A brief round-up of the rest of today's rugby news

Change of venue as good as a rest

Leinster find themselves corralled in the Heineken Cup semi-finals by teams who have inflicted some knock-out misery on them in previous campaigns.

Cardiff travelled to Lansdowne Road at the penultimate stage of the first ever European tournament and promptly beat Leinster.

The Irish province – under the guidance then of current Ireland coach Declan Kidney – were soundly beaten by the Leicester Tigers in a quarter-final and this after winning all six pool matches.

Few Leinster supporters will need reminding of what happened when Munster opposed them at Lansdowne Road in 2006.

Still they might take comfort that in this their fourth semi-final at least the match is not being played at the graveyard of previous campaigns, Lansdowne Road.

Former players in the news

This week David O’Mahony and Alain Rolland were both in the news.

O’Mahony stepped down as Dolphin coach while Rolland was handed a couple of Tri-Nations matches during the summer, the game between the Lions and the Emerging Springboks in South Africa and tomorrow will referee the Heineken Cup quarter-final between Cardiff and the Leicester Tigers at the Millennium stadium.

The two share a link that dates back to their days as scrumhalves and one particular match in 1995. O’Mahony won his only cap for Ireland against the Italians – Ireland lost 22-12 – and during that match he was replaced by Rolland.

Test your rugby knowledge

Which former Ireland rugby captain and current television analyst is missing from the following line of the Clare Under-16 hurling team in 1988? Paul O’Rourke, ____________, Kevin McNamara.

Which current Munster player is missing from the half forward line of the All Ireland winning Cork minor hurling team of 2001? Kieran Murphy, ____________, John O’Connor.

Answers at bottom of column

IRFU officially withdraws from 2015 World Cup bidding process

The IRFU has confirmed its official withdrawal from the 2015 Rugby World Cup bidding process.

The union had formally communicated to the International Board (IRB) in January their interest in being part of a joint bid involving the other home unions, England, Scotland and Wales. They underlined the fact that they could only be part of a joint proposal due to the global economic downturn and the guaranteed financial return that the IRB required from the host country or countries.

The bid format that the IRFU favoured was that each union would host its own pool for the tournament and also a quarter-final. The union believed that it would allow each country to share both the cost and the added value in terms of economic return of hosting the tournament.

The matter was discussed at length by the four unions but when no agreement on a final bid could be reached, the IRFU withdrew from the process. This comes after England, who initially wanted to host the 2015 World Cup predominantly by themselves – they actually cut out Ireland and Scotland – found that the British government would not support the venture financially and so returned to the four-union process.

IRFU Chief Executive Philip Browne said: “The current economic situation and the financial commitment to host a Rugby World Cup tournament was such that we felt a joint bid with all four unions including Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales would be the only viable format that Irish rugby could be part of.

“We examined in detail the possibility of other bid options alongside the positive spin offs of hosting the tournament, but these did not satisfy all of the essential criteria for Irish rugby to remain involved in the process.

“We are obviously disappointed at the outcome.”