By Tournament /

Happy travels then...

As expected but Sale Sharks and Philippe Saint-Andre will be straight on the Vouvray and Steak haché...

A bonus-point win?

They made a huge statement, Luke Abraham, the human dustbin cleaned out all the rubbish at the breakdown, especially for Mark Cueto's bonus-point securing try.

Sounds unbelievable...

From 1-15 it was pure industrious stuff. Water-tight defending coupled with Luke McAllister's intelligence, whose telling contributions to the scoreboard were amplified by his soaring prominence at the restart, gave Sebastien Chabal reason to give an English interview.

Wow! And we've realised Scotland's best isn't good enough...

Slack tackling in the first-half cost the jocks and went into half-time with their kilts wrapped around their ankles at four scores down.

Who were the stars?

Felipe Contepomi, back in his best position at fly-half, combined expertly with Brian O'Driscoll for two of Leinster's four scores and behind Rocky Elsom, a menace on the blindside, carrying straggling Scots on his back with every rampaging run, they made no answer.

A moment of controversy or two, no?

If Andy Robinson was kicking and screaming at half-time, locals would've had to order a civil court action such was his vociferous yelp when Chris Whitaker's hand-of-god to prevent a certain second try.

And the Blues are dreaming of another Heineken Cup run?

18-13 at half-time, whatever Dai Young said over an espresso and amaretti biscuit seemed to do the trick with his troops running in a further seven tries in the second-half. Tom Shanklin, Leigh Halfpenny and Ben Blair, who notched up 21 points, were all on target.

Even the Dragons won...

Amazing stuff really. Rodney Parade won't be used to seeing a home side score 30+ points. They're usually on the receiving end but a Gareth Wyatt brace and one from local hero Colin Charvis made it a weekend to forget for Scotland. Thank-god for the football team eh?

The launch of Apollo Heineken Cup 2008/9 rocketed out of orbit on Friday night with the galaxy of superstars dressed in red finding their opening journey into Europe anything but a smooth ride.


Well that wasn't what I envisaged...

Jammy feckers! Ronan O'Gara's savings account is clocking up a healthy sum of bonuses...

It could've been a disastrous start to their defence - Thomond Park breathed a huge sigh of relief?

Wayne Barnes' strict adjudication of the breakdown laws itched away under Munster's skin but the 77th minute penalty offering meant the 26,000 fans could pull the blinkers away from their eyes.

Montauban kicker Petre Mitu missed three pot-shots at goal no?

It was a cruel first examination for the man-of-the-match. He worked his hustling and bustling back-row into the ground, preventing Munster from bossing the breakdown and building a platform.

So were Munster just awful?

They were also guilty of trying to play too much rugby - a recurring factor since the introduction of these muddled ELVs...

And Perpignan needed a bit of Dan Carter magic?

It was pretty uninspiring stuff. How much they will rue the missed home sundries only time will tell but Leicester and the Ospreys will expect to pick up maximum offerings both home and away.

The feisty Italians were guilty of ill-discipline...

Two yellow-cards - one in each half - handed the Catalans the initiative, especially in the first-half, which for most parts Treviso had led.

And an 80m try I hear?

Jérôme Porical and Chris Cusiter combined for a moment of rare excitement but the Treviso defence was outstanding to deny the hosts a fourth try.