Leinster today missed out on Heineken Cup quarter-final qualification for the first time in three years, as they collapsed to defeat at Olympique Biarritz.

A win today for Connacht against Narbonne has put them in the semi-finals of the Parker-Pen European Challenge Cup. In this, the second leg of their quarter final, Connacht came from behind to beat Narbonne 16 - 10 in Galway. This win gave them an aggregate win over the two legs of 43 - 28.

Ulster coach Alan Solomons had to admit last night that they cost themselves a Heineken Cup quarter final place by not beating Gwent Dragons away from home earlier in the competition.

Munster coach Alan Gaffney has stuck with pretty much the same team for this weekend’s clash against Bourgoin as played against Treviso last weekend. The only change to the line-up sees Marcus Horgan coming in at prop in place of Gordon McIlwham

There were no surprises today when Gary Ella announced his Leinster team for their final Heineken Cup pool game against Biarritz on Saturday. The only change to the team see’s out-half Christian Warner returning to the side for Matt Leek.

Eddie O’Sullivan has provisionally named Brian O’Driscoll as captain in his squad of 34 for the RBS Six Nations 2004. O’Sullivan will have to cut his squad down to 22 by next Thursday but for the moment the squad is as follows

Michael Bradley made two changes to his Connacht side to play Narbonne on Sunday. Bradley had a full squad available to him for the match and his team sees Paul Neville and Conor O’Loughlin both coming back into the side.

Despite now not being in a position to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup, Ulster coach Alan Solomons still has every intention of winning their final Pool game on Friday.

As expected today the government gave the go ahead for the joint IRFU/FAI proposal to redevelop Lansdowne Road. The Government gave backing for the 50,000 all seater, state of the art stadium at the existing IRFU stadium site at Lansdowne Road.

With only one team qualified for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup so far it’s all to play for for Leinster and Munster this weekend. Ulster will be looking to play for pride in their match this weekend also.