Peter Jackson gets over the gain line, behind the headline

Peter Jackson gets over the gain line, behind the headline

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.

At face value, European rugby’s semi-finals bore all the hallmarks of sell-out occasions: The champions of England against the Red Army in one, the holders at home in Dublin against the most famous of French clubs in the other.

Mark McCall made a record-breaking start to his first crack at the European Cup as head coach of Ulster. He responded by resigning.

The European Champions’ Cup emerges from hibernation next week offering a ray of sunshine for those Irish players hung out to dry after the deluge and days of cascading criticism.

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

Sergio Parisse has nothing much to show for 16 years of international rugby beyond a global admiration for his gallantry in the face of overwhelming odds.

Judging by the gushing reaction from their newly-converted pundits, the PRO14’s new pay-per-view broadcasters will not be short of cheerleaders.

Donnacha Ryan has come a long way in a very short time, from Tipperary across the Pyrenees via Paris for a crack at joining one of rugby’s rarest breeds.

Irrespective of how pronounced the home advantage may appear in tomorrow’s semi-final, Leinster know the Scarlets have a habit of turning conventional wisdom to dust, writes Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson looks at what the weekend’s European rugby action has thought us. 

"Subs have been running roughshod all over the place, like a herd of buffalo".

Peter Jackson analyses the good and bad from the Champions Cup...

The Irish have done European rugby many mighty favours over the years and now they are about to do the mightiest one of all.

Fifty years ago sons of Glasgow marched on Lisbon, as Celtic became the first British team to win football’s European Cup. Now the city’s rugby Warriors are striving for their own European conquest — at the home of seemingly invincible Saracens.

Munster’s courageous recapture of Glasgow en route towards reinstating Limerick as Europe’s rugby capital raises a strange question this morning: What ever happened to the drop goal?

House-to-house inquiries across the rugby centres of Europe have revealed a disturbing fact. As of late last night, only six Irish survivors were left in the Champions’ Cup.

They give the impression of having it all — the world’s most charismatic player, match-winners all over the pitch, and an Irish skills coach better versed than anyone else in the art of conquering Europe.

Maybe there will have to be a law against Toulon, one denouncing them as bad for business because they are too good for everyone else.

Johnny Sexton had suffered a few knockouts in his time but never one like this — sitting on a chair in a Paris suburb just off the peripherique.

Since rescuing Wasps from the knacker’s yard 18 months ago, Derek Richardson has sent them to Coventry and increased support from 5,000 to almost 30,000 virtually overnight

Considering he had blown enough fuses in his time to put the lights out all over Limerick, Jamie Cudmore was always liable to leave Munster in a dark place.

Ireland’s most-capped hooker, Rory Best, has been handed the captaincy of Ulster for a second time.

They pride themselves up north in getting straight to the point and saying what they think, so let’s not beat about the bush — Jerome Garces got it right.