big game starting at 8, i think an even match since Gloucester are at home vs biarritz.
its weird but nice having a game on thursday!

Shane Monahan on the bench, hope he comes on and make an impact.

he might not come on tho as Billy Twelvetrees is also on the bench and he'd be ahead of him

If Munster or Ulster don't make the H Cup final, there will likely be a few tickets floating aboutfor that as well, so not a bad weekend to be in Dublin.

2 tickets booked for the final, behind the posts but 56.50 for 2 tickets to a European final, likely between Leinster and Toulouse with the additional Connacht HC qualification interest isn't that bad.

Surprised that there are still tickets for the final. I thought I was being smart getting in early. Obviously the Challenge Cup final isn't as big a draw as Connacht in the PRO12.

Great result for Pat Lam. Watch the sudden increase in interest shown in the Amlin from the Irish media this season

If Leinster get by Wasps, then it is game on.

AMLIN Final in front of home support in the RDS for Leinster is best incentive they need to win it.

If we do not get into HC as a result of one of the other Irish teams winning HC or Amlin and we end up in the Almin, can not see why we should not be targeting at least a Semi / Final spot.

Have to agree, leinster dont look like winning the h cup this year but if they show up for the challange cup they have a great chance of winning it,

Connachts best chance if h cup next year

Looks almost certain to be Leinster now. Early Red Card put paid to any Racing hope. Almost embarrassingly easy for Munster once Murray got their first try.

The Amlin is a bit stronger than recent years but Leinster are still by far the strongest team in the competition if they put the effort in.

So with an Irish side guaranteed to be in the Amlin, and the final in the RDS, I've decided to buy a ticket, as it's probably Connacht's best chance of H Cup rugby.
I'm going with the North Stand, if anyone's going.

I presume tickets will start moving after the Munster game, when we know which one of them is in it. Of course there's a long road to go yet, but the attraction of a home final might spur them into making some effort.

Andy Hazell has been banned for 14 weeks following an independent Disciplinary Hearing in Dublin today. He will be free to play again on January 21, 2013.

only 3months, a year would be closer to a proper ban.

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5ZYpljlcVHk

didn't know thing's were that fractious in Italy. I heard that the last president wasn't that popular but I didn't know that the new election was that hard fought. The french and english were talking about a third competition were the winner would get a place in the new Amlin. Looking on the new formatting it would make sense. This new lad is apparently going to focus on centres of excellence in Italy to bring young players through which makes sense in my opinion. I just hope that if they do add a new franchise it's down south rather than another team up north.

italian rugby domestically is really struggling since they set up regional rugby and joined the pro12.
most if not all the clubs are now semi pro and all the best players are with regions or abroad which is prob why they are taking such hammerings.

I read that the recent italian fed presidential election was fought by two candidates, one who advocated pulling out of pro12 and returning to old league and the other advocating a third and in time 4 region to incorporate all the clubs/country. The pro12 candidate won but seemingly has already put pro12 on notice that italians willl no longer pay bond to league and want full partner status in league management.

Imo the Heineken and Amlin cups will both be 20 team competitions from 2014 on. The Hec will prob be a 6/6/8 split with qualification for winners of either cups being reserved only for team who wins it if they fail to qualify through league position(similar to football). in such case the last qualified team from that league will lose out.
This would mean that the amlin would consist of an 8/6/4 split + two qualifiers from the other nations and would be a very good competition.If the italians add a team to pro 12 that would fill one spot but the other would have to come from outside italy.

Hopefully an irish team will win one or both cups and keep us in Heineken for another year until a revamped amlin is in place and worth playing in.

swift4prez wrote: SOME very awful teams in the cup, if connacht wasn't lucky to be in the heineken, then we would be looking to at least make the semi of this. ok it gets stronger when a few teams from the heineken goes into it. between 3-5 teams in it that you could call decent.
after two rounds here are some of the stand out scores.

<strong><em>round 1</em></strong>
Grenoble <strong>59 - 3 </strong> I Cavalieri Prato
Bayonne <strong>71 - 7</strong> Rugby Mogliano
Femi-CZ VEA Rovigo <strong>12 - 79 </strong> Perpignan
Bucharest Wolves <strong>17 - 40</strong> Bath Rugby
London Welsh <strong>19 - 68</strong> Stade Francais Paris
Bizkaia Gernika RT <strong>5 - 85</strong> Worcester Warriors
Bordeaux-Begles <strong>16 - 43</strong> London Irish

<strong><em>round 2</em></strong>

London Irish <strong>69 - 26</strong> Mont de Marsan
Worcester Warriors <strong>90 - 3</strong> Femi-CZ VEA Rovigo
Perpignan <strong>90 - 12</strong> Bizkaia Gernika RT
Rugby Mogliano <strong>12 - 59</strong> London Wasps


in pool 2 - Perpignan and Worcester and scored 344 points (52 trys) between them and only conceded 1.

There are some terrible sides but lets not forget some of these teams have caught us out in the past embarrasingly and if these sides are disrespected some of them can catch you. Also I won't forget the embarrassment that was heaped on us being beaten 75-5 away to London Irish not that long ago.

Having said that I don't think the Amlin will be taken seriously until they get rid of a lot of these weaker sides into maybe a shield competition with the winner being promoted. Also you'd question how much some of the French (and you could add English in certain cases) teams care (most of them have improved in this regard in fairness)

It has the potential to be a good competition, there are 1 or 2 groups that have 3 decent sides and as at some stage we will return to it so hopefully some of these scores force a rethink as to the competitions future.

Personally, I will wait for the results of the home and away with Clermont before I slot Leinster into the Amlin.

I wouldn't be too worried about Leinster's form from a HEC perspective, they have been slow starters in the tournament in their championship seasons previously IIRC. They also have the likes of O'Brien, Kearney, Quinn Roux and Fitzgerald out at the moment who when fit will no doubt add a little oomph to their title challenge, and 'Caines prop Michael Bent is due in town about now too..

I don't think Leinster would be like that TBH. Although the disappointment of not making the HEC quarters would always be something that would affect the team if it happened.

If Leinster were in the Amlin I don't think they'd mail it in, they'd go for it. And I think after two years of HEC rugby across all 4 provinces I think the IRFU like what they see and will want that to continue before the English and French contrive a system where that's never again possible for us.