Dean Richards has been back in the headlines © Getty Images

Brian Moore believes that Dean Richards' return to the headlines shows the flaws in ERC's judgement against him in The Daily Telegraph.

"I told you so. I usually have little time for those who revel in schadenfreude, but this time I am enjoying the public discomfort felt by the officials from European Rugby Cup Ltd and the International Rugby Board over their inability to draft and impose a uniformly binding ban on Dean Richards, who has since carried out consultancy work for Worcester, for his part in the Bloodgate affair.

"It would not be thus had it not been for the disgraceful way ERC ignored repeated and legitimate questions about serious deficiencies in their prosecution of Richards et al, refusing to front up while hoping it would all go away. It would be different had the IRB, situated in the same Dublin office block, not simply rubber-stamped the whole thing and refused to investigate such serious concerns."

David Kelly evaluates the painful end to Leinster's season following defeat to the Ospreys in The Irish Independent.

"This wasn't how it was supposed to end. The script of Saturday's season-ending finale was ripped to shreds piece by painful piece, the slow dismantling of Leinster's faltering at their final hurdle an excruciating spectacle to watch from the first spilled ball to coach Michael Cheika's final, dispiriting exit.

"So, unlike last season, only Tommy Bowe and Geordan Murphy will carry medals into the Irish camp; after last season's unsurpassed haul, one suspects the pair won't be dangling the silverware from their necks.

"It was a typical cup final, secured by the side who made the least amount of errors, or at least the side who managed to stem their flow much earlier than the opposition. Leinster were quite simply awful and yet they could have snatched it had Jonathan Sexton not dragged his late kick to the left."

Greg Growden hopes that the Wallabies can catch the Springboks and All Blacks napping this season in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"The New Zealand Rugby Union chiefs are hovering around Sonny Bill Williams as if they've just unearthed another Colin ''Pinetree'' Meads.

"The South Africans are in a similar state of frenzy, showing off the best they have to offer - and it is quite impressive - during a quality Super 14 final.The humble Wallabies are just attempting to work away in the shadows, hoping to strike when it's least expected.

"And if the Wallabies are to achieve that aim, they must hope that the All Blacks continue to be distracted by the out-of-control merry-go-round just outside the Sonny Bill Circus big top, and that the Springboks peaked too early when the bulk of the squad relentlessly smashed and bashed each other in Soweto on Saturday night."

Steve Deane takes a look at the reaction to Andy Haden's controversial allegations against the Crusaders in The New Zealand Herald.

"For some reason race remains an area of fascination for many of the games' followers. There seems to be a fairly widespread belief that achieving some kind of mythical racial balance is vital to success. Sounds like cobblers to me, but it's hardly the sort of thing that needs discussing in the shadows.

"If all it takes is a flippant darkie reference and a bit of a dig at a franchise - named, amusingly enough, after largely white armies bent on religious persecution - to derail the whole discussion, then sadly this country lacks the maturity to have a proper public debate about race and sport.

It's fine to say what you really think in a private conversation, but say it in a public forum and Campbell Live will be on your doorstep in a flash."

Leicester's Louis Deacon and George Chuter lead the celebrations at the final whistle © Getty Images

Writing in the Sunday Times, Stephen Jones rates Leicester Guinness Premiership Final victory over Saracens as "the greatest final of all time."

"Inside the last five minutes, Saracens took the most dramatic lead when Glen Jackson, who had piloted a team of delightful attacking skills with real precision, put Saracens 27-26 into the lead with a penalty from within easy range. Considering his legs must have been jelly, it may as well have been from 300m.

"All Saracens had to do to win their first title was take the kick-off, set it up and run down the clock. But, incredibly, Scott Hamilton came up with a desperate dash to catch the ball cleanly as it fell, and he ran on for the line. He picked up an amazing run by Danny Hipkiss, the Leicester centre who had just come on as replacement.

"Hipkiss hurtled into the last defenders, incredibly hurtled out the other side and scored to provoke probably the loudest noise that Twickenham has every heard — a combination of sheer, roaring delight from Leicester and agony from Saracens."

Writing in the Sunday Herald, Richard Loe believes Andy Haden's recent accusation that the Crusaders select on racial lines is so wrong it is not funny.

"It's all about planning, structure and ability - balancing a team to produce best results.

"That's where Andy's got it wrong. Quota? Never heard of it. We're very amenable down here in Christchurch. We like to fit in with what people want. Why, we've even changed the name of our stadium three times in about three years to fit in with what some people want.

"Seriously, if there is an unwritten rule in the Crusaders, it's not about ethnic stuff. It's been long said that there are two main criteria for Crusaders' players: 1) a good person and 2) a good rugby player. In that order."

There was to be no triumphant valediction to close Michael Cheika's reign at Leinster, writes the Irish Independent's John O'Brien.

"They billed it somewhat pretentiously as the Grand Final and, in truth, the occasion lived up to its name. The purists might argue that Leinster were denied the title they had earned over the course of the season, but the manner in which the Ospreys dismantled them in the first 40 minutes gave the lie to that assessment.

"At a ground that has only ever held despair for them, the Welsh side proved themselves worthy champions.

"We had assumed the imperatives would be greater for Leinster. They had a proud history at their adopted ground to defend and the emotional context of Michael Cheika and Malcolm O'Kelly, among others, making their valedictory appearances for the province. Not to mention their burning need to finish another season with a tangible reward to show for their efforts. They seemed to have any number of reasons to win."

The men of Ospreylia can no longer be accused of bottling it on the big day according to the Wales on Sunday.

"For the Ospreys, it was also a success that goes a long way to making amends for their heartbreaking Heineken Cup exit at the quarter-final stage to Biarritz.

