The ideal scenario for the club where Paul Pogba played football as a kid might go something like this: The France midfielder shines so brightly at the World Cup that a money-no-object club — for argument’s sake, let’s say Real Madrid — decides that it cannot live without him and pays a nine-figure fee to shake him loose from Manchester United.

MUNSTER will face two crucial Heineken Cup games within a week in the opening phase of the competition when they play Gloucester home and away next January. They open their campaign on the weekend of December 5/7 with an away tie to Bourgoin and they follow with a home game to Treviso the following weekend, January 12/14.