Connacht, for a team which has won almost 45% of its matches in the Heineken Champions Cup, still has a lot to learn how to compete in Europe’s premier tournament.

Andy Friend’s Connacht can knock down another barrier in Gloucester tomorrow and in the process take a big step towards a new milestone as they continue to grow impressively under the Australian.

Romain Poite will take charge of Saracens' visit to play Munster at Thomond Park on Saturday week as the referees for the back-to-back Champions Cup games were announced.

Connacht forward Eoghan Masterson, after finally making his Champions Cup debut last weekend, is determined to create more history in France tomorrow when they take on Toulouse.

In the throes of the action, I’ll be like every other fan, intrigued by Racing 92’s Heineken Cup visit to Thomond Park tomorrow.

Former Munster CEO Garrett Fitzgerald has defended the province's handling of the signing of the "exceptional young man" Gerbrandt Grobler.

The text message came through on Billy Burns’ phone seconds after the draw was made.

Mark McCall’s public confession that Saracens may have to sacrifice the Champions’ Cup in order to preserve their domestic status will have fallen on stony ground all over Europe.

Ultan Dillane and Kieran Marmion remain as replacement options.

Thomas Cook staff left in limbo are preparing to go without their wages tomorrow – which should have been their payday – following the collapse of the travel giant.

As Japan prepares to get Asia’s first Rugby World Cup underway at the Tokyo Stadium tonight (11.45am Irish time), it would be all too easy to forget their opponents as the planet turns its gaze towards the Brave Blossoms.

The importance of Munster getting a good start to their Champions Cup campaign was underlined by the release of the pool fixtures this morning.

You can hear the excitement in Ian Whitten’s voice as he described the feeling of being in an Exeter Chiefs back-line when everything comes together. The bad news for Munster is that the Ulsterman experienced that buzz only last weekend as the Chiefs put Castres to the sword to set up tomorrow’s pivotal Heineken Champions Cup pool finale at Thomond Park.

One of the more remarkable points to consider about Munster’s upturn in attacking form over the last three weeks is the lack of gametime the province’s inside backs have had together.

Peter Jackson gets over the gain line, behind the headline.

Mike Haley has a debt of gratitude to Danny Cipriani for the mentoring he provided the full-back as a young professional in the Sale Sharks academy. Now on opposing teams, the Munster full-back knows just how dangerous he will be for Gloucester at Kingsholm tomorrow night, should the fly-half pass a fitness test today.

For all the buzz generated by an exciting bonus-point derby victory over Connacht last week, Peter O’Mahony’s return to the fray also coincided with a return to Munster basics.

Munster put the “Sold Out” signs up at Thomond Park yesterday as supporters snapped up the last of the tickets for the Heineken Champions Cup pool finale with Exeter Chiefs but it is the penultimate game this Friday night that is occupying Johann van Graan.

Munster took pole position of Conference A in the Guinness PRO14 on Saturday night as they scored a bonus-point victory against interprovincial rivals Connacht and banished their poor away form.

Beating Leinster may have been one hell of a way to end 2018 but Munster have to start the new year with equally pressing obstacles to clear, beginning tonight against Connacht.

Munster needed this. Even Johann van Graan admitted as much.

Farrell, a native of Ulster, has been desperately unfortunate with injuries.

Munster supporters will finally get their wish this evening when Conor Murray partners Joey Carbery at half-back for the first time in provincial colours.

From the moment pre-season began at Gloucester this summer, there has been a sense something special could be brewing in the West Country.

Johann van Graan praised Keith Earls’s selflessness in putting his side first after ruling himself out of Munster’s European clash at Exeter just before kick-off.

THAT was a game Munster will be glad to have put behind them. Johann van Graan’s side will attack with relish preparations for this Saturday’s visit of Gloucester, after returning home from a daunting, Heineken Champions Cup pool opener, at Exeter Chiefs, with a lot more than expected.

Leicester boss Geordan Murphy has described Irish rugby’s provincial set-up as brilliant saying there is a “conveyor belt” of talent to choose from.

Conor Murray is targeting the November internationals for his return to action as he celebrates inking a new three-year IRFU deal which will make him the highest paid player in Irish rugby history.

Ulster’s new will-o’-the-wisp fly-half Billy Burns is in ebullient mood ahead of tomorrow’s PRO14 clash with Edinburgh, one of only two teams that chalked up a victory at the Kingspan Stadium last season.

Munster forwards Jean Kleyn and Rhys Marshall will undergo operations this summer, while Jack O'Donoghue is set for a scan on his knee injury.

Ross Moriarty has revealed the full extent of a horror injury that ended his British and Irish Lions tour and left him unable to climb stairs.

An amateur endurance athlete and his three friends are believed to have set a new world record for rowing the Atlantic, raising more than £250,000 in memory of his tragic mother in the process.

As he reflects on last week’s defeat to Munster at Thomond Park, Jonny May puffs out his cheeks and sighs.

Former archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has been asked to step down as an honorary assistant bishop in Oxford after a damning review found that senior Church of England officials colluded with a bishop who abused young men.

From the English City, via the Edinburgh of the South, to the spiritual home of the Maori people, the last seven days of this 2017 British and Irish Lions tour have been a study in the shifting timeframes, cultures, and traditions of New Zealand.

A near-frozen Glasgow and an in-form Warriors provide yet another test of this Munster’s side mettle this evening as Rassie Erasmus’s players bid to reach the Champions Cup knockout rounds with a week to spare.

So, what a momentous week this was. Ireland qualified for the second round of the European Championships revisiting, in doing so, the heady days of the 1988 competition which heralded a new era of self-belief and may even have helped set the national psyche for the real tiger times. Oh, and Brexit. 

Same again, please, would sum up Michael Ryan’s approach at Badminton this weekend.

Police are excavating the former home of a paedophile couple who knew serial killers Fred and Rose West.

A key figure before the Rising, Thomas Hunter is hardly known outside his native north Cork, reports Niall Murray

A nine-year-old girl sustained fatal injuries when she was kicked by another horse while riding her pony in England.