The enormity of the challenge facing Leinster and Munster in their respective Champions Cup quarter-finals this weekend is capably captured by the fact their opponents, Saracens and Toulon, have won the last five Heineken/Champions Cups between them, writes Donal Lenihan.

The European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) officials, including board chairman and former England international Simon Halliday, congregated in the tunnel outside the palatial dressing rooms at the U Arena and had every reason to be pleased with themselves.

“These are people who sell morality when they do not have it.”

If you drive up from Spain the first three towns you hit in France along the A9 are three big rugby strongholds … Perpignan, Narbonne and Beziers.

The lack of an Irish presence may have dampened our enthusiasm in the buildup to the Champions Cup final but, in the end, worthy finalists Saracens and Clermont Auvergne produced a captivating spectacle.

It’s imperative the Irish rugby snowball keeps on rolling in 2017 after such a productive end to 2016, writes Donal Lenihan.

The IRFU is open to the prospect of private investors purchasing stakes in the professional provinces in order to bridge the widening financial gap with cash-rich English and French competitors.

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

Shock was the overriding emotion on the Cote d’Azur as Paul O’Connell announced his immediate retirement from the sport he has graced so magnificently over the last 14 years.

Toulon joining the Aviva Premiership “doesn’t stack up for a thousand reasons” but a European league could become a long-term reality, according to Gloucester chief executive Stephen Vaughan.

It’s more than a quarter of a century since the Berlin Wall came down and communism was rolled up like a musty carpet across Eastern Europe.

Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal has launched an audacious bid to see his three-time European champions join the Aviva Premiership.

They give the impression of having it all — the world’s most charismatic player, match-winners all over the pitch, and an Irish skills coach better versed than anyone else in the art of conquering Europe.

Twenty years, 421 games, six titles.

Euro 2016 will remain in France, UEFA has announced.

Remind Leo Cullen he played in the last European final won by an English team, when the then London Wasps saw off Leicester Tigers in 2007, and he will be quick to point out he wasn’t part of the squad that won it.

The Top 14 champions have had a dismal start to their domestic campaign, and with Leicester and Munster in their opening Champions Cup fixtures, the pressure’s on for coach Gonzalo Quesada.

Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal has angrily denied allegations of doping made against the triple European champions.

Former Munster assistant coach Simon Mannix said he played no part in Paul O’Connell’s move to France and has denied he ever tried to sign the Irish captain for Pau.

Paul O’Connell has “changed beyond belief” in a late-career surge that has earned him his two-year move to French club Toulon, according to Reggie Corrigan.

Whatever mystery remained over the end of Paul O’Connell’s rugby career evaporated last night as the Munster icon and Ireland captain signed a one-year deal with three-time European champions Toulon.

Toulon are after winning the European Cup for the third year in a row and owner Mourad Boudjellal has a cheque book which could sign any player in the world, but inside the dressing room Paul O’Connell is the one they want. 

Maybe there will have to be a law against Toulon, one denouncing them as bad for business because they are too good for everyone else.

Munster coach Anthony Foley dismissed reports linking Paul O’Connell with Toulon as “nonsense” and claimed the story was a malicious attempt to ‘cause trouble’.

If Jamie Heaslip had suggested before this Champions Cup semi-final that Leinster’s semi-final clash with Toulon would be akin to a boxing match, it may have conjured an image of a mismatch in the eyes of many observers.

Look in isolation at Leinster’s Rugby Champions Cup quarter-final with Bath at the Aviva Stadium today, and it is tempting to ponder what, if anything, has changed in this tweaked version of Europe’s premier club competition.

Toulon’s Delon Armitage has appealed against a 12-week ban for abusive language directed at Leicester Tigers supporters after a European Rugby Champions Cup match on December 7, European Professional Cup Rugby has announced.

Come Sunday the veins under Cedric Abellon’s war paint will be throbbing.

Toulon 23 Saracens 6

The controversy about racist comments from Donald Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers NBA team, is bubbling along in the US.

It says everything about the way rugby is going that the first person to occupy a seat on the top table at the Toulon post-match press conference after Sunday’s semi-final was club owner Mourad Boudjellal. Even Roman Abramovich wouldn’t chance that after a Chelsea victory.

Toulon’s billionaire owner Mourad Boudjellal yesterday paid tribute to Munster for pushing his troops to the limit in their quest to secure back-to-back Heineken Cup titles.

Toulon 24 Munster 16

HEINEKEN CUP SEMI-FINAL:

Just as Brian O’Driscoll wanted to leave the international stage with a Six Nations medal around his neck, so Jonny Wilkinson has his eyes firmly focussed on a gilt-edged finale to a glittering rugby career.

It was while gazing through the NFL schedule for 2014, which was revealed earlier this week, and other gridiron-related matters that our eyes happened to stray across a well-worn quote from John Madden, the Hall of Fame ex-coach, broadcasting legend and the face of millions of American football computer games around the world.

Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal deemed the appointment of former England and Lions fitness coach Paul Stridgeon as the missing ingredient in their quest for a Top 14 and Heineken Cup double.

In a market that is set to become even more competitive given increased revenues from their domestic and European broadcast deals, the English and French clubs are set to make life a lot more difficult for the Irish provinces.

A bullish Conor Murray has laid down the gauntlet to Toulon ahead of Munster’s Heineken Cup semi-final by warning there is far more to the province than their legendary determination to stand up and fight.