The IRFU is set to pocket a very welcome seven-figure sum as a result of Munster’s and Leinster’s Champions Cup quarter-final successes over the weekend with the eventual figure possibly stretching as high as €2m.

Munster props James Cronin and Brian Scott, Connacht second-row Quinn Roux and Leinster’s Jordi Murphy make their first starts in the famous colours of the Barbarians who face Tonga at Thomond Park tonight (7.30pm).

Asking a player if they are out to avenge a previous defeat is normally the most futile of exercises, but Bath’s Leroy Houston is full of surprises.

Romania were the odd ones out in Pool D at the weekend when they had to sit and watch their four counterparts stretch their legs, but their best foot has been put forward for the meeting with France tomorrow in the form of their most experienced team of all time.

European Cup winner Bryn Cunningham is the new Ulster team manager. The 36-year-old former Ireland A and Dungannon full-back will have a role similar to that of departed Director of Rugby David Humphreys in dealing with players’ contracts plus other incidentals associated with the senior Ulster squad.

The last time Cardiff staged the final, there were 12 Irish on the pitch and another 30,000 or so packed into the Millennium Stadium to witness Leinster’s second European conquest.

The Heineken Cup as we know it has just seven games to run. When it is consigned to history at the end of the season in favour of its successor, the proposed new European Champions Cup, we will look back with fond memories on the last 19 seasons of memorable European action and the joy the tournament brought for rugby supporters across the competing nations.

Leicester 19 Ulster 22

What we'll learn from the Heineken Cup.

We’ve been spoilt over the years with the frequency of Munster and Leinster being paired with Toulouse and Clermont Auvergne in either the pool or knockout stages of the Heineken Cup. At its best, French club rugby is irresistible and in those two outstanding sides, we have been exposed to the very best it has to offer.

Marcus Horan joined the growing list of ‘golden generation’ Ireland players to call time on their career.

Earning a home tie in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals is a massive advantage — just one in four of all the last-eight matches have been won by the away team.

They’re at it again!

Simon Mason turned up at Lansdowne Road bright and early for the game of his life, a net of balls slung over his shoulder.

Playing on European rugby’s most exclusive stage may be a rarity to Ulster but they pack more than enough experience to offset any big-game jitters according to Jonathan Bell who won the Heineken Cup with the province in 1999.

Former Ulster Coach Mark McCall believes Ulster have a 50/50 chance of overcoming Leinster in the Heineken Cup Final at Twickenham on May 19.

Pedrie Wannenburg is aiming for a dream end to his Ulster career after his try-scoring performance helped secure a 22-19 victory over Edinburgh and a place in the Heineken Cup final.

Forget the heroics of 1999, in picking Paddy Jackson to start at fly-half in today’s Heineken Cup semi-final with Edinburgh (5.45pm), Brian McLaughlin could not have sent out a clearer message to the Ulster faithful that his team is ready to write a new chapter in their history.

Paddy Jackson was still in short trousers and more interested in football than rugby when Ulster defeated Colomiers 21-6 to win the 1999 Heineken Cup.

For a team determined to finally shake off the burden of a famous victory, Ulster’s class of 2012 could well do with their supporters repeating their feats of 1999 when they face Edinburgh on Saturday at a packed Aviva Stadium.

Munster director of coaching Tony McGahan’s appointment as Australia’s coaching co-ordinator has finally been confirmed by the Wallabies hierarchy.

Never mind which Irish province will win the Heineken Cup, which of the three Irish coaches still involved in the tournament has the best chance of guiding his side to European glory?

ULSTER coach Brian McLaughlin has said many times that the reason for the team’s improvement is experience, character and the hard-nose leadership shown by many of his players.

Ireland’s Geordan Murphy misses tomorrow’s trip to the Aviva, but plenty of his Leicester colleagues have a difficult experience at the new stadium to call on. Simon Lewis reports

It’s been 12 years since Ulster’s Heineken Cup success, and the same since they made the knockout phase of the competition. Too long, says the province’s stalwarts. Brendan O’Brien took the temperature ahead of Sunday’s clash with Northampton

A MASSIVE French pack brought Ireland’s winning start to the Under 20 Six Nations to an abrupt end at Dubarry Park last night.

THE HEINEKEN Cup may be all about furthering wider European ambitions but Andrew Trimble will be partly motivated by local realities when Ulster face Biarritz today in the province's biggest game for a dozen years.

ANXIOUS Ulster winger Andrew Trimble came through a last-minute fitness test on a hamstring twinge and is ready to tackle Biarritz at Ravenhill this afternoon.

BIARRITZ maintained their unbeaten start in Pool Four of the Heineken Cup with an emphatic bonus-point home victory over Ulster.

Biarritz 35 Ulster 15

STADE FRANCAIS prop David Attoub has had his 70-week ban for eye-gouging reduced to 52 weeks by France’s Olympic Committee (CNOSF).

Stade Francais prop David Attoub has had his 70-week ban for eye gouging reduced to 52 weeks by France’s Olympic Committee (CNOSF).

IN the not-too-distant past, there was a time when a Heineken Cup fixture on French soil was approached with quivering trepidation.

David Attoub today had his appeal against a 70-week ban for gouging thrown out by an independent appeal committee.

Diarmuid O’Flynn pays tribute to Declan O’Connell, the original Munster rugby fan

Stade Francais prop David Attoub has today been handed a 70-week ban for eye gouging by an independent judicial officer.

YET another Munster invasion of France beckons this weekend and with it, no doubt, another clutch of ‘planes, trains and automobiles’ tales from their legion of resourceful travelling fans.

ENOUGH is enough for big Michael Reid, as he resigns after 12 rollercoaster years in the role as chief executive of Ulster Rugby.

THE Heineken Cup final is set to return to Dublin for the third time in the tournament’s history in 2011 and the newly-named Aviva Stadium will be the venue.

MUNSTER fans in the Stade de Sapiac this afternoon and those watching on television will need to take a second look when the Munster guy with the number one on his back trots out this afternoon for the Heineken Cup clash with Montauban.

LAST night’s New Year’s Eve bash at the Anthony Horgan household was due to double as a leaving do.

MARCUS HORAN’S ninth Heineken Cup try for Munster in his 50th start for the province at Stade Marcel Michelin last Sunday might never have happened.

LAURENT Labit sits comfortably into a seat outside an auditorium at France Televisions, minutes after the Paris launch of the Heineken Cup.

HE MAY not carry as high a profile as the many other New Zealanders plying their trade in professional rugby on this side of the globe but in many ways Jason Holland is as vital a cog in the Munster machine as any player or any member of the backroom staff.