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….

The British and Irish Lions coaching group has been announced with John Fogarty, Simon Easterby, Richard Wigglesworth, John Dalziel and Andrew Goodman chosen as the men to assist Andy Farrell on the 2025 tour of Australia.

Each of these men has been involved nationally at different sides and brings a different skill set to the table for the upcoming tour. Andy Farrell has put in some leg work over recent months to see coaches as well as players and from a coaching perspective it would be important to sound people out and see who may be available and happy to travel.

Ireland will contribute three coaches with Goodman, Easterby and Fogarty travelling to Australia. England will see backs coach Richard Wigglesworth travel and Scotland forwards coach John Dalziel will also travel.

Ireland will be impacted but one has to think that this has been planned for and if it hasn’t then the IRFU hasn’t been very good at forward planning. The talk is that Paul O Connell will now lead the Irish coaching team travelling to Portugal and Georgia for the games over the summer.

For the coaches and support staff selected to go it is a trip of a life time and will allow the chance to swap ideas and see how other coaches operate on a daily basis. The work will now step up to narrow down the likely tourists from a long list to almost a squad set in stone that will itself be announced on May 8^th.

The last time the Lions won a series was the 2013 test series in Australia and the smart money will be on a repeat performance in 2025. Joe Schmidt is doing some forward planning himself and he will steer Australia through the Rugby Championship as well as the Lions series and then step aside to allow the new man come in to lead Australia to the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

The job of work starts now and you’ll see more of the recently assembled coaching team out and about most likely beginning during the round of 16 games in both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup as well as various big clashes in the URC and Premiership.

This summer Ireland will tour Georgia and Portugal and will select a young squad that will see players who went on the two Emerging Ireland tours alongside some already established names to see who may be in a position to make the permanent step up to the Irish senior set up on a regular basis.

Here is the squad I have selected to tour. I know some of the players I have selected may miss out through injury or suspension.

Forwards –

Jack Boyle, Jordan Duggan, Tom O Tooole – LH

Tom Stewart, Diarmuid Barron, Gus Mc Carthy – Hooker

Oli Jager, Jack Auniger, Thomas Clarkson – TH

Tom Ahern, Darragh Murray, Cormac Izuchkwu , Evan O Connell – SR

Alex Kendellan, Gavin Coombes, Dave Mc Cann, James Culhane, Cian Prendergast, Max Deegan, John Hodnett – BR/No.8

Backs –

Craig Casey, Fintan Gunne, Ben Murphy – SH

Jack Crowley, Sam Prendergast, Jack Murphy – FH

Hugh Gavin, Jude Postlewaite, Cathal Forde, James Hume – Centre

Shane Boulton, Jimmy O Brien, Tommy O Brien, Diarmuid Killgallon, Calvin Nash – Wing

Ben O Connor, Andrew Osbourne, Jamie Osbourne – FB

Prop – Ellis Genge, Andrew Porter, Nicky Smith – Loose Head

Zander Fagerson, Will Stuart, Finlay Bealham – Tight Head

Hooker– Dan Sheehan, Jamie George, Luke Cowen Dickie

Second Row – Tadgh Beirne, Maro Itoje, Jonny Gray, Dafydd Jenkins

Back Row – Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Jac Morgan, Rory Darge

Number 8 – Caelan Doris, Jack Dempsey, Jack Conan

Backs-

Scrum Half – Jamison Gibson Park, Tomos Williams, Alex Mitchell

Fly Half – Fin Smith, Finn Russell, Marcus Smith

Centre – Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Bundee Aki, Garry Ringrose

Wing – Tommy Freeman, James Lowe, Darcy Graham, Duhan Van Der Merwe

Full Back – Blair Kinghorn, Blair Murray, Hugo Keenan

Here is my team of the 6 Nations that last night saw France crowned Champions after a 35-16 win over Scotland in Paris. Ireland defeated Italy in Rome 22-17 and England won 68-14 in Cardiff. France topped the table on 21 points with England in 2^nd on 20 points and Ireland in 3^rd on points difference.

My selection is made up of 6 French, 5 English, 2 Irish, one from Wales and Scotland. Here is my XV of the Championship –

15 Thomas Ramos –France

14 Louis Bielle Biarrey – France

13 Huw Jones – Scotland

12 Yoann Moefana- France

11 James Lowe – Ireland

10 Fin Smith – England

9 Alex Mitchell – England

8 Gregory Alldritt- France

7 Jac Morgan – Wales

6 Tom Curry- England

5 Thibault Flament – France

4 Maro Itoje – England

3 Uini Antonio – France

2 Dan Sheehan – Ireland

1 Ellis Genge – England

Jack Crowley will start at 10 this weekend in the final six nations game of the current campaign. He will start his first game of the Championship this year. He has been on the bench for the rest of the Championship.

His start comes in the week that has seen him linked with a move away from Ireland with Leicester Tigers apparently linked to make a big money move to replace the departing Handre Pollard who moves back to the URC and the Bulls next season.

Let’s hope that all the talk of moves and money will take a back seat in Italy on Saturday and Crowley can allow his rugby to do the talking in a game that is crucial to see Ireland finish the campaign on a winning note.

All week, we have seen talk of Jack Crowley and not one major mention of the impending game in Rome that will also see the International careers of both Conor Murray and Peter O Mahony come to a close. Cian Healy has been left out with Leinster team mate Jack Boyle taking his spot on the bench in the hope of winning a 2^nd cap.

The focus will shift towards a tie in Rome that will see Ireland in need of putting up a big score to put the pressure on both England and France later in the day. The Super Saturday element is there but only just and the smart money will still be on France to the needful on home soil on Saturday night vs Scotland.

Ireland have selected a well drilled side with only minimal change with Boyle coming in for Healy and Crowley stepping in at 10 for Prendergast. and Ringrose replace Bundee Aki in the centre. We get another chance to see the future of the Ireland loose head side with Jack Boyle getting another shot to come in for Andrew Porter at some stage of the game.

Finlay Bealham and Thomas Clarkson have shown the way forward on the tight head side in recent weeks with men like Oli Jager in the background keeping the pressure on along with Jack Auniger.

Tadgh Furlong gets a chance to see where he is at the moment given he has spent a large part of the season on the treatment table. Italy will test him out when he comes on.

Ireland will want to finish the Championship with a strong positive performance and will also want to show that they have learned from mistakes this campaign and will need to be very disciplined in defence and solid in attack as well as showing some adventure with an attacking game plan that has shown only glimpses of steps forward under Andrew Goodman.

Amazing that one loss had deflated the optimism that was there after the victory over England in week 1 even with the concession of the two late tries on that evening. The future will look after itself so for now it’s all eyes on Rome and putting the best foot forward….