"They now become the first team to win the Magners League three times, following up their title triumphs in 2005 and 2007, with the trophy being lifted jointly by skipper Jones and fellow back-rower Filo Tiatia, who was making his last appearance before hanging up his boots.

"It was a thoroughly deserved success for the often-criticised Liberty lads, who outplayed Leinster for an hour at the RDS and then held on defiantly in the final quarter with some Rorke’s Drift-style defence."

The Sunday Telegraph's Paul Ackford is also full of praise for the entertainment served up by Leicester and Saracens at Twickenham.

"The stark fact is that Leicester have regained their crown at the Premiership’s premier side in their sixth successive final but this was a game way beyond statistics. Both sides pushed each other beyond heroism. It was a match which showed club rugby in England in the most extraordinary light because it had everything: skill, drama, tension. And never, not until the last few seconds when Dan Hipkiss secured Leicester’s final try could anyone guess which side would prevail.

"Saracens were desperately unlucky. With Brendan Venter, their director of rugby, watching at home due to his RFU ban, they gave everything in a valiant attempt to unseat Leicester. Their courage was beyond doubt and some of their rugby was scintillating but this time of year at Twickenham Leicester refuse to lie down and the fact that they came from behind to win inside the last three minutes speaks volumes for their collective character."

Writing in the < Ahref="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/news-comment/david-flatman-oldschool-tour-but-itll-be-men-at-work-in-land-down-under-1986942.html" target="new">Independent on Sunday, Bath and England prop David Flatman looks forward to next month's tour to Australia and New Zealand.

"One principle of touring that I know still exists is the bonding of men. We will train like dogs every day in the heat and will donate every drop of energy in the bank to winning every game. But once the game is done there will, as ever, be a chance to unwind with the very same men with whom one has recently been to the very limits of sporting exertion.

"This does not mean turning from an international rugby team to a university one after two pints and letting ourselves down, it means finding somewhere where we can escape the pressures of the job at hand and talk about something other than rugby. This serves both to keep the mind fresh and, perhaps more importantly, as a social tool; we will all know one another better the morning after a few glasses of wine. Inhibitions loosen and the men behind the muscles come out. These environments are where friendships are born."

After a build-up dominated by rows and trivia Leicester showed their class to deliver an extraordinary twist in the tail in this season's Guinness Premiership finale. The Observer's Michael Aylwin reports.

"For a fleeting few seconds on a magnificent climax to the English season, it had looked so glorious for the team that had stolen so many headlines and riled so many opponents. Saracens' extraordinary run to end this campaign seemed set to be consummated in glory when Glen Jackson, in his last match, sent over a penalty with three minutes to go at Twickenham to snatch Saracens a one-point lead.

"But they are some champions, these Leicester Tigers, and when nerve was called for, it was the perennial champions of England who showed it, and Saracens who did not. Dan Hipkiss's burst for the winning try, straight from the restart, was decisive. And what a fitting end it was to a season that has ended up rewarding so richly those who stuck with it through the dark days."

Saracens captain Ernst Joubert and Leicester skipper Geordan Murphy pose with the Guinness Premiership silverware © Getty Images

The Guinness Premiership final at Twickenham on Saturday evening will surely reshape some myths according to the Daily Telegraph's Mick Cleary.

"Leicester can play and Saracens can operate without Venter. On that premise alone the sell-out crowd of 81,600 will have value for money. There is an understated zest in the game of defending champions, Leicester, as well as a deep-rooted sense of solidarity that makes Saracens a potent threat.

"Indeed the Tigers, second highest try-scorers in the Premiership, will have to get across the try-line if they are to match the scoring prowess of in-form opponents while Saracens might actually welcome the sense of grievance generated by the Venter affair to stoke the fires that bit more.

"Saracens’ belief in the collective is not contrived or recently acquired. Venter’s greatest achievement has been in establishing a hard-edged identity at a club renowned for flaky transience. They could be Leicester in black. Top teams need talent for sure, but they also need cussedness. They need to be chippy, defiant and not give a tinker’s cuss what others think of them. That has always been the Leicester way. Now it is that of Saracens, too."

Bulls captain Victor Matfield insists their Super 14 Final against the Stormers is the culmination of seven years of legacy-building as they chase their third title in four years. The Springboks lock talks to Reuters.

"Only the Canterbury Crusaders (7) and the Auckland Blues (3) have won more than two Super 14 crowns.

"Seven years ago, Heyneke [Meyer, former Bulls coach] said that we wanted to be the top union in world rugby. To do that, we need to win the Super 14 often, like the Crusaders have done," lock Matfield told Reuters before turning his full attention to a laptop showing clips of the Cape-Town-based Stormers lineout.

"That's always been my goal, to keep winning the Super 14 and be the top provincial side in world rugby."

"The Bulls cantered to victory last year, finishing top of the standings and thrashing the Waikato Chiefs 61-17 in the final. They finished top of the table again this year and even firebrand Stormers captain Schalk Burger has conceded they are near to their goal."

The Irish Times' Gerry Thornley believes the inaugural Magners League play-offs have been a huge success and thinks Leinster will get the better of the Ospreys in the season finale.

"Even before a ball has been kicked proponents of a play-off system to the Magners League have been belatedly vindicated. Last season, Munster’s success (two nights before the little matter of their Croker Euro semi-final defeat to Leinster) registered at about 0.01 on the rugby Richter scale and scarcely prompted a glass of Babycham.

"This evening, as in domestic finals in France, England and Italy, the champagne is at the ready, and sponsors, organisers, financial secretaries and supporters alike have a climax befitting a major competition.

"Nor could they have asked for a better pairing. First versus second, with the former rightly earning home advantage, not only brings together the most deserving finalists but sides laden with individual talent, much of it indigenous too."

The Irish Independent's David Kelly thinks some of Ireland's leading names will soon be heading to the continent.

