Irish heart even more crucial to provinces in Champions Cup, says Shane Horgan

Keeping up with the blur of moves made by players this past year or so has been an impossible task, but the scale of the migrations and the quality of the players involved are evident just from those involving Leinster’s Champions Cup pool opponents this term.

On Sunday, they face a Bath side that has added Welsh out-half Rhys Priestland and Fijian scrum-half Nikola Matawalu to their ranks. Wasps haven’t done badly either, having signed Australian flanker George Smith and New Zealand full-back/wing Charles Piatau.

And then there is Toulon. Ma’a Nonu, Quade Cooper, Paul O’Connell. That list stretches much further, but the gist is clear. A competition renowned for small margins has just seen them reduced to minuscule proportions.