A first home semi-final is the prize for Connacht if they overcome this evening’s Challenge Cup quarter-final opponents Gloucester at Kingsholm.

England have made the first changes of their 2015 RBS 6 Nations campaign after naming Alex Goode and Jack Nowell in their starting XV to face Ireland on Sunday.

One imagines Nigel Carolan and the rest of his U20s management team have spent many an hour poring over footage of England’s opening Six Nations loss to Wales in Colwyn Bay this last two weeks.

Leigh Halfpenny says Wales will carry their Twickenham "hurt" of last season into tomorrow night’s RBS 6 Nations opener against England.

Leinster fans will be smiling today with the news of their pool draw for next season’s European Rugby Champions Cup.

Gloucester have identified the individual who threw a plastic bottle at referee Tim Wigglesworth in Saturday’s stormy west country derby against Bath as a schoolboy.

Having being omitted from Warren Gatland’s Lions squad, Perpignan fly-half James Hook could line out against the British and Irish outfit, having been named in the provisional Barbarians squad.

Wasps flanker James Haskell will make his first RBS 6 Nations start in nearly two years when England tackle Ireland in Dublin on Sunday.

At the third time of asking, Ireland finally triumphed over arch-rivals England in the Junior World Cup in Cape Town yesterday, a victory that puts them into a final play-off for fifth place against France later this week.

England’s interim head coach Stuart Lancaster will name at least eight uncapped players in his 22-man squad to face Scotland in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup showdown.

Delon Armitage will start on the left wing for England in place of Mark Cueto in Saturday’s decisive Rugby World Cup Pool B showdown with Scotland.

Matt Stevens’ return from the ignominy of a drugs ban continued today when he was confirmed in England’s 45-man Rugby World Cup training squad.

Heineken Cup champions Leinster will be joined as top seeds in next season’s competition by Toulouse, Munster, Cardiff Blues, Biarritz and Leicester.

MUNSTER’S backroom reshuffle for next season continued yesterday with the appointment of Ian Costello as both skills and A team coach.

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

England manager Martin Johnson has made one change for Sunday’s Calcutta Cup game against Scotland, with Alex Corbisiero replacing the injured Andrew Sheridan at loose-head prop.

Lewis Moody’s hopes of captaining England against France at Twickenham on Saturday have been wrecked by a recurrence of his knee injury.

England manager Martin Johnson has named an unchanged team for Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash with Italy at Twickenham.

Hendre Fourie has replaced Joe Worsley in the England squad to play Italy in Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations match at Twickenham after proving he has recovered from a calf strain.

Louis Deacon has been recalled to the England squad for the RBS 6 Nations as a replacement for banned Gloucester lock Dave Attwood.

MUNSTER Rugby chiefs are ‘extremely disappointed’ at the scheduling of their crucial Heineken Cup Pool One game against Northampton Saints at Thomond Park for Friday, January 22 (8pm).

Heineken Cup champions Leinster will start their bid to retain their title against London Irish on the evening of Friday 9, October 2009 at the RDS in Dublin, it has been announced.

Heineken Cup winners Rocky Elsom and Gordon D'Arcy will start for the Barbarians against England in Twickenham on Saturday.

THOMOND PARK officials last night expressed disappointment with the ERC decision to schedule their crucial Heineken Cup clash with Sale Sharks on Friday, January 16.

The fixtures, dates and kick-off times the first four Rounds of the 2008/09 Heineken Cup tournament were today announced by ERC with a record 10 matches being televised on each of the opening two weekends in October.

CARDIFF’S Millennium Stadium will play host to Munster in a Heineken Cup semi-final if Declan Kidney’s side defeat Gloucester and Ospreys overcome Saracens at the weekend.

Two of the unbeaten teams at the U-18 Six Nations Festival in Cork go head to head tomorrow at Musgrave Park when Scotland and England clash at 2.30pm.

France and England square off at Cork Institute of Technology this Saturday, kick-off 2.30pm, in a game that's expected to produce some high quality rugby.

England U20 43 Ireland U20 14

Shane Geraghty’s hopes of forcing his way into England contention for the RBS 6 Nations clash against France next Saturday could be dashed by injury.

“HELLO Munster Rugby,” said the clear English voice on the other end of the line.

Munster have been drawn with Heineken Cup champions London Wasps as well as Llanelli who knocked them out in the quarter-finals, after the 2007/'08 Heineken Cup Pool draw in Cardiff today.

Leinster-bound Leicester Tiger Shane Jennings and former Munster coach Alan Gaffney have been nominated as the Guinness Premiership Player and Coach of the season, respectively.

MUNSTER will have little time to rest on their laurels as Heineken Cup Champions. In the opening tie of next season’s competition, the heroes of Cardiff must travel to former winners Leicester Tigers.

A Limerick taxi driver who found Gloucester's game plan in his cab today told how he managed to pass it on to Munster in time for their crucial European Cup match last Saturday.

Munster coach Alan Gaffney tonight paid tribute to Gloucester after seeing his twice Heineken Cup finalists dismantled 35-16 at Kingsholm.