"Perhaps now we know why leading Irish rugby stars like Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara have spoken so endearingly of potentially leaving Ireland to take up lucrative contracts in France following next year's World Cup.

"For, if the recent revelations are correct concerning the IRFU's scything of national contracts for older players coming to the end of existing deals, then the leading lights of the golden generation -- O'Driscoll, O'Gara and Paul O'Connell -- could be in for a rude awakening when they sit down with IRFU top brass to thrash out new playing contracts next year.

"And you can be sure that clubs all over Europe and beyond -- Jamie Heaslip, for example, has spoken of his desire to spend a year in the Super 14 -- from Toulon to Toulouse and Leicester to Wasps, will have their ears pricked should Irish rugby's gravy train jolt to a shuddering halt."

Rob Horne is not yet 21, but seems to have been around forever, waiting for his big chance according to the Sydney Morning Herald's Greg Growden.

"And it has been the most frustrating of waits as for seemingly ages he has hovered close to his first Test cap, only for it to elude him at the last moment.

"After opting against pursuing a rugby league career with St George Illawarra, Horne started playing for the Waratahs when 18. He was sighted at Wallabies training when John Connolly was in charge. He has 30 state caps, and been Australian rugby's rising star for three seasons. Why hasn't he gone further? Blame it all on his legs, in particular his hamstrings, which have given him so much trouble and anguish, especially when just a few days into last year's end-of-season European tour he had to return home from Tokyo after breaking down at training. Exactly the same thing happened at the under-20 World Cup tournament last year, also in Japan."

The Scottish Rugby Union's decision to opt out of the proposed ambitious schedule seems defensible according to The Scotsman's Allan Massie.

"Imagine," one contributor to our website wrote, "the outcry if, say, Wales announced it didn't want to tour New Zealand but instead wanted to play the likes of Canada, the US or Portugal."

"...The last time the All Blacks came here, they fielded a below-strength side at Murrayfield and still won quite comfortably. Away from home, we came very close to beating South Africa in the first of two Tests in the summer of 2003, but this was unusual.

"Our away record in the Six Nations is not much better. We haven't won in Paris since 1999 or at Twickenham since 1983. Our victory in Dublin in March was our first there this century. We should have won in Cardiff and Rome this year, but lost both games. So we have had one win in Cardiff and two in Rome since we were the last Five Nations champions in 1999.

"...None of this indicates that we are in "disastrous decline", but it does suggest we are at best treading water. Nobody can sensibly suppose that a three-Test series in New Zealand, South Africa or Australia wouldn't result in at least two heavy, and probably demoralising, defeats. I think that is likely to be the fate suffered by Wales and Ireland, who have agreed to this schedule, but that is their business."

Brendan Venter will not be at Twickenham in person this evening, but he will certainly be there in spirit. The Independent's Chris Hewett writes.

"He will also be there in cardboard, papier-mâché and a range of other materials if the hard core of Saracens supporters, who rightly count themselves among the most boisterously enthusiastic in England club rugby, deliver on plans to dispense thousands of Venter masks to the paying public ahead of the Guinness Premiership final with Leicester, in protest at the South African's exclusion from the event.

"Today is the first day of Venter's 10-week match-day coaching ban, imposed for "behaviour prejudicial to the interests of the game", but as it coincides with the last game of a nine-month domestic campaign, it is the only day that actually matters. The Saracens director of rugby will watch the contest on television at his home in St Albans, in the company of his youngest son, and may find himself wondering whether he is staring at his bathroom mirror. A sea of Venter faces in a crowd of 80,000-plus will be a serious embarrassment to the governing body."

Leicester stalwart Lewis Moody is aiming to end his career at Welford Road with victory in the Premiership final against Saracens. Michael Aylwin writes in The Guardian.

"You may expect a lengthy pause when you ask Lewis Moody to choose the highlight of his 14-year career with Leicester. Here is just some of what he might choose from – six Premiership-winning seasons, two Heineken Cup-winning seasons, an Anglo-Welsh Cup.

"But, no, the answer comes really quite quickly. "People are surprised that the memories that will always stick with me are the games like Munster away at Thomond Park [in 2007]," he says. "They'd never lost a European game at home, and we went there as underdogs and we took that crown away from them, at their home ground, in their last game."

"Of all the sun-kissed glories – and he goes for a dark, rainswept night in Limerick, buffeted on all sides by the winds, the fans and previously invincible opponents, where their achievement was nothing more or less than winning where no one else had won. It was Munster's 27th and last Heineken Cup game at the old Thomond Park – just one more win and the old fortress would have remained unviolated. But, no, what followed provides Moody with his fondest memory of his time at Leicester. Spoiling Munster's party, "at their home ground, in their last game".

Matt Burke has tipped the Stormers to beat the Bulls in Soweto © Getty Images

Former Waratahs fullback Matt Burke salutes the powerful defensive play of the Stormers prior to the Super 14 final in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Why are those guys such bullies, Dad?'' Even a seven-year-old girl can understand the Stormers' tactics. As my daughter joined me to watch a replay of their match against the Waratahs, I explained that was the way the Stormers play. What they lack in finesse they try to make up for with brawn. And they'll need all of it against the Bulls in the Super 14 final.

"Thinking back to some of the Wallabies-Springboks games, we knew we had a smarter, more skilful team than they did but that counts for nothing when the other team is so aggressive. Your first thought in every game should be to go out there and bash them.

"What we saw in the Stormers' performance against the Waratahs was why they have the best defensive record by far in the competition. Their aggression and speed off the line was unbelievable."

Andrew Austin salutes the beginning of a golden era for South African rugby, and wishes that the All Blacks had some of their selection conundrums, in The New Zealand Herald.

