Ulster Director of Rugby Les Kiss could hardly have been more candid in describing his team’s performance when he responded to a post-match query in Galway on Saturday night after his side capitulated to Connacht in the Guinness PRO14.

If the last eight months have borne witness to some outstanding achievements for Irish rugby on the international front, the fact that those magnificent test victories over South Africa, New Zealand and Australia has fed into the revival of Munster and Leinster in Europe is equally satisfying.

Northampton 9 Racing 92 9: Northampton’s England contingent failed to make an impression as Eddie Jones resumed his busy pre-Christmas scouting tour of the Aviva Premiership clubs last night.

Mike Ross makes no bones about it: He feared his Ireland career was over.

Luke Fitzgerald believes Europe’s big guns will fear facing Leinster in the Champions Cup knockout phase after Matt O’Connor’s side secured a home quarter-final clash with Bath.

When it was all over, when Jerome Garces called an end and the Northampton players had showered, changed and done with their media duties, Jim Mallinder punched a pass for his boys and sent them off into the Dublin night.

Warren Gatland last night said there is no room for sentiment in professional rugby but he reiterated that the decision to drop Brian O’Driscoll for the final Lions test in Australia was one of the toughest calls he had to make.

Injury updates from Leinster’s UCD base have more often than not been dispiriting affairs this season but yesterday’s was refreshingly positive ahead of tomorrow’s Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final away to Wasps.

Clermont Auvergne coach Vern Cotter insists his team are not running scared of defending champions Leinster.

2004: Northampton The Account

Wales number eight Ryan Jones has been ruled out of Saturday’s World Cup warm-up clash against Argentina due to a calf problem, coach Warren Gatland has announced.

Melbourne Rebels say they have “lost confidence” in Danny Cipriani following the England international’s latest disciplinary breach.

MUNSTER have been handed a massive boost ahead of Friday’s Magners League tie against Edinburgh with confirmation that Ronan O’Gara, Peter Stringer and Denis Leamy have been released from the national squad.

The phoney war has begun in earnest ahead of Saturday’s full-blooded Heineken Cup battle with both Leinster and Leicester insistent the other team are favourites.

AS A MAN who witnessed first hand how the likes of Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Jonny Wilkinson imposed themselves on England’s victorious 2003 World Cup-winning side, Simon Shaw knows how important force of personality can be in a successful rugby team.

Euan Murray will return to the Scotland front row for Saturday’s crucial RBS 6 Nations clash with Italy.

“A HUGE honour and extremely humbling” — that is how former Ireland and current Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, described his appointment as British and Irish Lions forwards coach yesterday for the 2009 Tour to South Africa.

Warren Gatland has criticised Irish rival and former colleague Eddie O’Sullivan for a lack of loyalty just days before the two coaches go head to head at Croke Park.

WARREN GATLAND is determined his own personal duel with Irish rival Eddie O’Sullivan does not overshadow Wales’ Triple Crown challenge at Croke Park on Saturday.

Warren Gatland is determined his own personal duel with rival Eddie O’Sullivan does not overshadow Wales’ Triple Crown challenge at Croke Park on Saturday.

LEINSTER are on the lookout for two new coaches with the confirmation from Michael Cheika that assistants David Knox and Mike Brewer will be leaving the province at the end of the season.

IN UNDER three years Eoin Reddan’s ambitions appear fully realised: from bit-part player at Munster to central cog and sometime captain at Wasps, where the English Premiership club hunt a third Heineken Cup title in five seasons, not forgetting current holder of the Ireland scrum-half shirt.

Newcastle head coach John Fletcher believes yesterday’s thrilling 22-19 triumph at Saracens showed Jonny Wilkinson exactly why he should remain in the north-east.

NO matter what your sporting preference, the television pictures from venues across Europe last weekend portrayed the same images, driving wind and lashing rain. The weather conditions that prevail at this time of year do different things to different teams. Usually it has the effect of closing the gap between the good and the not so good.

MUNSTER are masters at maintaining standards in the Heineken Cup and will want to bounce back from last weekend’s Magners League loss to arch rivals Leinster.

MONDAY lunchtime and the media, pardon the pun, swarm around Wasps scrum-half Eoin Reddan who takes over from the multi-capped (79) Peter Stringer for Friday night’s Pool D clash with France.

EOIN REDDAN’S move from bit-part player at Munster to an extraordinary rise up the rankings as one of the top scrum halves in England since his move to Wasps in 2005 should see the Limerick man rewarded with his first start for Ireland when the team to play Argentina at Velez Sarsfield Stadium, Buenos Aires on Saturday is named today.

THE SEASON may not be officially over, but, from the moment the final whistle blew on Munster and Leinster’s Heineken Cup ambitions, both provinces were in post-mortem mode and plotting next season’s campaigns.

Munster and Leinster have both learned their opponents for the quarter-final stage of the Heineken Cup.

Rob Andrew is expected to be appointed as England’s elite rugby director today ahead of World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward.

WITH the pain of the Heineken Cup semi-final defeats slowly evaporating, preparations will already be under way for another assault on European competition next season. The fact it is a World Cup year will serve to shift the focus from the provincial sides in the first half of next season, yet when that concludes in late November, the Heineken Cup will once again become the main priority for the Irish provincial sides.

GLOUCESTER captain Phil Vickery and coach Dean Ryan last night sounded a warning for Munster ahead of today’s Heineken Cup opener at Kingsholm.

Discarded scrum-half Matt Dawson has been ruled out of England’s autumn