Johann van Graan defended his decision not to start Simon Zebo in yesterday’s Champions Cup semi-final against Racing 92.

Munster 36 Ospreys 10: Johann van Graan has declared the transition from one Munster coach to the next at an end as he begins preparation for the first acid test of his new team’s European credentials on Saturday.

Munster 14 Racing 7: Heart, guts, belief. Rassie Erasmus neatly summarised the attributes in the Munster squad that he hands over to Johann van Graan over the next month or so and which his successor saw at first hand on an archetypal European night at Thomond Park.

Benetton Treviso v Munster: We know what Connacht have done to us, while Treviso have been overturning teams like Ospreys and Edinburgh.

Keith Earls summed it up neatly when asked this week about what sort of pedigree Saracens will bring to Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

Munster headed for Paris yesterday eager to move their Champions Cup ambitions forward and yet accompanied by the understandable impulse to revert back to October when they lost their colleague and friend Anthony Foley.

Involvement in a major “derby” game on St Stephen’s Day used to be a novelty for Munster’s New Zealand out-half Tyler Bleyendaal. It’s high summer and off-season back home where he would normally be enjoying the beach and sunshine.

Against all the odds, the Rassie Erasmus era began with a morale-boosting 23-13 victory for Munster over a much-fancied Scarlets side in West Wales.

Former Leinster centre Collie O’Shea will partner Cian Bohane in Munster’s midfield tomorrow night as Rassie Erasmus begins his search for willing alternatives to the injured Francis Saili.

Munster’s brave new dawn begins this weekend as restructured men’s and women’s Division One leagues get underway.

Efforts to bring more international students to colleges here are failing despite major Government strategies.

Ireland won a small victory in its fight to retain as much as possible of it’s €1.6 billion a year from the EU’s common agriculture fund as negotiations on the Union’s seven-year €1 trillion budget got underway.

Negotiations on next year’s EU budget are in danger of collapsing unless EU finance ministers can reach agreement by midnight tomorrow.

Scientists, including a team from University College Cork, have discovered a genetic link believed to be responsible for osteoporosis.

IRELAND senior men’s interim coach Dave Passmore believes the young players in his squad will be in for a serious test as they take on Argentina in the first of an international double-header at Belfield tonight (7.30pm).