There will be a time, hopefully in the not too distant future when rugby’s administrators will look back on the decision to shut down their sport due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic as the easy part, writes Simon Lewis.

The European Champions Cup quarter-finals have been postponed, with Leinster and Ulster among the clubs to be hit by rugby's latest cancellation.

Irish rugby players, professional and amateur, will have woken this morning to a very different sporting landscape as their governing bodies called a halt to all playing activity in response to the growing threat of Covid-19 on these shores.

Looking at the rapidly rising Covid-19 numbers in France, it’s easy to imagine the country is careering to national lockdown.

DAN McFarland was looking forward to a day of watching rugby on the couch yesterday as the extent of the challenge awaiting Ulster in the spring slowly unfolded in front of his eyes.

A win for already-qualified Leinster at Benetton on Saturday will see the four-time champions finish the pool stage as the No 1-ranked club.

Connacht’s hopes of reaching the Heineken Champions Cup knockout stages for the first time died in Galway after they were outgunned by French champions Toulouse who finished with 13 men.

With a €20m boost in funding for their Sportsground redevelopment project in the bag, Andy Friend’s Connacht need to secure victory against French champions Toulouse to keep their hopes of reaching the Champions Cup quarter-finals alive.

First, the good news for Connacht. Yes, there is some.

Airport operator, the daa Group, has been ordered to pay €1,000 in compensation for discriminating against a deaf man who missed a flight at Dublin airport during Storm Ali.

Connacht’s survival hopes in the Heineken Champions Cup may depend on a superb home record which has seen them lose just one of 14 games at the Sportsground in Europe in the past five years.

The ghosts of Christmases past will be circling around the four provinces this weekend as they prepare for the unique demands that come with the traditional back-to-back December rounds in the Heineken Champions Cup.

Pool 5 looks bleak for Connacht now.

Connacht's Heineken Champions Cup challenge hangs by the thinnest of threads after a convincing four-try defeat to Gloucester at Kingsholm on Sunday afternoon.

Andy Friend’s Connacht can knock down another barrier in Gloucester tomorrow and in the process take a big step towards a new milestone as they continue to grow impressively under the Australian.

No team in Europe has played as many matches in the Challenge Cup as Connacht

Friend, who coached Harlequins from 2005-08, said his players fell for the ruse when Gloucester’s lineout and scrum tactics were apparently left on a whiteboard for them to see the day before a game at Kingsholm.

Rory Best admits he was tempted by a potential move to Bristol – but put family first.

Connacht’s stand-in captain Quinn Roux said that while few outside of their squad believed they would win at Stade Ernest-Wallon, the team were bitterly disappointed not to secure victory in Toulouse.

It’s amazing how quickly something can turn for a player and when Conor Fitzgerald was let go from the Munster academy 18 months ago the last thing on his mind would have been lighting up the home of Toulouse with an awesome display in the Heineken Champions Cup.

There are three changes to the team that defeated Ospreys.

Connacht forward Eoghan Masterson, after finally making his Champions Cup debut last weekend, is determined to create more history in France tomorrow when they take on Toulouse.

The IRFU’s World Cup post-mortem will go on for some time yet but the evidence of the weekend just passed would suggest that many of the players involved have turned the page.

Sean O’Brien was among a handful of former Leinster stars who returned to the team HQ this week to set the scene for the province’s ‘drive for five’ ahead of today’s Heineken Champions Cup opener against Benetton.

The Irish provincial video analysts will be busily plugging into footage of the French Top 14 ahead of this season’s European Champions Cup. All four representatives have been handed French assignments over the next three months - with Connacht getting a double helping.

Connacht coach Andy Friend has warned his side can’t afford to get into an “arm wrestle” against Montpellier in their return to the Heineken Champions Cup this weekend.

Here's the route Ireland's provinces must navigate to emerge from their Champions Cup pools.

Ryanair has held firm on plans to cut pilot and cabin crew jobs after it revealed further delays following the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max planes.

A potential Brexit deal was on the verge of being announced last night, but may require further talks on the edges of the EU leaders’ summit this morning after last-minute hitches to an agreement emerged.

Size isn't everything. Even for the Springboks.

Production issues are reportedly holding up the delivery of eight Airbus aircraft that Aer Lingus has ordered.

There was a Storm Lorenzo silver lining for Airbus yesterday as the aircraft manufacturer seized the opportunity to test their planes in adverse conditions.

Thomas Du Toit should have really just been fighting off the jetlag but he looked for all the world yesterday like a guy whose head was still in the clouds after being parachuted onto the South African bench for tomorrow’s Pool B encounter with Namibia.

The low-fare airline, is now flying from Cork to Malaga six times per week as well as four flights a week to the Spanish resort of Palma, now four per week.

September is Wine Sale month with the French wine sale at DunnesStores having begun on Tuesday last and SuperValu’s French sale on Thursday. Lidl’s French sale is wisely holding off until September 30 and Aldi and O’Briens have more general sales.

The importance of Munster getting a good start to their Champions Cup campaign was underlined by the release of the pool fixtures this morning.

Ireland’s win over Italy at the weekend told us little about the eventual destination of the Webb Ellis trophy this year – for that you had to look to the other side of the world.

Geraint Thomas shrugged off his third crash of the Tour de France as Caleb Ewan won stage 16 in soaring temperatures in Nimes.

HALF of Europe has been slammed by a massive heat wave in recent weeks, with many regions experiencing temperatures never before seen in June. But it may just be the beginning, says Marco Evers.

This painting of Judith and Holofernes — believed to be a long-lost work by Caravaggio — will come under the hammer next Thursday in Toulouse with an estimate of €100-€150 million.

For Felipe Contepomi it’s on a par with River Plate v Boca Juniors; for CJ Stander and Johann van Graan a reminder of Bulls versus Stormers games.

Peter Jackson picks his XV for the Heineken Champions Cup Team of the Tournament.