Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Connacht/Munster v Leinster/Ulster:COME 2.30pm this afternoon rugby returns to its ancestral home. It was December 31st, 2006, that a rugby ball, or any ball for that matter, was last kicked around Lansdowne Road. The ground has since been modernised and rechristened the Aviva Stadium, with today’s O2 Challenge seeing a combined Connacht/Munster selection face a Leinster/Ulster equivalent.

All the players on show will be under-20, many of them the best talent to come from the schools game in the past 12 months, but it should be pointed out that of the 44, only 10 are presently contracted to provincial academies as pre-season training has prohibited the cream of young Irish talent being showcased on the first historic outing.