European Action Preview
This weekend sees the return of European Rugby following the break for the Six Nations. Three of the four Irish provinces are in action. First up on Saturday it’s the turn of Connacht in the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup, then later that evening Leinster will be looking to bury the ghosts of their past performances in the competition when they take on Leicester in Landsdowne Road. Finally on Sunday all eyes will turn to San Sebastian, Spain, where Munster are set to face French giants Biarritz. All in all it’s set to be a massive weekend of European Competition.
- Connacht V Sale Sharks
The first province in action is Connacht. Controversy has shrouded the fixture as initially Sale were to play at home in the first leg but they seem to have lied their way into having the first leg away. Connacht will be riled up because of this but I think Sale, who are flying in the Zurich Premiership at the moment, will be far too good for Connacht and they are rightly favourites to beat Connacht and to win the Tournament. The match is on Sky Sports 2 at 1pm. - Leinster V Leicester
Next up is arguably the biggest game of the weekend, and certainly the most difficult to call. Leinster will be taking on Leicester at home but this seems to be scant reward for Leinster’s impressive form in the Pool stages of the competition. Leicester only scraped out of the ‘Pool of Death’ which contained Wasps and Biarritz, thus setting up a quarter-final with number 1 seeds Leinster. The match is too difficult to call with Leicester appearing to be slight favourites on Betfair. The match is far too tight to call for me and I’m just going to tune in on Saturday at 17.15 to catch all the action. - Biarritz V Munster
The weekend finishes with Munster’s trip to Spain to face Biarritz. Biarritz qualified in impressive form out of the toughest Pool in the competition. They beat Leicester at home and away, while also beating Wasps on one of their encounters. They have talent such as Betsen and Yachvilli which other teams would kill for. Munster on the other hand have an ageing team and if that wasn’t bad enough they’ve suffered a ridiculous amount of injuries including new signing Brian Lima. Munster however will have an extremely large travelling support and will be well up for the game. It will be extremely difficult and victory would need a performance bigger than the ‘Miracle Match’ but it is a possibility. The only way to find out will be to watch on RTE or Sky Sports at 15.00 on Sunday.