Blackburn Rovers 1 West Ham United 5: West Ham manager Slaven Bilic likened playmaker Dimitri Payet to Real Madrid’s Luka Modric after the Frenchman inspired the facile FA Cup win at Blackburn.

A fifth bonus-point win is the target for Connacht in this evening’s Pro 12 fixture with Zebre in Italy (4.30 Irish time). Sitting level on 45 points with Ulster at the top of the table, Pat Lam knows every point will count in their bid for Champions Cup rugby next season.

Everton have been given a major boost ahead of next week’s crucial Capital One Cup semi-final second leg at Manchester City with midfielder James McCarthy and defender Seamus Coleman likely to be fit.

Connacht coach Pat Lam says his side have planned how to pick up a first win at Thomond Park since 1986 and it’s down to ignoring the individual strengths of Munster.

Connacht 21 Brive 17: Connacht remain top of their European pool but have been left counting the cost of injuries ahead of their meeting with Munster on Saturday, having taken a heavy hit on personnel during their victory over French visitors Brive in the Sportsground on Saturday.

Connacht 19 Grenoble 52: Bernard Jackman returned to Connacht with his Grenoble troops and blitzed the westerners for eight tries at the Sportsground. 

Tbilisi could prove the unlikely stepping stone for several players aiming to play their way into Joe Schmidt’s World Cup plans.

Eoin Reddan believes Ireland can be more assured about what they will bring to the table at the World Cup in England later this year than was the case in New Zealand in 2011 or France eight years ago.

With their European Rugby Champions Cup semi-final against Toulon just eight days away, Leinster coach Matt O’Connor has opted to wrap his star players in cotton wool for the province’s Guinness Pro12 encounter with Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade tomorrow.

Blackburn 0 Liverpool 1: There cannot be many 22-year-old Brazilians who enjoy nights out in Lancashire as much as Philippe Coutinho.

Liverpool 0 Blackburn 0

Lansdowne 21 Old Belvedere 20

Two closing penalties from Jimmy Gopperth guided Leinster to an 18-12 victory in a cagey Guinness PRO12 clash with the under-strength Ospreys.

Matt O’Connor has named his side to face Benetton Treviso in the PRO12 on Sunday and Dave Kearney is back in the starting 15 for the first time since May.

Leinster 33 Edinburgh 8

Matt O’Connor has made eight changes to the side that

Read More:

Leinster 42 Scarlets 12

Jamie Heaslip returns as captain as Leinster take on Scarlets in the RDS tomorrow in an afternoon game.

Isaac Boss is set to make history at Scotstoun Stadium this evening, when he will become the first player to make 100 appearances for two Irish provinces in Leinster’s opening Guinness Pro12 encounter against Glasgow Warriors (kick-off 5.15pm).

Isaac Boss will represent Leinster for the one hundreth time against Glasgow tomorrow - having already made 108 appearances for Ulster, making him the first Irish player to clock in a century for two provinces.

Manchester City 5 Blackburn Rovers 0

Manchester City 5 Blackburn 0

Blackburn 1 Manchester City 1

Ireland's head coach Joe Schmidt can’t switch focus from his Leinster duties just yet, with the province reporting a number of injury concerns ahead of Friday night’s RaboDirect PRO12 clash against Ospreys.

The Leinster management have reported no fresh injury concerns after Saturday’s convincing 32-5 victory over Scarlets in the RDS.

Leinster came through the weekend’s bonus point victory over Treviso unscathed and look set to welcome back a number of players ahead of Saturday’s Rabo PRO12 meeting with Scarlets at the RDS (7.45pm).

Leinster 17 Connacht 0

Leinster 17 Connacht 0

Familiar stars will be missing as Leinster head into another high risk RaboDirect Pro12 encounter against Connacht at the RDS this evening.

Shane Jennings will skipper Leinster against Connacht with head coach Joe Schmidt relegating regular captain Leo Cullen to the bench for tomorrow's RaboDirect PRO12 clash in the RDS (7.45pm).

Leicester 2 Barnsley 2

Ospreys 19 Leinster 10

With several of his senior players involved in Ireland’s training camp and others on the injury list, Joe Schmidt has named a youthful Leinster side to face the Ospreys in Sunday's RaboDirect PRO12 clash in the Liberty Stadium (4pm).

Ireland international Rob Kearney has been named in Leinster’s starting XV to face Connacht in Friday night's RaboDirect PRO12 interprovincial derby in the Sportsground (8pm).

Wolves 2 Leicester 1

The Leinster management are hopeful of re-introducing a number of Ireland internationals from the summer tour to New Zealand for Saturday’s RaboDirect PRO12 clash with Benetton Treviso in Stadio di Monigo (7.05pm).

Leinster 45 Dragons 25

Leinster’s new overseas signing, Quinn Roux, will make his home debut when the Heineken Cup champions take on Newport Gwent Dragons in tonight’s RaboDirect Pro12 clash at the RDS.

Second row Quinn Roux and academy back-row forward Ben Marshall will make their home debuts for Leinster after been named in Joe Schmidt’s starting XV for Saturday evening's RaboDirect PRO12 encounter with the Dragons in the RDS (6.15pm).

Leicester 1 West Ham 2

The sheer scale of the numbers had threatened to crush Fernando Torres; 24 hours and 33 minutes of playing time without a goal coming into this game, 150 days since he last found the net.