Connacht have continued their marvellous Parker Pen Challenge Cup run with a victory over Narbonne. Connacht won 28-17 in France, defying the odds to take that lead into the return leg at home next weekend.
Munster coach Alan Gaffney seemed relieved today after his side survived first-half complacency, to win the match and claim the bonus points against Treviso.
Ulster’s Heineken Cup chances seem on the rocks tonight after they fell to a 13-10 defeat in Paris against Stade Français in their Heineken Cup Pool Match. Despite a
leading at half-time Ulster were unable to hold on to their lead and lost. However the did manage to remain within 7 points of Stade Francais so did gain a bonus point.
Leinster made life extremely difficult for themselves at Landsdown Road tonight, in their Heineken Cup game against Cardiff Blues. At half-time Leinster were on level terms with Cardiff at 17-17 but only 10 minutes before half-time Leinster had been leading by 17 points to 3. Despite throwing away this lead and enduring 40 scoreless minutes in the second half the record Leinster crowd were delighted when Brian O’Meara took the game with a penalty kick in the dying minutes to win by 20 points to 17.
Despite the speculation to the contrary, it now appears that Brian O’Driscoll will miss the start of the RBS Six Nations. In recent days, news had appeared that seemed to indicate that the injury to his hamstring wasn’t as bad as initially thought, but his father and agent Frank, has said that the initial assesment of the injury remains.
Gary Ella has made a number of changes from his team that beat Sale last weekend. Brendan Burke will make his home Heineken Cup debut against Cardiff on Friday night.
Munster have made only one change to their team ahead of their Heineken Cup match on Saturday against Treviso. Alan Gaffney has decided that Gordon McIlwham will replace Marcus Horan in the starting line-up.
The IRFU and the FAI unveiled their joint proposal for the future of Landsdowne Road today. The design is for a completely new 50,000-seater stadium. The design would be completely within the boundaries of the IRFU’s existing land at Landsdowne Road.
Connacht have made a number of changes to their team ahead of their Challenge Cup quarter-final clash against Narbonne this weekend. This is no surprise as Connacht coach Michael Bradley has practices a policy of squad rotation all season.
Des Dillon has been ruled out of action for 2 weeks having injured his shoulder. Dillon came on against Sale last weekend as a replacement for Victor Costello and was quite impressive.