A global pandemic may be the only thing that can stop Leinster this season, if Friday night’s nine-try win over Glasgow at the RDS is anything to go by.

Jonathan Sexton has faced the brickbats before.

THE RDS promises to deliver more than the usual fare tomorrow for a Six Nations down-week.

With almost 100 of the 160 seats filled in the 33rd Dáil, Fianna Fáil looks set to emerge as the biggest party with more than 41 seats.

Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald has been elected on the first count in Dublin Central.

Housing minister Eoghan Murphy said that Fine Gael’s and Sinn Féin’s policy platforms are “miles apart from each other”.

The Sinn Féin Leader says the election is changing the shape and mould of Irish politics.

Some players refuse to look beyond the next 80 minutes, the next opponent, or even the next training session.

Planning permission has been granted for a near €40m RDS-style indoor exhibition and sports centre on the western outskirts of Cork city.

Questions are being raised after the government last week gave €20m to Connacht Rugby for a new stadium, because they weren't sure the IRFU would fund the project.

Another runaway success, but some signs of vulnerability too.

Listen to the radio sports bulletins and chats this week and Leinster have barely merited a mention.

Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) is set to get a €9.2 million grant from the Department of Sport as part of the first set of allocations under a new sports infrastructure fund.

Projects entered in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition have reached a level of sophistication that co-founder and judge Dr Tony Scott could not have imagined more than 50 years ago.

First, the good news for Connacht. Yes, there is some.

Max Deegan was deemed to be the best player in the world at the U20 grade after his efforts at the World Junior Championships in 2016.

A grim night for the visitors to the RDS. And it could have been much worse.

New year — same old Leinster?

For all the positive reviews of Munster’s adventurous attacking innovations under new senior coach Stephen Larkham, the lack of tries in December has underlined the reality that the province’s brave new world remains very much a work in progress.

Connacht centre Tom Daly has urged players not getting game-time elsewhere to head west and they won’t regret it.

Quinn Roux’s hopes of returning to the Irish side for the start of the Six Nations have been dashed with the 29-year-old having to undergo surgery for a hand injury.

All good things come to an end. The question, when it comes to Leinster’s current unbeaten run, is when.

Connacht coach Andy Friend said it was for the good of the game that prop Paddy McAllister had his citing for a dangerous tackle on Marcell Coetzee thrown out.

With the clock ticking and Munster trailing 13-6, the home side won a crucial penalty inside the Leinster 22 after a sustained period of pressure and kicked for the corner.

Will Addison returns from a four-week suspension for Ulster who are on a mission to avenge last year’s home loss to Connacht.

Munster hooker Kevin O’Byrne looks set to get a rare second consecutive start but having made 45 of his 61 appearances for the province off the bench, he said he is ready to go at any stage.

Leinster are poised to present a batch of fresh and inexperienced faces when they take on Munster this weekend but James Tracy won’t be among the boys in blue experiencing Thomond Park for the first time.

Leinster didn’t even need to send out their first team to do this damage — Cullen made 13 changes to the side that hammered Northampton Saints last week in the Champions Cup

Good things are coming in twos to Alan O’Connor this week.

Matt Faddes is one of of the few players who won’t be burdened this weekend by Ulster’s many crushing RDS defeats by Leinster.

Having missed most of last season through injury, it is starting to look like Jack O’Donoghue has the spring back in his step.

Jack O’Donoghue’s injury-hit 2018-19 season cost the back-rower a piece of Munster history but the 25-year-old could not be more happy for the team-mate who became the province’s youngest player to reach 100 caps instead.

There are plenty roads leading to the RDS, the home of Leinster rugby, but few will have taken the route chosen by Sam Matavesi.

Sometimes it's the words that don't pass a player's lips that stand out.

Esther N McCarthy picks perfect paperweights, brilliant books and Christmas collectables this week.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen hailed his returning international contingent after their 33-19 bonus point victory over Benetton Rugby in their Heineken Champions Cup Pool One opener.

He was part of an impressive collective effort back in his home city for Benetton in the opening round of the Heineken Champions Cup.

Keith Earls will make his first Munster appearance of the season in tomorrow's Champions Cup opener against the Ospreys.

If Leinster feel any ill will towards Saracens, then it has been well concealed.

Fergus McFadden, who suffered an elbow injury in training, is unlikely to make the European clash with Benetton on November 16

Proposals to ban passengers from some peak-time rail services unless they have pre-booked seats have been slammed as "absolutely unacceptable" by the chair of the Dáil's transport committee.

Leinster maintained their 100% start to the Guinness PRO14 season in a game of two halves at a blustery RDS.