After a mountainous 21 weekends of Top 14, we go into Week 22 on Saturday balancing the necessity to finish in the top two with the semi-final of the European Champions Cup in a fortnight

The Champions Cup is what Munster gauge themselves against. Spare a thought for Denis Leamy this week. Imagine, is that the best they can do to represent him? I don’t think so.

I like players who are receptive to learning and new ideas and I have the Denis Irwin of French rugby in our dressingroom.

Scott Robertson's appointment as All Blacks head coach is thrilling but we've done the family thing in a different hemisphere.

The most potent extra Andy Farrell's side has added is shedding their predictability and gaining the capacity to keep the ball alive.

Scotland's talisman Finn Russell started his week with a commute from Paris - will he finish it by derailing Andy Farrell's Grand Slam hopes?

We lost two more men who lived the province's mantra this week.

The trip to Paris is the litmus test for Gregor Townsend's side's credentials.  

From quite some way back, the French management and squad has been targeting the second round of the Six Nations. Their eye might not have been totally on Italy. But it will be on Ireland

As a country that has perennially got its RWC cycles wrong, a poor Six Nations will rankle and seep deeper into the consciousness in Ireland than it would the other five nations.