Clermont Auvergne lock Jamie Cudmore believes his team will need any inside information they can get to overturn defending champions Leinster in Sunday’s Heineken Cup semi-final at the Stade Chaban Delmas (4pm).

Joe Schmidt has played down the competition quirk that will see his Leinster side hit the road for their Heineken Cup semi-final despite the fact their pool performances were enough to secure them home advantage for the last eight.

Having been forced to defend for the majority of last weekend’s disappointing loss to Scotland, Declan Kidney has emphasised the importance for Ireland to be patient in possession against France tonight.

The Ireland squad that will take part in the first preseason camp in preparation for the Rugby World Cup in September has been named today.

Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh insists he will stay with the Ligue 1 champions until the end of the season.

THE TEXTS and e-mails are landing thick and fast. They demand to know why the Irish team has so under-performed. Is there trouble in the camp? Are the players over trained? Has Eddie O’Sullivan picked the wrong teams? Has he grown stale in the job and what were the IRFU thinking when they extended his contract by four years just before the World Cup?

THE EMOTIONS among the Irish supporters in the Stade Chaban Delmas on Saturday night were varied. Shock, embarrassment and anger were chief among them although to hear the side booed off the pitch by a section of the crowd was very disappointing.

IT was at the Stade Chaban Delmas — then the Stade Lescure — that John Hayes scored a memorable try for Munster in their famous defeat of Toulouse in the 2000 Heineken European Cup quarter-final.

THE nervous tension in the Irish camp is tangible ahead of tonight’s second World Cup game against Georgia at Stade Chaban Delmas (8pm, Setanta, TV3, ITV).

MARCUS HORAN will be in the firing line when Ireland take on Georgia at Stade Chaban Delmas on Saturday.

BRIAN O’DRISCOLL equals an Irish record of which he had little knowledge when he leads his country in Saturday’s World Cup game against Georgia in the Stade Chaban Delmas.

DENIS LEAMY, Paul O’Connell, and Ronan O’Gara to a lesser extent, have no reason to reproach themselves after Ireland’s dismal performance against Namibia at the Stade Chaban Delmas on Sunday.

THERE can be no equivocating or refusal to face facts after this near horror for Irish rugby at the Stade Chaban Delmas last night. Ireland were awful, and deeply embarrassed by a Namibian side ranked 24th in the world and who were in no way flattered by running their vaunted opponents to a margin of 15 points when many good judges believed it would be three or four times that amount.

NAMES like Kees Lensing and Jacques Burger will mean little or nothing to the vast majority of Irish rugby fans this morning.

Groclin 0 Man City 0 (agg 1-1, Groclin advance on away goals)