Leinster have three nominees for the European Player of the Year award.

Tadgh Beirne is one of four Irish players nominated for the European Player of the Year award.

Italy’s Sergio Parisse will captain the Barbarians against the British and Irish Lions in Hong Kong this Saturday.

By Ian Cusack

Having being omitted from Warren Gatland’s Lions squad, Perpignan fly-half James Hook could line out against the British and Irish outfit, having been named in the provisional Barbarians squad.

Leinster head coach Joe Schmidt felt that his side delivered one of their best displays of the year as they booked their place in the Amlin Challenge Cup final with a 44-16 romp over defending champions Biarritz.

Leinster 44 Biarritz 16

Biarritz star Dimitri Yachvili admits his side must deliver their ‘match of the year’ to defeat Leinster in this afternoon’s Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final.

Nobody has done it now for almost three-and-a-half years, not since a Frenchman who just happens to be appearing in Dublin this weekend on European semi-final business.

Zebre 6 Biarritz 32

Biarritz Olympique 17 Connacht 0

Biarritz 17 Connacht 0

Connacht 22 Biarritz 14

Connacht 22 Biarritz 14

A heavy list of injuries and poor weather will not help Connacht’s hopes of claiming a home victory over French heavyweights Biarritz this evening.

Harlequins 40 Biarritz 13

Triple Grand Slam winner Gethin Jenkins has set his sights on extending Wales’ upward curve Down Under this summer.

Wales 16 France 9

France coach Philippe Saint-Andre has made five changes and one positional switch for Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash against Wales in Cardiff.

Forwards coach Graham Rowntree is determined to make life even tougher for England’s new Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie as he prepares the Red Rose to face Ireland at Twickenham.

France have named an unchanged squad to face England in the RBS 6 Nations at the Stade de France on Sunday.

France flanker Imanol Harinordoquy anticipates Scotland will provide a much sterner test for the Rugby World Cup finalists than many observers are anticipating in tomorrow’s RBS 6 Nations clash at Murrayfield.

France coach Philippe Saint-Andre has not made any changes to his matchday squad for the RBS 6 Nations clash with Scotland at Murrayfield on February 26.

Time is a healer, they say, but have Ireland had enough hours, minutes and seconds to put right the wrongs of last Sunday’s effort and produce a performance against France tonight in Paris?

It’s five years and a handful of weeks since former Leicester Tigers coach Pat Howard sat on a battered old sofa in the club’s training grounds and described Thomond Park as “just a field” to a scrum of English and Irish journalists.

SCRUM

France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili has been ruled out of the Six Nations tie with Ireland because of a back problem.

France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili has been ruled out of Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash against Ireland in Paris with a back problem.

Vive la France.

France 30 Italy 12

Centre Wesley Fofana will earn his first cap for France when they take on Italy in their RBS 6 Nations opener on Saturday.

PETER STRINGER’S Saracens are on the brink of a place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, after England new boy Owen Farrell kept his nerve to kick them to a 20-16 victory over Biarritz in Pool 5.

Saracens 20 Biarritz 16

CONOR MURRAY has admitted there is no room for sentiment when it comes to the starting Munster scrum-half position.

FRENCH star Dimitri Yachvili is mystified fellow scrum-half Peter Stringer is no longer part of the Ireland set-up.

New France coach Philippe Saint-Andre has included two uncapped players in his provisional 30-man squad for the RBS 6 Nations.

Biarritz 15 Saracens 10

NEW ZEALAND coach Graham Henry today named an unchanged team for Sunday’s World Cup final against France at Eden Park.

James Hook started at fly-half in place of the injured Rhys Priestland as Wales clashed with France for a place in their first ever Rugby World Cup final.

1. Half-back mastery

PROP Jean-Baptiste Poux thinks his team’s resurgence at the Rugby World Cup has happened mainly because it stopped trying too hard to copy other teams, and simply got back to doing things the French way.

France 19 England 12

France 14 Tonga 19

New Zealand 37 France 17