Joint top of the Guinness Pro12 and a bonus-point win in the bag from the first Champions Cup weekend secured: these are the weeks when dressing rooms should tingle with excitement and intent.

FORMER associates of a feared IRA assassin killed by the SAS may have murdered Denis Donaldson, security sources claim.

Murdered Denis Donaldson, the Sinn Féin official turned British spy, was buried in West Belfast today following a private family funeral.