"What Graham Henry would give to have Springbok coach Pieter de Villiers' selection headaches. The Boks may have won two Rugby World Cups, but history would suggest that the last time South Africa had this much talent was in the early 1980s.

"Those were the days of exciting runners like Danie Gerber and the Du Plessis brothers, Carel and Michael. The forwards were not too shabby either, with Schalk Burger snr and Hennie Bekker (the fathers of Stormers' stars Schalk and Andries) and talented opensider Rob Louw. The big problem with that team was that it did not play much thanks to apartheid."

The Irish Independent's Hugh Farrelly is worried by the IRB's latest hints of meddling with the game's laws.

"The 3.0am text is the technological equivalent of a desire that, in the old days, used to be reflected through the medium of lobbing pebbles at your target's bedroom window.

"And, in keeping with this general theme, we have the text the IRB sent out a week ago under the headline: "World's Top Coaches Buy In To Global Application Of Law".

"This low-key offering referred to a gathering in London involving various IRB representatives and senior coaches from all the major rugby playing nations including the head men of all the Six Nations teams."

Mick Cleary believes that the blame for Dean Richards' short-lived return lays at the feet of the game's administrators in The Daily Telegraph.

"If the letter of the law has not been breached, there is no doubt that its spirit has been. And it is rugby administrators in the European game who have bungled, not Dean Richards.

"They ought to have imposed a drug-style ban under International Rugby Board ruling 21, one that prevents an offender from having any association with the sport worldwide. Instead they botched it.

"Welcome to the land of the loophole, a world with a lack of clarity. There was the sound of stable doors being bolted as the Rugby Football Union issued a clarification on the matter. Too late."

Matthew Syed, writing in The Times, is perplexed by Dean Richards raising his head again so soon after Bloodgate.

"The episode undoubtedly asks searching questions of a sport seeking to rehabilitate itself. For a start, how could any self-respecting club hire a man who heaped such disgrace on the game? Why has there been no outcry from the insiders party to the deal? And, perhaps most sinister of all, why did the RFU not come clean about the fact that Richards was once again earning money from the sport, leaving it instead to a journalist from this newspaper to break the story?

"We would do well to remember that in the aftermath of the match between Harlequins and Leinster, Williams’s lip was cut by Wendy Chapman, the club doctor, in order to engineer evidence retrospectively of a blood injury that never occurred.

"Chapman is still under suspension by the General Medical Council for her part in the affair. We should also remember that Richards was quite willing to use his authority to orchestrate a cover-up that led to the blame initially being heaped on Williams."

Will Leinster fullback Rob Kearney prove the star of the show in Saturday's Magners League finale? © Getty Images

Leinster fullback Rob Kearney is safe under the high ball, but he is also well-versed in Leinster's running game, writes the Irish Times' Johnny Watterson.

"There he is, Rob Kearney down beside the pitch at Old Wesley. He's making the television cameras love him. He's smiling in the sun. Sinéad Kissane from TV3 is grinning. Radio is lined up to the side. Everyone is looking. Kearney stares at the camera directly through heavy eyebrows.

"He stands straight and walks with all of his six feet one inch, 15-stone frame; talks with certainty and plays with a mix of fearlessness and swagger."

Writing in the Irish Independent, David Kelly reflects on the Ospreys resurgence this season.

"What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, the Ospreys shipped 79 points on two chastening weekends in Thomond Park to sunder their respective Magners League and Heineken Cup dreams.

"When coach Sean Holley emerged to face a typically abrasive grilling from his Welsh media f(r)iends, he couldn't help but acknowledge where his side ranked in terms of culture and organisation.

"...They've spent the past year learning. A year on from their humiliation at the hands of Munster, the Ospreys may have once more failed to crack Europe but, more significantly, a return visit to Limerick has offered succour to what is essentially a seven-year-old project.

"The Welsh region seemingly synonymous with big hair -- hence the nickname Hairsprays -- big pay packets and big egos have impressed everyone with their resounding response to their narrow defeat in this season's Heineken Cup quarter-final in Biarritz, a needless loss that matched their typecasting as gloriously extravagant losers."

The push for Quade Cooper to be the Test five-eighth against Fiji in Canberra on Saturday week intensified last night when he was announced as the Australian Super14 player of the tournament, according to Greg Growden in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Cooper became the first five-eighth to win the Player of the Tournament award since Stephen Larkham, who shared it with John Eales in 1998, when he finished with 21 votes, one ahead of his Reds teammate Will Genia. In third place was Force utility back James O'Connor with 15 votes, ahead of the Waratahs pairing of Kurtley Beale (12 votes) and Drew Mitchell (11).

"Cooper's triumph ended George Smith's four-year reign as Australia's premier Super 14 player. Smith, who retired from international football after this year's Super 14, won the award from 2006-09.

"Rugby journalists from around the country voted on a 3-2-1 basis on each Super 14 match which involved Australian teams, and soon had Cooper and Genia as the award frontrunners.

"Cooper received six man-of-the-match honours, and polled in eight of the Reds' 13 matches, while Genia was adjudged three times as the man of the match, which shows how critical their midfield combination was in revitalising the Reds."

The Times' David Hands delivers his verdict on the inexperienced England side that will face the Barbarians.

"Any England team playing the Barbarians at this time of year is subject to all sorts of provisos - who can be picked or, more particularly, who cannot. No simple line can be drawn through Sunday’s starting XV towards the team that will meet Australia in Perth on June 12, save the possibility that, of the newcomers, Shontayne Hape will be in both of them.

"The England management are determined to see what Hape can make of the inside-centre berth, even though he has shifted sideways for Bath since the return to fitness of Olly Barkley. At times, Bath have taken the field without him but since illness ruled him out of the first match of the RBS Six Nations Championship, against Wales in February, Hape has been a work in progress.

