Leinster have the quality to win out but Clermont, Toulon, Northampton or Bath are the more likely winners.

Europe’s top clubs will seek assurances from Heineken Cup organisers European Rugby Cup over tournament participation payments on Wednesday.

Cardiff Blues chief executive Richard Holland does not hold out much hope of a peace deal with the Welsh Rugby Union after the deadline of agreement for next season and beyond passed along with the New Year bells.

Presiding judge Sir Wyn Williams has been appointed chairman of Welsh rugby’s newly-formed Professional Regional Game Board (PRGB).

Wales coach Warren Gatland broke bones in both his feet in a fall from a ladder in New Zealand.

THE Welsh Rugby Union have expressed delight after keeping Shaun Edwards out of the clutches of England for a second time.

SORRY.

Warren Gatland will remain as Wales coach until after the 2015 World Cup after agreeing a four-year extension to his contract with the Welsh Rugby Union.

Regional Rugby Wales have reacted with dismay to a proposal that could see them not being represented on the Welsh Rugby Union’s main board.

Fitness and conditioning expert Craig White has been promoted to the position of Wales national team performance manager until the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

SITTING in the bowels of the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes, Gareth Thomas’ voice cracked with raw emotion as he surveyed the smouldering wreckage of Wales’ World Cup campaign.

The Welsh Rugby Union insists the four regions cannot demand extra compensation for releasing players to the World Cup – because they have already been paid it.

GRAHAM HENRY has apologised on behalf of the All Blacks and promised to “sort out” the New Zealand journalist who wrote an article dismissing Wales as the “village idiots” of rugby.

Mike Ruddock officially parted company with the Welsh Rugby Union this evening after reaching an agreement to cut short his gardening leave.

Ireland 31 Wales 5

WELSH rugby continues to be embroiled in controversy, with former national coach Mike Ruddock requesting an emergency meeting with the Welsh Rugby Union.

LLANELLI SCARLETS head coach Gareth Jenkins is not interested in succeeding Mike Ruddock as Wales head coach - unless changes are made at the top of the Welsh Rugby Union.

Mike Ruddock has left Welsh rugby in turmoil after announcing his shock resignation last night – just 11 months after he inspired the side to their first Grand Slam triumph in 27 years.

MIKE RUDDOCK has resigned as Wales head coach less than a year after taking them to their first Grand Slam in 27 years.

Wales’ assistant coach Scott Johnson will take up an observational role on this summer’s British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand.

Neath-Swansea Ospreys tonight promised to “move heaven and earth” in assisting the Celtic Warriors if they are disbanded by Welsh rugby chiefs.

Celtic Warriors have been bought by the Welsh Rugby Union, fuelling fears the club will be wound up.

IESTYN HARRIS has been added to the list of injury doubts for Wales’s final RBS 6 Nations Championship clash against Italy at The Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

IRISH flanker Johnny O’Connor has been handed a place in the starting line up tonight as English champions Wasps put their Heineken Cup ambitions on the line against a fledgling Welsh team formed barely six months ago.

There would have been time when the last thing a Wales coach needed to say in the build-up to a Test match, never mind a crucial World Cup showdown, was that his side needed to match the passion of the opposition.

ENGLAND coach Clive Woodward says his side is not in Melbourne for their Test match against Australia to entertain, it’s here to win.

All five newly-formed Welsh regional teams will play in next season’s Heineken Cup.

WALES coach Steve Hansen believes that today’s RBS 6 Nations Championship appointment clash with Ireland at the Millennium Stadium should be a pressure-free occasion for his players.

THINK of history’s great superpowers: The British Empire, the United States, the Soviet Union, the GAA. Now, think of the superpowers in rugby: New Zealand, South Africa, the current England side and, for over a decade from the late 1960s on, Wales.

Wales coach Steve Hansen tonight voiced grave concerns about a potential exodus of top players to England next season.

A DISTRAUGHT Neath supporter runs amok at a WRU committee meeting, dousing the committee in petrol before setting them alight.

MUNSTER may hold a little advantage ahead of next month’s Celtic League Final against Neath, thanks in no small part to Welsh Rugby officialdom.

Wales coach Steve Hansen has insisted that Welsh rugby will be a 'joke and a laughing stock' unless drastic change is made to the domestic structure, as the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) keenly await the clubs' blueprint for the way ahead.

Wales coach Steve Hansen does not expect the outcome of Saturday’s Lloyds TSB Six Nations clash with Scotland to have any bearing on the following day’s summit to decide the way forward for Welsh rugby.

Welsh rugby is on the verge of crisis this morning after test players voted to strike over the manner in which the Welsh Rugby Union is treating their clubs.

Scott Quinnell has pleaded with the Welsh rugby public not to lose faith in the national side.