Dai Young was adamant after Wasps’ win in Dublin that Leinster weren’t done in Pool Five of the European Champions Cup.

Sam Burgess is assured of a warm welcome on his return to rugby league as speculation intensifies over his future.

It must rank as one of the sweetest wins of Warren Gatland’s chequered Welsh coaching career but I have a strange feeling that Australia could yet prove the biggest beneficiaries of this result.

The pressures on England at this World Cup can hardly be over-egged. Their status as hosts, as founding fathers of the game, and as the country with both the greatest playing resources and finances, guaranteed a level of scrutiny and sense of expectation that was only heightened by their placement in Pool A alongside Wales and Australia.

Leinster’s failure to make the Guinness Pro12 play-offs was always likely to hurt them come yesterday’s European Champions Cup draw and so it proved, with the three-time winners being landed in a pool alongside triple champions Toulon, English runners-up Bath and Wasps.

The three areas where Leinster will be challenged by their English visitors today:

It’s been a season almost devoid of moments to savour for Leinster fans, despite today’s presence in Europe’s last eight, so it is hardly stretching the bounds of reason to suggest that yesterday’s team announcement may rank up there among the best days.

Donncha O’Callaghan would love it if Peter Stringer rejoined Munster.

The full extent of the damage caused to Jamie Heaslip’s back by Pascal Papé’s knee on Saturday was revealed last night when the Ireland camp revealed the No.8 has been ruled out for a month.

Champions Cup

Rugby: Bath boss Mike Ford has refused to be drawn on speculation that Wales international fly-half Rhys Priestland is to join the Aviva Premiership title contenders.

THERE he was, this game little eight-year-old, chasing every one of our dead rugby balls like a buck, writes Ronan O'Gara.

Sam Burgess says his high-profile, six-figure switch of rugby codes was based on "the challenge" that will await him — and not next year’s World Cup in England.

Billionaire Bruce Craig was one of the key drivers behind the changes in European rugby that he believes gives his Bath project the stimulus to succeed.

AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP SEMI-FINAL:

Peter Stringer still hankers after the big Heineken Cup days at Thomond Park.

Declan Kidney is undoubtedly Ireland’s most successful coach of the modern era.

Former England assistant coaches Mike Ford and John Wells are to leave the Rugby Football Union with immediate effect.

England’s World Cup winning fly-half Jonny Wilkinson has retired from international rugby.

Martin Johnson has launched a passionate defence of England’s under-fire World Cup captain Lewis Moody – and insisted he would make the same choice all over again.

IN THE END, perhaps the only way to rid the English rugby team of the arrogance and self-righteousness that has pervaded their squad since 2003 was with a stick of dynamite planted firmly in the centre of the Twickenham pitch.

MARTIN JOHNSON made a noble exit from Twickenham yesterday after taking the decision to stand down as England team manager on his own terms.

England lock Courtney Lawes insisted he will not change his approach to the game, despite serving a two-match World Cup ban for striking Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma with his knee.

Defence coach Mike Ford today branded England’s World Cup pool as the “group of death”.

AS a professional rugby player, one of the best bits of advice you get is not to heed the media. It’s usually one of the older, battle-hardened players who passes on this wisdom down to the more naive, young guns. But they never listen.

England 16 New Zealand 26

Lewis Moody has backed England’s young guns to conquer the Everest of world rugby and beat New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday to lift the Hillary Shield.

NEW ZEALAND’S forwards coach Steve Hansen yesterday vowed the All Blacks will tackle England’s “old-fashioned” aggression head on at Twickenham on Saturday.

ENGLAND’s defence coach Mike Ford last night dismissed the try-laden Tri-Nations as not being proper Test rugby.

Rob Andrew has defended his position as the Rugby Football Union’s director of elite rugby in the face of growing criticism.

MARTIN JOHNSON last night revealed his coaching team would remain intact for the summer tour to Australia after branding England’s critics “ill-informed”.

SHAUN EDWARDS has revealed how homework is the secret behind Ireland becoming a major force in northern hemisphere rugby.

ENGLAND captain Steve Borthwick may not be the world’s greatest second-row forward but he does have a musical ear, even in the middle of a fiercely fought Six Nations clash. Last night, he claimed: “When the crowd sang Swing Low in the last 15 minutes of the game against Wales, it was the loudest and the sweetest I’ve ever heard.”

Ireland coach Declan Kidney refuses to buy into talk of England’s decline heading into Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash at Twickenham.

THIS Irish rugby squad is fast becoming a victim of its own success with expectation levels at home at an all time high coming into this year’s Six Nations. We have also become a treasured scalp for even the top teams. Nothing illustrated this more than the sight of a French side doing a lap of honour after beating Ireland in Paris.

IN THE final game of the 2002 Six Nations championship, Ireland faced France. It was Eddie O’Sullivan’s first year as head of Ireland’s coaching team and spirits were high.

Northampton 34 Perpignan 0

MARTIN JOHNSON’S bid to keep his management team in place for the Six Nations could be undermined after it emerged Mike Ford is being considered for the England rugby league head coach’s job.

JONNY WILKINSON vowed to continue to put his injury-prone body on the line for England after making a remarkable 20 tackles in last weekend’s defeat to Australia.

ONE of the GAA’s top trainers, John McCloskey, has been hired by Premiership rugby side Wasps.

TO arrive at the penultimate phase of the Six Nations championship unbeaten, with a clean bill of health, and competition for places at an all-time high is as much as any coach could have wished for — especially in Declan Kidney’s inaugural season at the helm.