"The former New Zealand rugby league player can, on his day, demonstrate both strength and skill but the player who has ended the domestic season in sparkling form in the 12 jersey has been Barkley who has, as it happens, not played for England since the tour to New Zealand on 2008. The same can be said of two more of Sunday’s backs, David Strettle and Charlie Hodgson, who appeared to have no international future after the public criticism of the defence during the 2008 tour."

Scotland coach Andy Robinson believes a lighter summer role gives his side the best chance of success, according to David Barnes in The Scotsman.

"Scotland have effectively been relegated to the status of the warm-up act to their better resourced European rivals, but Robinson says that it is important for him and his players to pick their battles wisely.

"Scotland have by far the smallest player pool of the traditional "big eight" countries, and any attempt to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in three consecutive Test matches could have a negative effect on Robinson's efforts to build a team capable of being genuine contenders for Six Nations glory.

"Scotland have never played a three match tour (against a major nation] in the southern hemisphere," he pointed out. "At this stage of the season you can lose the likes of Euan Murray. A lot of guys have had a hard season and need a rest or to tidy up injuries. We're lucky this year that we don't have so many guys that come into that category, but that is not always going to be the case.

"In terms of the whole structure of the summer, I am really keen for the players to not only experience top tier Test matches, but also experience playing Test matches in Japan, and in America, with our best side available to us – because that can help us grow as a team and develop a winning habit as well."

As Leinster and Ospreys gear up for the title decider - the Western Mail insists that there is no question this year has been the best Magners League season ever.

"We’ve had it all. It may have taken a while to get going, but since the new year there has been revitalisation and a steady increase in drama and excitement, which culminates in the eagerly-anticipated play-off final on Saturday.

"The Welsh regions have kept us guessing all year and by hook or by crook they will all be in the Heineken Cup next year. But the Ospreys want to win the title and on recent form it will take some effort to stop them. It was the Ospreys’ performance against Biarritz that transformed their season. Before that game in San Sebastian they were the same old Ospreys, a hugely frustrating side to watch.

"They had talent in spades, but even when they won they left you distinctly underwhelmed. Despite eventually losing to Biarritz the Ospreys put together their finest display for many seasons. The players found the freedom to express themselves in a way they had been unable to do all year."

Sarries chief executive Edward Griffiths goes on the offensive at the club's training ground on Wednesday © Getty Images

With their coach banned from Saturday's Premiership final and the club branded upstarts, Saracens are making few friends. But, their chief executive Edward Griffiths tells The Independent's Chris Hewett, they are just misunderstood.

"It should be some occasion, the Guinness Premiership final at Twickenham on Saturday evening. Saracens, the surprise package of the campaign, will be playing at the home of one of their freshly-made enemies, the Rugby Football Union, against one of their long-standing enemies, Leicester – possibly in the enforced absence of their director of rugby Brendan Venter, who has been upsetting the apple-cart all season and now finds himself barred from the stadium and its environs. Such draconian banning orders are rare indeed, but then, Venter is a rarity himself.

"This evening, the World Cup-winning Springbok centre and practising GP – he still runs a surgery in Cape Town, albeit from a distance – will pitch up at a London hotel and attempt to persuade a second RFU tribunal boasting two QCs that the law as interpreted by the governing body's chief disciplinary officer, Judge Jeff Blackett, is something of an ass. Earlier this month, Venter engaged in a full and frank exchange of views with a group of Leicester supporters during a league game at Welford Road and picked up a 14-week match-day coaching ban (plus the added extra of exclusion from Twickers) for his trouble. It was his second conviction for "behaviour prejudicial to the interests of the game" in a matter of months, and while he feels extremely hard done by, those who do not like the cut of his jib think he deserves everything he continues to get."

Writing for SuperSport, Gavin Rich admits the signs are good for South Africa ahead of the Tri-Nations but is not getting carried away.

"Regardless of what the reasons were, the Crusaders got well beaten, and the loss added to a miserable tally for New Zealand teams against South Africa in this year’s Super 14. In the final analysis, this is how it reads – played 26, won 10, drawn one, lost 15. As I reminded last week, that includes the five losses of a Lions team that were non-starters in the tournament in 2010.

"The Kiwis recognise this, and judging from what is coming out on the internet from New Zealand, there is recognition that like 2009, this year could be the year of the Springbok in the Tri-Nations. Certainly in a year where the two top teams in the competition are South African, and by some distance, you would say there should be an expectation of victory in the three nation tournament.

"What the Stormers and the Bulls have proved over the past three months is that this country has the talent to dominate. The raw material that used to be wasted is being converted by good coaching at franchise level into the real deal.

"...Let’s not forget that South Africa won the Tri-Nations for the first time in 1998, a year where there was only one team in the top four of the Super 12 in the form of the Sharks – and they were significantly off the pace."

The cutoff for the All Blacks squad is supposed to be 26 but when the first squad is revealed on Sunday do not be surprised if there are a few others named to turn up for the opening training camp in Auckland according to the New Zealand Herald's Wynne Gray.

"Coach Graham Henry has stoked the fires of curiosity this season with hints there will be new faces when the squad is unveiled at Mt Albert Grammar.

"Who? Benson Stanley, Rene Ranger or Colin Slade for the midfield vacancy, Kahn Fotuali'i or Alby Mathewson at halfback or the abrasive talents of Victor Vito and Sam Whitelock in the pack?

"...The big problem is second five-eighths. Benson Stanley has been the most reliable this season, far sounder than an underdone Luke McAlister or a steady Callum Bruce. But [Mils] Muliaina and Richard Kahui are explosive athletes, versatile and strong defenders and one will slip into the midfield vacancy and the other into the reserves."

