The Heineken Cup restarts tonight and I’m sure everyone will be glued to their TV to see whether Northampton can cause a huge upset when they face Toulouse. From an Irish point of view there’s nothing much happening but the three provinces in action this weekend should announce their squads today.

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.

>Ulster finally put some daylight between themselves and Connacht when they beat the Borders by 17 points to 13 last night at Ravenhill. While they are now 3 points ahead of Connacht they’ll be very dissapointed that they weren’t able to beat bottom placed Borders by more. However Connacht have a more difficult final two matches so Ulster will be confident of claiming the final Heineken Cup spot.

• Munster have announced their team to take on The Dragons at Rodeny Parade tomorrow evening. The match will see the return of all their internationals with the exception of Paul O’Connell who will miss out due to his suspension. More confusing however is the story of Munster’s new signing Brian Lima. Lima had been scheduled to arrive last Tuesday and some reports said he had even completed his medical, but today it was announced that he is arriving tomorrow. The late arrivial will mean he will not play with Munster before the quarter-final with Biarittz

Leinster held off Connacht to complete a double over Connacht this season and open a gap between themselves and The Dragons in the race for third place in the Celtic League. Meanwhile the losing bonus point that Connacht picked up in the 21 points to 26 defeat moves them one point ahead of Ulster in the race for the third Irish Heineken Cup spot.

Leinster coach Declan Kidney has named a 28 man squad for this weekend’s trip to Connacht in the Celtic League. Current captain Shane Jennings is absent with a foot injury but Felipe Contepomi, Gary Brown and Leo Cullen are back from injury.

Leinster have announced that their outhalf David Holwell will return to New Zealand when his contract expires at the end of the season. Holwell who joined the province in October has added an extra dimension to the side at outhalf, a position they have struggled with in recent years.

With Munster losing last night the Ospreys were all but assured of the Celtic League title if they managed a win over Leinster. They achieved this with a 16 points to 12 win over the Leinster men. Leinster started well and even led at half-time but two tries for The Ospreys in the second half put the game beyond Leinster and most likely put the League out of the reach of Munster.

The Leinster branch have announced that 31,000 of the 48,000 tickets for their Heineken Cup quarter-final with Leicester have already been snapped up and that leaves 17,000 tickets which Leinster Chief Executive Mick Dawson will be snapped up very quickly.

A thumping seven try victory over fourth placed Newport-Gwent Dragons saw Leinster close to within four points of Munster in the Celtic League. An almost full strength Leinster side, took on The Dragons who were devoid of eight of their starting line-up due to International duty with Wales.