Planet Rugby

D'Arcy gets over his knocks to wow Knox: Brian O'Driscoll's breaking of bread with Biarritz may have sparked something of a silly season. L'Equipe were in contact with this office a couple of days ago seeking confirmation of reputed negotiations between Stade Toulousain and Gordon D'Arcy.

Given Toulouse's retinue of midfielders and D'Arcy's current contract runs until 2007 this seemed unlikely. Sure enough, his agent Fintan Drury dismissed the notion out of hand.

"That is categorically not the case. If Toulouse or anybody else were conducting any negotiations they would be talking to me and I haven't spoken to anyone," he said.

D'Arcy endured a torrid final week to the Lions' tour when hung out to dry by Clive Woodward, and the shoulder and calf injuries which delayed his seasonal return until a replacement's cameo against Ulster on Saturday would tend to support the theory that he wasn't fit to play in that final Test.

In any event, what a cameo. With his first touch of the season, D'Arcy stood up Tommy Bowe and took him on the outside.

"He was skinning to get on.He was dying for it. He kept looking up at me," smiled Leinster coach Michael Cheika afterwards.

Up in the gantry, assistant coach David Knox (whose heartbeat would make interesting reading during a game) purred with a volley of wonder-eyed praise at such a daring arrival to the sitting Gerry Murphy, calmness personified. The quirky Aussie backs' coach is going to enjoy working with D'Arcy.

Trinity and UCD having a ball

The imbalances in underage Leinster rugby don't end with the schools.

Take the under-20 scene. Perhaps it's partly as a consequence of the loading at leading schools, but Trinity and UCD now seem to hoover up most of the talent at this level, with upwards of 60 players, to the envy of many other clubs.

Last season, only Lansdowne truly competed with them, with UCD winning the Leinster League, Trinity beating UCD in the final of the McCorry Cup and getting the better of Lansdowne in the All-Ireland final.

A relatively recent development, it's fair enough that the colleges should lure most of the best school leavers with their scholarship system, although Trinity's director of rugby Tony Smeeth maintains that because of the points qualifications this is not entirely true, and he probably has a point when venturing: "You make your own culture."

In any event, Wanderers, for example, are struggling to field even one side at under 20 level this season, despite some highly successful campaigns latterly.

One imagines they're not alone.

Coached by the former Connacht secondrow Mark McConnell and Nigel Osborne, anyone interested in joining can contact team manager Barra Ó Briain at 0862372504.

Heineken Cup countdown

Three weeks to go and counting down to the northern hemisphere's leading competition.

Munster's Pool One opponents: Sale rested all but three of the team which won 40-32 at Saracens last week when losing 34-9 away to Newcastle yesterday in the Powergen Cup.

Castres, after starting off with three wins, slumped to their fourth French Championship defeat of the season when their line-out was obliterated in a dreary, rain-soaked 25-10 televised defeat to Stade Français on Friday night.

The Dragons overcome three successive losses with a 24-15 win at home to Leicester that evening.

Leinster's Pool Five opponents: Bath, after three initial defeats, followed up their 27-16 win at home to Newcastle by beating Bristol 25-10 at home on Saturday, although Bristol took almost as dilettante an attitude to the Powergen Cup as Sale did.

Glasgow's thumping of Munster stands out in splendid isolation after a fourth defeat in five, by 28-12 against Edinburgh on Friday night.

Bourgoin's five-match winning run ended with a 27-3 defeat away to Perpignan in the Top 14, but they stay joint second to unbeaten Toulouse.

Ulster's Pool Four opponents: Treviso made it six wins from six with a 53-10 thrashing of L'Aquila at home on Saturday, Australian winger Brendan Williams scoring three of their eight tries.

Biarritz went joint second in the Top 14 with a 9-0 win at home to Clermont Auvergne. Note to Brian, it lashed rain!

Saracens, eighth in the Premiership with one win in four, lost 37-20 in the Powergen at Cardiff on Saturday.

Newpark line up South African tour

Newpark Comprehensive will become only the second State school, after Templeogue College last year, to undertake a tour of South Africa, next June.

The touring rugby and hockey party, about 40 boys and girls aged 15 to 16, aside from playing matches, will visit a township area to conduct a coaching clinic and donate rugby kit.

The school is aiming to raise 60,000, of which 12,000 will be donated to charities, by dint of a monthly draw limited to 600 tickets, the first of which will take place on October 21st. Information and application forms www.newparkschool.ie or ring 01-2883724.

The Wild Geese

A good day for Wasps' Irish contingent at London Irish yesterday, Eoin Reddan and Johnny O'Connor scoring tries in a 30-26 win, in which Peter Bracken played the full 80, while the much-touted English under-21 centre of Irish parentage, Shane Geraghty, marked his full debut for the home side with a try.

Ian Humphreys made his debut for Leicester on Friday night, albeit for the last four minutes of a losing cause. Shane Jennings scored his second try for the Tigers, while Leo Cullen was a 49th minute replacement.

David Quinlan and Damien Browne started in Northampton's 22-7 win at Worcester, where Seamus Mallon was on the bench.

Quote of the week

"We can't have people thinking about Test rugby the way they think about buses, that if they miss one, another will be along in a minute. Passion is everything in rugby. If we lose the sense of the special, we'll have lost everything."

The ever-quotable Ospreys coach Lynn Jones, expressing the fear that rugby will kill the goose that lays the golden egg.