The New Zealand Government is refusing to join the New Zealand Rugby Union in apologising for the exclusion of Maori from previous All Blacks tours to South Africa. Michael Dickison and and Edward Gay report for the New Zealand Herald.

"The 1960 tour to South Africa was sanctioned by the New Zealand Government and the then Prime Minister Walter Nash argued that to include Maori in the side "would be an act of the greatest folly and cruelty to the Maori race".

"Prime Minister John Key was asked by Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke whether he would be apologising for the Government's role in sanctioning the tours.

"In a written answer last night, Mr Key said: "No. This was a matter between the rugby unions".

"Mr Locke said New Zealand should follow the Government of South African Government which has offered an apology, albeit through the media by way of a public letter."

Ahead of the Magners League Grand Final between Ospreys and Leinster, the Irish Independent's David Kelly profiles Welsh No.9 Mike Phillips.

"There's a lot of Mike Phillips. Quite a lot, in fact. Sixteen and a half stone of beef that scrapes the sky just a tad below six feet and three inches. In a position -- scrum-half -- where exponents are marked by their diminutive size and rapid delivery of both ball and invective, Phillips stands out. Extremely so.

"The apparently true story of Phillips' first meeting with Welsh coach Warren Gatland is instructive. Gatland told the 28-year-old that he was one of the most intimidating scrum-halves in the game. The player's response was instantly delivered with deadpan poise. "And the best-looking." Yes, this boy's got game.

"Much of the trumpet-blowing is justified; he was one of the outstanding tourists on last summer's Lions tours and, as Gatland rightly surmised, he remains one of the game's most intimidating forces at No 9.

"But just like the Galacticos whom he represents, it is fair to say that the narcissistic element of Phillips' character has often undermined, rather than underlined, his prowess as a rugby player."

The end of an era is nigh, although departing Leinster coach Michael Cheika contends it is merely the start of a new one. Gerry Thornley writes in The Irish Times.

"End-of-season farewells are commonplace nowadays and yesterday the normally redoubtable Bernard Jackman explained how injuries have forced him to concentrate fully on coaching with Clontarf from next season onwards. Leinster also confirmed in addition to Cheika, defensive coach Kurt McQuilkin, consultant coach Alan Gaffney, the retiring Girvan Dempsey, Malcolm O’Kelly and Jackman, Chris Keane is also retiring while CJ van der Linde is returning home.

"Despite all this, typical of Cheika’s ultra professional and highly- rewarding five-year reign, sentiment will play little or no part in the build-up to this final. “I think we’ve been divorced from it. There was certainly no sentiment at the end of training when there were a few errors made. If we fall off against the Ospreys even for a couple of minutes we’ll pay. We can’t train like that at all; this game is about winning a final more than anything else. I don’t want it to be any other way and I don’t think anybody else wants to be any other way,” said Cheika."

Fiji has too many wingers to choose from for its one-off Test against the Wallabies next week - including Rupeni Caucaunibuca - according to the Sydney Morning Herald's Greg Growden.

"During a break in training yesterday, [coach Sam] Domoni told the Herald: ''We had 10 wingers turn up the other day.''

"They included Caucaunibuca, 30 on the day of the Test, who has decided to come out of international retirement because he wants to represent Fiji at next year's World Cup. Caucaunibuca, whose career has been interrupted by a long list of disciplinary problems and a three-month ban in 2007 after testing positive for cannabis, scored 13 tries from 25 games for Agen in France this season and said when joining the Fijian squad in Suva last week that he wanted to make amends.

"There has even been suggestions the reformed character, who credits ''the Almighty for reopening the door'', wants to play at five-eighth. ''Many things had been said about me,'' Caucau said. ''Most of them negative but I would like to right the wrong. I get to be the centre of criticism. I want to prove my critics wrong.''

Lewis Moody is trying to tame the beast inside ahead of Leicester Tigers' Guinness Premiership play-off final against Saracens on Saturday. The Times' Jim White reports.

"Never having been in collision with a 10- ton truck it is impossible to make definitive comparison, but being tackled by Moody leaves me scanning the turf for tyre tracks. Surely only something large, mechanical and diesel powered can hit that hard and fast.

"It is all so quick, I am first aware that something has occurred when I am sitting on the grass with no air in my lungs and an embarrassed look on my face. Later video evidence reveals that England's freshly appointed rugby captain has thrown me up and over his shoulder with the kind of casual ease the rest of us might lift a small infant. And if that isn't full pelt, how close to his match standard tackle is it?

"Oh," he says. "About 10 per cent."

Moody is at Richmond Rugby Club filming a trailer for Sky's coverage of Saturday's Premiership final between his Leicester and Saracens, in which a camera has been placed in a tackle bag. The idea is that when he smacks into it, the viewer gets an understanding of what it is like to be hit by the big man, in full HD."

Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, Spiro Zavos argues that while the odds were stacked against the Waratahs in Saturday's Super 14 semi-final against the Stormers, the men from New South Wales played an integral role in their own demise.

"A Marxist historian looking at this jumble of statistics would conclude that there was a certain inevitability about the Stormers winning the match. The great pull of historical forces, it seemed, was working for the Stormers.

"But did all of this make their victory inevitable? I don't think so. It is clearly difficult to win an away match. But difficult does not mean impossible. The handful of away victories indicates this.

"The Waratahs greatly helped the historical forces by coming into the match poorly prepared. The preparation started with the team wearing the wrong sprigs on what turned out to be a slippery field. Throughout, the Waratahs slipped and slid as if they were playing on an ice rink. So when the Stormers' inside-centre, Juan de Jongh, made his daring break-out, hitting his left foot in a series of inside cuts, the Waratahs defenders were left skating past him, missing their tackles as he raced under the posts."

