On the one hand, Andy Friend is delighted that only Bundee Aki is missing on Six Nations duty as Connacht prepare for a real 10-pointer against a Cardiff Blues side who are just below them in the table.

League One Shrewsbury have been handed a dream trip to Chelsea in the FA Cup fifth round if they can find a way past Premier League leaders Liverpool.

IT said it all about the predicament in which Manchester United find themselves that their 2-0 defeat to Burnley at Old Trafford on Wednesday night felt like a huge deal for the visitors but, in a very strange way, just more of the same for those home supporters who clogged the exits with ten minutes still to play.

Greg Cunningham has returned to parent club Cardiff after his loan spell at Blackburn was cut short by injury.

Tottenham booked a fourth round trip to Southampton after surviving a late scare in a 2-1 win over Middlesbrough.

Eoghan Barrett made an instant impact on his professional debut with Pau.

A grim night for the visitors to the RDS. And it could have been much worse.

Since rugby history was made when Romania’s Farul Constanta played eventual winners Toulouse in the first ever pool match, the Heineken Cup has produced some of the most breathtaking moments in the sport. Simon Lewis gives us his top 25

The Irish provincial video analysts will be busily plugging into footage of the French Top 14 ahead of this season’s European Champions Cup. All four representatives have been handed French assignments over the next three months - with Connacht getting a double helping.

Cardiff Blues ended their four-game winless run in the Guinness PRO14 with a 30-17 victory over the 14-man Cheetahs.

Munster were ruthless and clinical as they ended a two-year wait for a win at the Arms Park by putting Cardiff Blues to the sword to leave the Welsh capital with a priceless bonus-point.

The host will be without a sizeable number of internationals including record try-scoring wing Josh Adams along with fellow Welsh stars, Owen Lane and Hallam Amos.

Andy Friend has knocked down a few barriers since arriving in Galway 15 months ago, and this evening (kick-off 7.35pm) hopes to win in Wales for the first time since he took charge of Connacht.

Blackburn’s on-loan Cardiff defender Greg Cunningham is set to be sidelined for several months with a serious knee injury.

Leeds’ Achilles heel hurt them once more as the Sky Bet Championship leaders were held 1-1 at home by Derby.

Jack Carty got the official prize, but who was your man-of-the-match?

Simon Lewis looks at how Wales and Ireland shape up ahead of their World Cup warm-up.

Joe Schmidt has urged his players not to go into their shells when Ireland get their chance to atone for their Twickenham nightmare against Wales tomorrow.

How do you stand out by fitting in? This is the quandary that faces players across all sports when they are looking to make a name for themselves.

Don’t try and tell Peter O’Mahony that Ireland’s Twickenham trouncing was, in some weird way, a ‘good’ thing.

England in Dublin last February was a “mental failure”.

Ireland rugby head coach, Joe Schmidt, has put his front-line stars under pressure ahead of the Test against Wales, in Cardiff, this Saturday. He says his World Cup selection process is still wide-open.

Pat Fitzpatrick writes a letter to his kids about his parenting.

Cardiff City Stadium will host the 2020 Guinness PRO14 final.

The striker, on loan from Arsenal, struck just four minutes after his introduction as a 77th-minute substitute.

The draw was made after completion of 33 first-round fixtures last night and includes all the top-flight clubs who are not involved in European competitions.

Promotion favourites Fulham suffered a blast of Championship reality with a shock opening-weekend 1-0 loss at Barnsley.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has told Paul Pogba and any other wantaway players that Manchester United will not be pressured into selling.

Lionel Messi was controversially sent off as Argentina beat Chile 2-1 to win the Copa America third-place play-off in Sao Paulo.

Manchester United fans were involved in more football-related arrests where racism was an aggravating factor or a feature than any other club in England in the four seasons up to 2017-18, data from the UK Home Office shows.

Tommy Bowe believes Ireland’s players will have been “rattled” by their Six Nations defeat to Wales last March.

He stands one game from a Champions League winners’ medal in Madrid this evening but the Brazilian midfielder Fabinho also takes to the field against Tottenham as exhibit A for the argument that there may be no better man manager in the modern game than Jurgen Klopp.

Greg Cunningham has known more than a few hard knocks in his career but learning to roll with the punches didn’t make a doubly unrewarding season with Cardiff City — one which saw the club relegated from the Premier League and appearances in short supply for the Galway full back — any less easy to take.

Gareth Thomas had to stop and gather himself more than once today. His voice faltered. It choked with emotion. Who knows how many times his nerves were betrayed by an subconscious impulse to tug at his right ear?

Never mind the pointless abomination that was United versus Cardiff. The final whistle has just gone at Brighton versus City, and I find myself yelping a cheer for the triumphant Blues.

“Don’t get me wrong,” sighed a favourite old colleague as we balefully examined United’s dim final-week prospects yesterday morning. “I’m still glad Ole’s at the wheel. It’s just that he’s driving a sodding clown car.”

It would have been a crying shame if, after such supreme consistency from the top two, the Premier League title race had been decided before the final day. Having witnessed a battle without any of the typical twists and turns, anything but a final shootout would have been anticlimactic.

Before this season, only five teams in Premier League history had broken the 90-point barrier. The list of exceptional sides who missed that mark includes Arsenal’s Invincibles, Manchester City’s first title-winning team in 2011/12, and Manchester United in 2006/07, who had eight representatives in the PFA Team of the Year.

Champions Cup spots were up for grabs today.

Defeat for Cardiff means relegation is now a very realistic possibility for them.

The battle for promotion from the Championship reaches a crescendo this weekend with at least eight teams still dreaming of making it into the Premier League and two able to seal it right now. But how well prepared are any of the sides for what could lie ahead?

Munster’s acceptance they were outgunned by Saracens last weekend was an admission of the gulf in class between Johann van Graan’s side and Europe’s elite. But the province is still intent on ruling the roost closer to home.

If anyone, at this late, nerve-shredding stage of the Premier League title race, had the ability to somehow summon actor Sean Connery into proceedings, then Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp was your man yesterday.