Planet Rugby

Connacht could yet face Ulster
CONNACHT WILL hope to continue their unbeaten progress through Pool 2 of the Amlin Challenge Cup but face a very difficult assignment against Montpellier at the Sportsground on Friday night (7.0).

The French side are in a very rich vein of form at the moment as evidenced by their two most recent outings.

Having shocked Stade Francais, Montpellier followed up that win at the weekend with the scalp of Top 14 leaders Castres, who they beat 15-0 at Stade Yves-du-Manoir. The boot of Argentine kicking phenomenon Federico Todeschini was responsible for four first-half penalties with his side’s final score coming from French international outhalf Francois Trinh-Duc. Connacht already beat Montpellier away but to do so again would constitute another superb effort.

IF THE quarter-final draw for the Amlin Challenge Cup took place tomorrow it would see Connacht host Ulster at the Sportsground.

The four top-ranked Challenge Cup teams will have home advantage and, as things stand, Connacht would be the number two seeds with their fellow Irish province coming in as one of three second-placed teams in the Heineken Cup that qualify for a Challenge Cup quarter-final.

The draw this morning would read: Toulon v Leeds Carnegie; Connacht v Ulster; London Wasps v Leicester Tigers; Newcastle Falcons v Sale Sharks. However, there are still two rounds to go and plenty of scope for these pairings to change.

Cronin stays Montpellier in form for Connacht trip

CONNACHT HAVE received a huge boost with international hooker Sean Cronin extending his stay at the Sportsground.

The 23-year old, who made his full senior international debut when he came on against Fiji in November, has signed a one-year extension to his contract.

EDINBURGH HOISTED themselves back up to third spot in the Magners League with a 21-12 win over Cardiff at an icy Murrayfield on Saturday.The Gunners’ two tries were the difference between the sides as Ross Rennie and Jim Thompson went over with Chris Paterson kicking three penalties and a conversion.

Yachvili poised to join Elite 500 Club

BIARRITZ OLYMPIQUE ace Dimitri Yachvili is poised to join the Elite 500 Club and become only the sixth player to score 500 Heineken Cup points.

The French international scrumhalf is top scorer in this season’s tournament with 73 points, giving him a Heineken Cup haul of 492 points. Munster and Ireland outhalf Ronan O’Gara leads the standings on 1,099 points.

Sale Sharks wing Ben Cohen is one try short of being only the fifth player to score 25 Heineken Cup tries. His tally of 24 tournament tries has been scored for Northampton Saints (22) and the Sharks (2).

Leinster duo Brian O’Driscoll (27) and Shane Horgan (26) are in third and fourth places on the all-time try-scoring list.

Fans flocking to Heineken Cup fare

WEATHER CONDITIONS permitting, round five of the Heineken Cup takes place at the weekend with Leinster, Ulster and Munster all in action. Leinster are due to host Brive at the RDS on Saturday and the French side followed up their surprise win over Perpignan with a 17-15 victory over bottom side Albi at the weekend. Fullback Alexis Palisson won the game late on for the visitors.

Munster travel to Benetton Treviso, the Italian side have proved difficult opponents and have already beaten Perpignan at home. Edinburgh warmed up for their trip to Ravenhill with a victory over the Cardiff Blues at the weekend.

The Heineken Cup has smashed through another landmark barrier with over 10,000,000 supporters going through the turnstiles to watch the tournament since its inception. The 1,025 tournament matches played so far have attracted 10,095,148 supporters.

The first 14 years of the tournament saw combined audiences of 9,549,461 at the 977 matches. The four rounds so far this season have seen 151,417, 129,613, 132,594 and 132,063 attend the 12 matches each weekend.