In his weekly column in the Irish Times, Gerry Thornley looks at the qualifiers for next season's Heineken Cup and concludes that it could easily prove the most competitive in the tournament's history.

"Ronan O'Gara would have had mixed feelings as he travelled to Paris on Friday for the evening banquet which celebrated the dream team of the Heineken Cup’s last 15 years, and his own award as the competition’s outstanding player thus far.

"He’d have posed for the photos, shaken hands, accepted the applause and congratulations and mused that he should have been practising his kicking at the Stade de France that day.

"Nothing about the Biarritz performance, for all its remarkable grittiness, would have dispelled the feeling in the minds of O’Gara and his fellow Munstermen that they really should have been there. Leinster could at least console themselves they had only conceded their crown to the eventual four-time winners on their own Toulouse turf, and wonder what might have been had Jonathan Sexton been fit, not to mention Luke Fitzgerald and Seán O’Brien."

The Stormers proved far too strong for the Waratahs in Cape Town. © Getty Images

In his weekly column in The Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Growden leads the inquest into the Waratahs' Super 14 semi-final defeat by the Stormers.

"In big games, you need big names. You also need a plan B when confronting an opposition as complete as the Stormers. Otherwise it's no contest - as was the case in Cape Town. Then again, as NSW Rugby Union officials say: 'No excuses.'

"The Waratahs desperately missed their Test No.8, Wycliff Palu, and world-class loose-head prop, Benn Robinson. They went back into their shell, reverting to uninspiring kick, bash and barge football that drove everyone mad for parts of the Super 14. Senior NSW players went missing, falling well short in the leadership and discipline stakes.

"And whenever the Waratahs were put under pressure, unsurprisingly considering how stifling the Stormers defensive line was, either their elementary skills collapsed - they fumbled basic passes, lost sight of what they wanted to do- or just became desperate, booting away possession.

"This was a classic example of a semi-final team being that in name only, because the big moment exposed them big time. There are bound to be casualties."

Speaking in The Independent, Magnus Lund reveals that Biarritz, in spite of Saturday's heartbreaking Heineken Cup final defeat by Toulouse, are not about to give up on their dream of winning the biggest prize in European club rugby.

"The Heineken Cup is now the stuff of obsession for Biarritz, just as it became the be-all and end-all for Munster after two falls at the final hurdle. 'We have to dust ourselves down and go again,' said Magnus Lund, the flanker so completely forgotten by England that he can barely remember the last time they showed an interest in him.

'We still want this, and we want it badly. We're a small team as far as our supporter base is concerned, but we're a big team in heart and spirit. We have unfinished business here.'

"Lund was exhausted as he chewed the fat an hour or so after close of play, and well he might have been. In the thick of it from the very start and still setting about anyone in Toulouse colours at the last knockings, the former Sale back-rower's tackle count was in the stratosphere, just as it had been when he last played for his country, against the Springboks in the thin air of Pretoria almost three years ago.

"He had no reward then, either: England lost by 50 points in a game they knew they could not win. Saturday's defeat was not of the same magnitude, but as there was no inferiority complex about Biarritz and they came within a single score of glory, the frustration was doubly intense."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Peter Bills argues that while Toulouse underwhelmed in Saturday's Heineken Cup final success over Biarritz, the victors' match day 22 underlined a serious gulf in playing resources between France and Ireland's elite teams.

"In many respects, Saturday's Heineken Cup final reminded us that the northern hemisphere continues to lag behind its southern counterpart for attacking intent, entertainment and running rugby. The primary philosophy in this part of the world remains defence, forcing mistakes by opponents and kicking or dropping goals to triumph on the scoreboard.

"Toulouse tried to play some rugby, make something of it and live up to the occasion. But frankly, the final was often a boring, inferior product in which even the winners struggled to rise to the occasion. No wonder Toulouse coach Guy Noves wore the look afterwards of a distinctly unimpressed business manager who had just endured a pretty ordinary day at the office.

"But there was another issue that emerged from this final that should cause furrowed brows in other European countries like Ireland. Beyond dispute, the power in European rugby has swung decisively to France and you only had to look at the squad Toulouse compiled for this final to see that point vividly emphasised."

Could Berrick Barnes soon come face to face with his league past? © Getty Images

A league v union clash is back on the agenda in Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald's Glenn Jackson believes both codes would be foolish to miss out.

"We have been told many times why a hybrid contest won't work. Maybe we should be looking at why it will. Certainly it might not work, but surely it's worth a try – whether that be a four-point or five-point one.

"This latest call for the coming together of rugby union and rugby league has been made at a time when both codes are facing a similar threat and, in turn, have similar needs. The AFL is invading NSW and Queensland like never before, and the footballing codes of choice in these two states, league and union, are both chasing a quick buck, although for different reasons. Rugby union has become stale. Rules, referees and penalty goals are strangling contests and crowds are evaporating, in this country in particular.

"Rugby league in some ways is being hurt by its greatest strength – its athletes are so good that the other codes want a piece of them. And a sport that sometimes seems to have only just progressed out of the chook raffle era cannot afford to keep them."

Brendan Fanning recaps the Leinster career of coach Michael Cheika as the Australian prepares to leave the province for Paris in The Irish Independent.

"What started for Michael Cheika against the Ospreys in September 2005 will finish against the same opposition in the RDS on Saturday.

Back then he was in charge for his first competitive game for Leinster, a coach with no experience of that level of rugby, compounded by a fuse that was so short that in time he became the talk of the refereeing fraternity.

He leaves next month for Stade Francais with five years of priceless experience in his kitbag. And after another few seasons in Paris, the Aussies will lure him home for one job or another. Before too long we will come across him at a Test venue, where he will be tuned into a Wallaby headset."

Hugh Godwin talks to Northampton and England wing Chris Ashton following the death of his father in The Independent on Sunday.

