray and Peter O Mahony’s time in the red jersey in Europe. A number of near misses along with great escapes and memorable victories will be on there European highlight reel. O Mahony goes into retirement but for Conor Murray he could yet feature in the Champions or Challenge Cup as his next destination hasn’t been revealed.

Stephen Archer made his 300^th appearance for Munster and he is the first Munster player to reach that milstone. A mark of how consistent he has been over his time with Munster to make 300 professional appearances to date !!

Connacht went down swinging like Munster but on this occasion they will defiantly know they left it behind them after leading 21-5 at one point and after Racing 92 had been rightly reduced to 14 men after a red card was shown to one of their backs.

Racing were cleaver in how they played the rest of the game by tightening the game up and playing 10 man rugby with the pace been dictated by Nolann Le Garrec at 9. If he played with any other country other than France he would have a larger amount of caps that he has but France have at least 4 if not 5 men behind the man in possession of the 9 shirt for France Antoine Dupont.

Owen Farrell and Dan Lancaster were at 10 for Racing during the game last night and they both managed to pin Connacht back who scored some cracking tries and had strong performances from men like Bundee Aki, JJ Hanrahan and Ben Murphy but this time the “you score one and we will score one” mantra came back to hurt Connacht who will now have a few league fixtures left to see can they climb the table and sneak into the Top 8 of the URC…

Jack Crowley has signed a two year contract extension to stay with Munster and Ireland until at least 2027. It is great news coming in the week as preparations for Bordeaux Begles go into top gear. It is the positive news that was required for both player and province as the will he /won’t he saga had gone into over drive since the 6 Nations in particular.

He can fully focus on Bordeaux now and seeing can Munster go the well once more and pull off another win in a knock out European game. It’s 25 years since Toulouse were vanquished on the very ground that will host Saturday’s game between Bordeaux and Munster.

It is going to take another special performance to see them through but Munster will know they need to back up the performance of last weekend once more. The pairing of Casey and Crowley is very like the pairing of 25 years ago with Peter Stringer and Ronan O Gara in the driving seat back then.

The way Munster went after Toulouse on that hot April afternoon in 2000 in something similar to the way that the Munster of 2025 will have to go at Bordeaux. It is crucial that they slow the Bordeaux ball down and then if they manage that they will have to get parity at scrum time to allow them to get the ball out to guys like Crowley, Farrell and Abrahams to try and inflict damage on them.

Joey Carbery may well be at out half for Bordeaux and he will want to release his own power packed back line with Penaud, Moefana and Buros to name three opposition players who will want to try and score tries to help end Munster’s quest for a semi-final spot.  

Munster have to climb over their own mental hurdles to get over in Europe as the conquered the URC in 2023 and have not had much look in Europe since the trophy was won for the second time in 2008.

Munster will be hoping the journey for season 24/25 in Europe doesn’t end on Saturday afternoon in the quarter final. They will have a strong support as they did in La Rochelle last weekend. Amazing again how the support keeps coming up for them and they will play a key role to help the side at key moments…

I will select the 23 I feel are best placed to and beat Bordeaux….

15 Thaakir Abrahams

14 Calvin Nash

13 Tom Farrell

12 Sean O Brien

11 Andrew Smith

10 Jack Crowley

9 Craig Casey

8 Gavin Coombes

7 John Hodnett

6 Alex Kendellan

5 Tadgh Beirne

4 Jean Kleyn

3 Oli Jager

2 Diarmuid Barron

1 John Ryan

–

16 Niall Scannell

17 Josh Wycherley

18 Stephen Archer

19 Tom Ahern

20 Peter O Mahony

21 Conor Murray

22 Tony Butler

23 Sean Edogbo

Munster made it through a tough battle vs La Rochelle and booked another quarter final on French soil where they will now take on Joey Carbery’s Bordeaux Begles side who also have Noel Mc Namara as part of their coaching group.

Munster came through by one point with a drop goal from Jack Crowley in the 68^th minute proving crucial pushing the score beyond a converted try. This allowed Munster to push the envelope slightly in defence and this resulted in Alex Kendellan spending time on the naughty step for an infringement at a maul as La Rochelle advanced forward.

La Rochelle will feel aggrieved that a penalty wasn’t awarded in their favour in the 80^th minute after Fineen Wycherley caught a La Rochelle player over the top of the shoulder but referee Andrea Piardi had said he not seen foul play before it was looked at by the television match official.

Munster showed some sharp attacking intent with Craig Casey, Jack Crowley and Thaakir Abrahams showing real quality with an Abrahams break at the heart of the first Munster try that was finished off by Craig Casey.

La Rochelle had a try in the opening minute checked off for a foot in touch by Teddy Thomas and after another review it was chalked off. La Rochelle led 10-7 at half time with a late Ihiaia West penalty pushing Ronan O Gara’s men 3 points clear.

In the 2^nd half, Munster levelled things up through another Jack Crowley penalty after strong break down work from Calvin Nash in the opening minute of the second half.

Munster then stretched further clear with a block down try from Gavin Coombes after La Rochelle had missed a glaring chance when Teddy Thomas stepped into traffic rather than attack the corner flag with only Oli Jager and Josh Wycherley defending the outside and with that opportunity gone, Munster went up field and went into a 17-10 lead thanks to the hard work of Coombes and Crowley’s boot.

Andrew Smith then popped up to get Munster’s third try and put Munster 22-10 up with Crowley pushing his conversion just wide.

The late drop goal from Crowley was O Gara esq in quality and the timing of it was important as it pushed Munster three scores clear and even allowing for a late converted La Rochelle try, Munster as they so often do manged to find an unlikely win from somewhere.

They will now face Bordeaux Begles in the quarter final on Saturday with a 3pm kick off.

