Australia-based South African Dave Wessels is being strongly touted as a potential replacement for Rassie Erasmus at Munster.

Australia-based South African Dave Wessels is being strongly touted as a potential replacement for Rassie Erasmus at Munster.

“The quarter-final is set for the first weekend in April, with the semi-final three weeks later.” It’s been a while since I came across such bullish confidence from a bunch of Munster supporters, but that was the thrust of the conversation I overheard between a few diehards last Friday morning at Shannon Airport in advance of boarding the plane for Munster’s pool- defining trip to Glasgow.

Leinster coach Leo Cullen admitted the first-half sending off of Montpellier fly-half Frans Steyn significantly altered the course of the game in their 57-3 European Champions Cup clash at the RDS.

It is believed that an escape clause which required Pat Lam to give six months notice was the primary reason why the Connacht coach made the announcement yesterday that he was departing the Sportsground at the end of the season.

It would have been some shock yesterday had the IRFU announced that Joe Schmidt was going to leave at the end of the season.

Leo Cullen has packed all his heavy artillery as Leinster fly to the south of France for their toughest game of the season.

Leinster 33 Castres 15: Another French behemoth brought to earth. Five tries posted. Bonus point secured with oodles of time to spare. And all on the back of an afternoon balanced by the brute force of a dominant pack and a backline speckled with brilliance.

When Allister Coetzee touched down in Port Elizabeth with his team last Sunday afternoon, he had a spring in his step, and not just from the previous night’s series-levelling victory over Ireland.

A new Springboks coach will be named this morning with Allister Coetzee expected to be tasked with making the team a formidable force again while radically altering its racial composition.

Eddie Jones has been tasked with resurrecting England’s fortunes after the Australian last night agreed a deal to replace Stuart Lancaster.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has dismissed reports claiming he might consider an approach to become Stuart Lancaster’s potential England successor.

Jake White has warned England he will not be submitted to the “rigmarole” of an arduous application process for the vacant head coach role.

Long before he became an integral part of the Munster team, BJ Botha was part of a South African squad which captured the 2007 World Cup. So what was it like to claim world rugby’s greatest prize?

The growing Munster contingent in Pau is settling into life in the top flight in France and showed at the weekend they have what it takes to cut it amongst the best in the richest rugby league in the world.

The man who guided South Africa to World Cup glory believes Ireland are ready to lift the Webb Ellis Cup this time round.

1. Eamonn Fitzmaurice and the letters

When he returned from a stint in Australia two years ago, a career in professional rugby was the furthest thing from the mind of Leinster winger Darragh Fanning.

Former Leinster coach Michael Cheika is hot favourite to take over as Wallabies coach following Ewen McKenzie’s shock resignation.

Ewen McKenzie has resigned as Australia head coach.

Australian rugby chiefs are to fire national coach Robbie Deans and replace him with Queensland’s Ewen McKenzie following the Wallabies’ series loss to the British and Irish Lions.

Robbie Deans has been sacked as Australia head coach following the Wallabies’ Test series defeat to the British and Irish Lions, according to reports in the Australian press.

That Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies both played wonderfully well in the thrashing of the Wallabies doesn’t completely justify Warren Gatland’s cruel dismissal of Brian O’Driscoll, but it surely saves him from having to do a heck of a lot of explaining in the days and years to come.

Twelve years ago George Smith was gearing up for the Wallabies’ crunch third Test with Graham Henry’s Lions outfit in Sydney’s magnificent Olympic Stadium.

On a difficult night in Brisbane for the Wallabies, Ben Mowen was one of the shining lights for Robbie Deans’ wounded troops during their ill-fated opening match against the Lions.

An eventful few hours in the Australia camp began with wing Digby Ioane being issued with an arrest warrant and ended with his injury-enforced withdrawal from the remainder of the Test series against the British and Irish Lions.

An eventful few hours in the Australia camp began with wing Digby Ioane being issued with an arrest warrant.

It’s close now.

It’s close now. Once the Test 15s were announced, the Lions 23 retreats into its own bubble and prepares for a searching gut check, one of the most forensic of their rugby lives.

SUDDENLY, Jake White’s prediction of doom for the British & Irish Lions should they lose Saturday’s first Test against Australia possesses extra foreboding.