Toulouse are bracing for hard, streetwise, and direct rugby from Connacht this weekend, their insider-in-the-camp Pita Ahki has said.

Watching New Zealand and South Africa there was that very rare feeling - it lasted only a few minutes, like viewing the aurora borealis, where you are mouthing quietly to yourself: this is unbelievable, writes Ronan O’Gara.

Eight months passed between the news that Leinster had signed James Lowe and his debut for the province, but everything the Kiwi wing has said and done since his belated arrival in Dublin suggests he was well worth the wait, writes Brendan O’Brien.

Jamie Heaslip was once renowned as the rugby player who could not be broken.