RICHARD COCKERILL wasn’t the first Leicester coach to dismiss the significance of an iconic Irish stadium when he glossed over the return of five of his players to the Aviva this evening so soon after their Six Nations trauma with England.

AS A tactic to impress the Twickenham hierarchy, sending your entire team out to get drunk together on Sunday night is an unusual one, even for Jim Mallinder.

BEFORE Northampton Saints travelled to Thomond Park to play Munster in January Dylan Hartley, their captain, talked about the image he had in his mind of Paul O’Connell leading out a side of giants, breathing fire and using every trick in the book to win the game before the first whistle had even been blown.

YANN DAVID will earn just his second cap for France in Friday’s Test against world champions South Africa.