Leinster will face Glasgow on Friday evening with an 8pm kick off in the Aviva Stadium and both sides know each other well. Leinster comfortably saw off the challenge of Harlequins by 62-0. We are seeing now talk of salary caps and how competitive the Premiership is as reasons why Harlequins lost out last weekend.

11 years on from the last changes to the Champions Cup format, we are beginning to see that familiar talk and tone taking hold where ex english players in particular are crying foul over the strength in depth of Leinster.

The Premiership has lost three teams in recent years so maybe it is time for those voices to concern themselves with matters on the home front rather than looking for the Champions Cup format to be yet again tinkered with.

The URC itself will again have to look at a Welsh side talk of entering examinership. People will have to look at that closely.

The region will look to the WRU to take ownership of the team and try and steer it out of yet more choppy waters.

Leinster will fancy their chances of reaching the last 4 and will feel they can see of the challenge of Glasgow who will want to set down their own marker and don’t forget they are defending URC champions.

It will be a tough tight battle where Henco Venter who was on the bench for Glasgow for last Saturday has been suspended for 6 weeks for making contact with the eye of Dan Cole.

Leinster will be in a position to select a very strong 23 to see can they continue their quest for that 5^th star.

Connacht will face Racing 92 in Galway this weekend after beating Cardiff Rugby in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup. This will be a tough assignment for Connacht but they will feel they can take anyone on in Galway.

We have three sides in quarter final action this coming weekend and while I was slightly out in saying last week that only 2 of the 4 Irish sides in action would taste victory. I might be braver this week and say all 3 teams will win. It will take a monumental effort for Munster to win in Bordeaux but I said something similar last time and look what happened….

Connacht too have a tough game facing Racing 92 but here’s hoping home advantage will help them win what will be an arm wrestle….

The Champions Cup and Challenge Cup have reached the knock out phase with all 4 provinces in action, Ulster will face Bordeaux Begles, Munster will play La Rochelle, Leinster take on Harlequins in the Champions Cup last 16 and Connacht are in action against Cardiff in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup.

It is a big weekend for all 4 sides, Leinster and Connacht have home advantage while Ulster and Munster are on the road in France. Leinster will play Harlequins in Croke Park with a 3pm kick off. They have had the opportunity to leave a number of Irish internationals on home soil to rest up and prepare for the visit of Harlequins while a share of the rest of the squad headed for South Africa in the URC.

Leinster will recall the heavy hitters for the game on Saturday with men like Robbie Henshaw, James Ryan and Joe Mc Carthy likely to come straight back in to the 23 to play Harlequins. Leinster have again used the much vaunted squad depth to good effect and will use a 23 mostly made up of fresh players with men like Tommy O Brien putting a hand up for selection while over in South Africa.

This is another knock out game for Leinster to try and put down a marker as a title contender this year alongside Toulouse, La Rochelle and others. Home advantage has proven crucial to teams in the quest for European glory in recent seasons.

Leinster will know it will be home comforts all the way to final if they can get past Harlequins but they have been here before and come unstuck. The form of this season mirrors the last few seasons and hasn’t counted for anything in Europe for Leinster so they will guard against complacency this week.

They will have all the main men available including Jordie Barrett and RG Snyman both of whom have been invested in to help get them over the line in Europe as well as in the URC. They will both want to begin the job of paying back the investment in the knock out stages of the Champions Cup.

I fancy Leinster to win well on Saturday and set there course for the quarter final on home soil the following week.

Ulster will have a job of work to get past another side in the shake up for the title in Bordeaux Begles. They have invested cleverly with Damian Penaud, Joey Carberry being brought in to help aid the quest for a win in Europe.

Ulster have been in mixed form in League action and were fortunate to scrap into the last 16 but the fact they have a ticket to the last 16 party gives them a chance. They will need to up the performances of recent times and go after Bordeaux from the opening minute and see how they get on.

It is a free shot for Ulster and that will hopefully allow them express themselves in the game. They have a number of players back from injury. So as I mention it’s a free shot but one feels Bordeaux will have too much fire power for Ulster to live with. Bordeaux Begles to get through and go into the last 8.

Munster go to France to face La Rochelle in the so called Ronan O Gara derby. La Rochelle haven’t been in great shape over recent months playing 8 games losing 7 and drawing 1. No matter what way you cut that up that is not great form going into the last 16 of Europe. They will be heavily reliant on their home form going into this game. Munster defeated Connacht in the last game and will use that attacking performance as the template.

The outcome of the Alex Nankivell’s red card appeal will be crucial for Munster, he is vital to Munster in attack as well as defence.

If his appeal isn’t successful it will be interesting what way Munster decide to line up in the centre, will Rory Scannell come in or will they be brave and select Sean O Brien alongside Tom Farrell.

I think La Rochelle will still have enough to probably nick the game with the power they will introduce off the bench as well home advantage. It will be a close contest La Rochelle won’t run away with it by any means.

 Connacht have home advantage to take on Cardiff and even with the performance of last week vs Munster fresh in the mind, they can look at their form in the pool phase winning all 4 games including away in France as well as the pair of games in Galway. That form will stand to them and like La Rochelle and Leinster home advantage will help them in their quest for a last 8 spot in the Challenge Cup.

Connacht have a good chance this year to go in Cardiff and win the Challenge Cup and will want to put down another marker with a win in Galway in Saturday evening. I think Connacht will do what is required and beat Cardiff to get to the Challenge Cup quarter finals.

It’s a big weekend for all 4 Irish teams and while I think only 2 of them will win, I give the other two sides decent shots at upsetting the apple cart in away fixtures on French soil. Enjoy the weekend, there is plenty of games to keep everyone entertained….