Steward on a roll

Planet Rugby: There was a Munster fan walking through the barriers on Saturday on his way to the European Cup match in Lansdowne Road. At the main junction just down the road from the Berkeley Court Hotel, the teenager showed his ticket to the steward only to be told, "Sorry I can't let you in with that."

The astonished lad looked at the steward and realised he was looking not at his ticket but the jumbo breakfast roll he was enthusiastically munching. We are aware the cholesterol-packed roll is a killer but we never considered it to be a lethal weapon at a rugby match.

Willow Park branches out

Willow Park, that nursery for so many past international rugby players has, it seems, begun to branch out and with some success.

Having become a feeder school for the Park Avenue-based hockey club, Railway Union, Willow have taken to the game of hockey with the same sort of flourish that characterises their rugby.

The under-13 Willow Park team not only took part in the Leinster Schools Hockey League for the first time this season but managed to play their way to the finals where they were finally stopped by the Liam Canning-coached Whitechurch.

Canning, a talented rugby player in his day and a former international hockey player, had too much on the day as Whitechurch won the final on penalties after the sides tied 1-1.

Willow, however, can take comfort from having won six games from six played with hockey having found a treasure trove in rugby heartland where they might least have expected it.

Munster show support

The Munster Rugby Supporters Club presented individualised good-luck booklets to the team after training in Cork during the week.

Each player's booklet has his own photo on the cover and contains messages of good luck, encouragement and thanks to the team and squad. Submissions for each of the booklets came from fans by email.

The artwork and preparation was carried out by supporters club members Eilish Buckley, Liam Carey, Leo Dillon and Richard Healy and will no doubt be appreciated by the Munster players.

Toulouse travel travails

It appears that getting to Toulouse for many Leinster fans ahead of their European Cup quarter-final was far from straightforward.

One particular charter was due to leave Dublin at a little after midday on Friday but due to complications checking in and the late arrival of the Boeing 747, the flight did not take off until about 3.15pm.

The booklet that accompanied the trip had promised "an afternoon free to explore Toulouse". Well not quite, as most of the supporters on that trip didn't get to their respective hotels until a little before 8pm.

For many it was simply a long day of queuing: to check-in, to get through security in Dublin airport, at Toulouse's Blagnac airport (there were only three buses which had to make shuttle runs to and from the terminal to ferry passengers), at passport control and finally to board buses to take them to the respective hotels.

It was, unfortunately, just one of those days.

Streaker runs into trouble

Anyone interested in taking their cloths off and running across the pitch at Lansdowne Road during a European Cup match may want to understand the consequences.

The dare devil who raced on the hallowed grass and was escorted away with his trousers and seven security men hanging off him was taken up the tunnel and handed over to a Garda, who was waiting at the back of the West Stand. He put the enthusiastic fan into the back of a squad car and drove off to the nearest police station.

Not a great way to end a European Cup quarter-final.

Leinster's daunting task

Leinster's astonishing performance in France against Toulouse aside, Michael Cheika's side will face perhaps the most consistently good team in the European Cup in their next game at Lansdowne Road. Munster stories in the competition are now legendary but the facts also speak for themselves.

When the competition began in the 1995-96 season, Munster struggled for the first few years and confined themselves to pool games. But since 1998, or the last eight years, they have never dropped out of the running earlier than the quarter-finals. Since 1998 Munster have played in two finals and lost both, four semi-finals (including this year) and two quarter-finals.