Writing’s on the wall this weekend

STAND up BJ Botha, Isa Nacewa and Johann Muller, you and your foreign cohorts all have a point to prove this weekend as you bid to put your Irish provinces a step closer to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

As the pool stages resume at their customary breakneck speed, discontent is still simmering in the provinces over the IRFU’s recently announced guidelines on overseas players, which will leave the likes of Botha unable to renew their contracts when they expire.

That should provide an interesting backdrop to the contributions of the imported talent and added incentive to prove their worth to Irish rugby if any were needed as Botha’s Munster, Nacewa’s Leinster and Muller’s Ulster all chase victories this weekend which will move them within reach of the European knockout stages.