Monaco climbed out of the Ligue 1 relegation zone following a dramatic 3-2 triumph over Rennes.

Marseille missed the chance to go top of Ligue 1 as their 1-1 home draw with Montpellier ended with three players sent off after a stoppage-time bust-up.

Liverpool return to Istanbul, scene of one of their greatest triumphs 14 years ago, for Wednesday’s UEFA Super Cup clash with Chelsea.

The received wisdom for Leinster’s loss was poles apart in the moments after Saturday’s final whistle and in the hours that followed when thousands of post-mortems had been undertaken in the pubs and eateries around Newcastle.

Toulouse face a ‘mountainous’ challenge against the premier club side in Europe when they face Leinster in the semi-final of the Champions Cup, according to double World Cup-winning All Black Jerome Kaino.

Four stunning quarter-finals, three of which were decided by a single score, made for a sensational weekend of Champions Cup rugby.

I am writing this in southwestern rural France, an hour before the start of ‘Le Crunch’, as the French call their annual rugby highlight against the elderberry-smelling English hamsters.

Bordeaux is one of the most frustrating of all wine regions, mainly because it is also the biggest.

The search for the missing plane taking Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala to his new team in Wales was called off for the night last night with authorities not expecting to find any survivors in the English Channel.

Jack Carty crowned a glorious week as he celebrating his call-up to the Irish squad by scoring the match-winning try three minutes from time to send Connacht into the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup.

It’s almost four years to the day since Connacht last lost a European pool game at home, and they need to maintain that impressive record against Sale Sharks this afternoon to claim top spot in Pool Three.

It says a lot about Connacht under Andy Friend that they were disappointed not to claim a bonus-point win over Top 14 outfit Bordeaux-Bègles as both teams tested the extent of their squads. But the coach left his players in no doubt that they have to improve their discipline or risk being dropped.

Connacht supporters won’t get to see Bordeaux-Begles’s world stars Semi Radradra, Brock James, Seta Tamanivalu, or Jean-Baptiste Serin today, as once again the Challenge Cup has failed to ignite French passions.

Four-time European champions Leinster will kick off the Champions Cup with a clash against Wasps in Dublin on Friday, October 12.

France 0 Denmark 0

After producing a couple of magic moments for Irish women’s football in their World Cup qualification campaign to date, Áine O’Gorman wants the team to deliver a meteoric one in the Norwegian coastal city of Stavanger this evening.

Wexford Youths striker Rianna Jarrett has put her injury nightmare behind her to earn a recall to the Ireland women’s squad for the first time since she made her senior debut against Italy in the Cyprus Cup in April 2016.

The Irish player of the year had missed the matches against Slovakia and the Netherlands in April with a broken collarbone.

Johann van Graan wasn’t concealing his own personal disappointment and the deep frustration in the Munster camp as players and management reflected on the error-ridden first half hour in Bordeaux on Sunday that condemned the province to yet another semi-final defeat in the European Champions Cup.

Keith Earls has had better Mondays.

Johann van Graan has been involved in some pretty significant semi-finals in his coaching career and as he began preparations for Munster’s mission to succeed in Bordeaux this Sunday he urged his players to “embrace the expectation”.

Munster hooker Niall Scannell has happy memories of his only other trip to South Africa when he captained Ireland to a stunning victory over the Baby Boks in the opening match of the 2012 Junior World Cup.

Thomond Park and its 26,000-plus fanatics made quite the din last Saturday. 

It will be a special occasion for CJ Stander to play in his hometown George on Saturday, says Munster coach Johann van Graan.

Player of the Year Harriet Scott has been ruled out of the two matches due to a collarbone injury whilst striker Stephanie Roche continues her spell on the sidelines with a long-term injury.

Bordeaux may have to prepare for another Irish invasion.

Time to confess. I’m a European nationalist (if such a thing is possible), if I could afford it I would buy Paul Smith over Ralph Lauren, Citroen over Chrysler, Bordeaux over Napa Valley, Cornas over Barossa.

“We’ll just go out and prove them wrong!”

The entertainment from Bordeaux’s Stade Chaban-Delmas wasn’t restricted to events on the pitch last Friday.

France coach Jacques Brunel laid out his vision of the future yesterday in handing a test debut to a teenage fly-half and including just one player over the age of 30.

Meanwhile, Joe Schmidt has no injury concerns ahead of the trip to Paris.

Premier League

Gennaro Gattuso's 10-man Milan, already languishing down in seventh, were thrashed 3-0 at lowly Hellas Verona.

They may have survived some scares in Nijmegen last night but Ireland remain well in the mix to challenge for World Cup qualification after preventing the Netherlands from extending their winning run to 12 matches.

Tonight’s World Cup qualifier in Nijmegen could feature six Arsenal players with Ireland’s Gunners pair Louise Quinn and Katie McCabe hoping to have the measure of their Dutch comrades.

Given how precious and frail dressing-room confidence can be, you’ll take all the positive bounces you can get, even if they are not of your making.

In Pool Five of the European Challenge Cup, Connacht made it two wins from two with an uninspiring 15-8 victory over Worcester, who suffered their ninth away defeat in a row in the competition.

Lionel Messi scored twice as Barcelona beat Las Palmas 3-0 in a game played behind closed doors after the Spanish league refused Barca’s plea to postpone the game on the day of the highly-charged Catalonia referendum.

Northern Ireland 0 Republic of Ireland 2: Megan Campbell starred for Ireland last night as they easily overcame Northern Ireland in Lurgan to begin their 2019 World Cup quest with victory.

One day short of the first year anniversary of their last competitive game, Ireland’s women’s team open the World Cup qualification quest tonight against neighbours Northern Ireland at Mourneview Park in Lurgan (7.30pm).

Bordeaux is the largest fine-wine producing region on the planet and produces around 700m bottles of wine from its 120,000 hectares, says Leslie Williams.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Tyrone Mings have both been charged by the FA for incidents of alleged violent conduct in Saturday’s 1-1 draw between Manchester United and Bournemouth.