There was mayhem at Ravenhill last night as 14-man Ulster heroically booked a place in the last four of the RaboDirect League.

The chief executive of the IRFU, Philip Browne, has blasted the sabre-rattling of English and French club rugby chiefs while the future of the Heineken Cup continues to be discussed, describing their contradictory actions as “deplorable”.

CONNACHT may be making their Heineken Cup debut tonight against Harlequins at the Stoop, 100 games into their European experience, but for the province’s chief executive this is not the apex of western rugby ambition but the seed for a brighter a future.