Munster 26 Stade Francais 13: The smiles have returned to the faces of the Thomond Park faithful after a miserable winter of discontent but Anthony Foley knows there is still a way to go before the sun will shine once more on this Munster side.

Chances are that as you watch Munster play Stade Francais in Paris today, the television director will cut to a camera trained on the coaches’ box at Stade Jean Bouin.

Munster players were ready and willing to travel to Paris for this weekend’s Rugby Champions Cup fixture despite the terrorist attack that shocked the city and the world last Friday, according to the province’s Australian lock Mark Chisholm.

How quickly priorities change.

Munster chiefs last night backed the decision to postpone Sunday’s Champions Cup tie at Stade Francais but are fully aware of the fixture chaos that it will cause.

The significance of Paul O’Connell’s final game for Munster this evening is lost on no-one who has shared his remarkable career in red.

Irish attempts to reclaim the country’s place at the summit of European club rugby next season look like becoming even more difficult if the news from France that Marseille is being lined up to host the 2016 Champions Cup final rings true.

WOMEN’S RUGBY WORLD CUP:

The Ireland Women ended their World Cup journey with a best ever finish of fourth place after falling to France in a bruising 3rd/4th place play-off tie in Paris.

If you have yet to see Magali Harvey’s try for Canada against France in Wednesday’s second Women’s World Cup semi-final then all that can be said is get thee to a computer or a smartphone ASAP.

Ireland 7 England 40

Head coach Philip Doyle was left to rue a poor defensive display from his Ireland side as they were well beaten by England in tonight's opening Women's Rugby World Cup semi-final in Paris.

Ireland's first ever Women's Rugby World Cup semi-final appearance turned into a nightmare outing as dominant England hit them with 40 unanswered points in Paris.

Their defeat of New Zealand last week has propelled Ireland into the limelight at the Women’s Rugby World Cup, but coach Philip Doyle insists the pressure lies with England ahead of tonight’s semi-final at Stade Jean Bouin in Paris.

There are any numbers of stories and statistics by which you could measure the progress made by an Irish women’s rugby side which, in Paris this evening, will fight for the right to feature in their first World Cup final.

The small market town of Marcoussis used to supply Paris with tomatoes and strawberries. Today, it will deliver to the French capital an Irish women’s rugby team intent on making history.

There’s a sign in the Irish dressing room that reads ‘The winning qualities of this team will be reflected by the standards we set’.

Derby day tomorrow in Paris and Dublin.

FORGOTTEN England fly-half Charlie Hodgson has reappeared on Martin Johnson’s selection radar – and Cardiff Blues could find out why today.

STADE FRANCAIS seized the initiative in Heineken Cup Pool Four with victory over Ulster at Stade Jean Bouin.

Stade Francais 29 Ulster 16

Ulster’s postponed Heineken Cup Pool Four match against Stade Francais has been rearranged for tomorrow with a 3pm kick-off.

ULSTER coach Brian McLaughlin is hoping that the province can profit from Stade Francais’s decision to face the Irish side at Brussels’ King Baudoin Stadium in December.

Ulster head coach Matt Williams has Darren Cave, Paddy Wallace, Ian Humphreys, Rory Best, Justin Fitzpatrick and Stephen Ferris from his 24-man squad ahead of the trip to play Stade Francais in this Saturday's Heineken Cup match against Stade Francais at the Stade Jean Bouin.

For the last eight years Pat Geraghty has been a fly on the wall of the Munster dressing-room as the province’s communications officer. He and Michael Moynihan had a frank exchange of views, but no singing...

CARDIFF head coach Dai Young rued his side’s lack of cutting edge at the death after seeing them come within inches from causing a huge Heineken Cup upset against Stade Francais.

TUESDAY evening, my first day in Marseille following the All-Blacks for the 2007 rugby World Cup, and we’re notified that they will be training at Stade Jean Bouin the following morning at 9.30am, and that we may have ‘vision access for the first 20 minutes.’

DECLAN KIDNEY and Alan Gaffney will be busy over the next few days in an attempt to strengthen their squads prior to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals on the first weekend of April.

Ulster suffered a sixth defeat in seven trips to France to leave themselves with a mountain to climb to try to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup.

IT seems like only yesterday that Scott Young burst onto the Ulster scene as the bright young thing going places.

Ulster will look to continue their good record against Stade Francais when the two clubs clash in the Heineken Cup on Saturday.

THE sense of relief in the Munster camp last night was palpable after it was confirmed Ronan O’Gara’s ankle injury was not as serious as first feared and that he would definitely be fit to line out against Stade Français in the Heineken Cup quarter-final at Thomond Park on Saturday week.

IT’S rolling towards five years since Ulster became the first and only Irish side to win the European Cup. They haven’t been back since, in fact they haven’t even managed to negotiate the pool stage of the competition since David Humphreys lifted the trophy at Lansdowne Road in 1999.

Stade Francais 26 Leicester 15

Despite a late come-back from Scotland, the Ireland Under 19s kept their composure to hold on for a 28-22 victory at the IRB/FIRA World Championships at Creteil, Paris, yesterday.