"Chris Ashton will have raw and compelling reasons to do well on England's forthcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand, the departure point for which is next Sunday's match with the Barbarians at Twickenham. The Northampton wing and Premiership Player of the Season lost his father Kevin suddenly to cancer earlier this month and said: "I'm sure he'll be watching down, and I hope I can keep on making him proud."

"The funeral was at a Catholic church in the Ashton family's home town of Wigan last Monday and the following evening Chris publicly mourned his 55-year-old dad with a moving tribute as he collected his award at the Premiership's end-of-season dinner in London."

Paul Ackford meets Leicester's Dan Cole to talk scrums, Castro, fighting and the Leicester way in The Sunday Telegraph.

"There are reasons for this. He's a young man, just turned 23, making his way in a position where textbook techniques count for nothing when set against the experience of a thousand scrums, and there is a certain Martin Castrogiovanni, an Italian maestro of 67 caps, blocking his path to regular first-team action. Even so, it must be incredibly frustrating.

"It is bizarre, but I do what I'm told. I want to play, but I want to do what's best for the team, and that's when you put your trust in the coaches. I might think that I'm good enough to start, but I only see a little of the game and they see the whole picture."

"Has he asked questions, stormed into boss Richard Cockerill's office and demanded to be picked? "Yeah. I've asked questions because I want to know what I need to do to start. I got told that Castro, on his day, is the best tight-head in the world, and, on my day, I'm not."

Stephen Jones, writing in The Sunday Times, believes that Saracens director of rugby Brendan Venter has been poorly treated by the RFU.

"On Tuesday, an appeals panel set up by the Rugby Football Union will decide whether Brendan Venter, the Saracens director of rugby who has taken a notoriously misfiring club and concept and propelled it into the Guinness Premiership final, will be allowed to do so much as darken the doors of Twickenham on Saturday.

"Venter was convicted at an initial RFU hearing before Judge Jeff Blackett of making provocative gestures to the crowd during the recent Leicester Tigers v Saracens match, when people angrily remonstrated with him as he rose from his seat to follow play. The temperature of the dispute is still high, with the judge and the club continuing to trade blows. Judge Blackett complained at the effrontery of Venter in eating a biscuit just as the hearing began. Venter’s side ask: “Why provide a plate of biscuits if no-one was meant to eat them?”

"And guess which two teams will contest the Premiership final? Correct, Leicester and Saracens."

France's international success is filtering down to their already strong club game © Getty Images

"Deeper still are the pockets of those funding them. Toulouse's official budget for the 2009-10 season is €17m (£14.8m). The world's most talented back, Juan Martín Hernández of Argentina, has just signed for Racing Métro 92, where Sébastien Chabal and Francois Steyn have already been lured. The Top 14 is the place to be for financial and rugby fulfilment. Toulon barely blinked when they recruited Jonny Wilkinson, partly because of the tax breaks available for étrangers when they first arrive in the country. From the start of next season clubs will, admittedly, be limited to a salary budget of €8m, but that is still double the Premiership salary cap. "Rugby is now the trendiest sport in the country," confirms Dan Luger, the former England winger now living in Monaco. The unprecedented number of tickets sold for Sunday's Amlin Challenge Cup final between Toulon and Cardiff Blues in Marseille will bear him out.

"But how has this happened? Only last year France had one representative in the last eight and trailed in third in the Six Nations. This time they won a grand slam at a canter and their Heineken Cup teams, albeit with some imported muscle, have been rampant. Leaving aside a below-par Brive, the rest lost once in 18 games on French soil this season, not including the all domestic quarter-final between Toulouse and Stade Français. Munster's big pool win in Perpignan was the exception. Shaun Edwards, coach of Wales and Wasps, argues that a post-Lions season is always tougher for the four home unions. Others, though, sense a long-term wind of change blowing across the Channel. "I don't know if it will right itself," said Jim Mallinder, Northampton's director of rugby, last month. "The gap is certainly there and it's quite evident. It has become increasingly difficult [to compete]."

Graham Henry speaks to The New Zealand Herald's Wynne Gray about the challenge facing the All Blacks as hosts of next year's Rugby World Cup.

In a wide-ranging interview, the All Black coach reveals that two of his biggest worries are the scrum and the lack of player depth in New Zealand. This year was both a separate season and formative steps for the seventh World Cup.

"If we just put all our focus on the World Cup, I think we would fall over and be highly embarrassed," Henry said. "I think we just need to get better at what we are doing through each of these campaigns and if we do that, we are going to have a good foundation for the World Cup."

This season the All Blacks coaches have visited each franchise several times, swapped information, ideas and plans with the staff and spoken to players.

"We started that this year so we could perfect it for next season. But will that be sufficient? That is the challenge because we have five weeks of contact in 2011 with the All Blacks rugby team as a group before we play the Rugby World Cup. In contrast, the European teams will play Six Nations, then have a break and through May, June, July they will prime themselves for World Cup. So it is quite a different build-up. For the Southern Hemisphere sides it is a lot more challenging."

Phil Waugh's Super Rugby career began in Cape Town and he realises he may never reach a semi-final again, which, he tells Rupert Guinness on Rugby Heaven, makes him all the more intent on making a difference today

"Waugh is familiar with the Newlands experience, having travelled to Cape Town many times since his Super 10 debut in 2000, which resulted in a 22-15 defeat to the Stormers. Now 30, and with his odometer reading 79 Tests and 123 Super matches, Waugh needs no reminding of the significance another defeat to the Cape Town franchise would carry this weekend.

"Losses are unpalatable at the best of times, but when they occur in a semi-final before 52,000 partisan South Africans, the sting is especially acute. And given that this weekend's match quite possibly represents Waugh's last chance of celebrating a Super title win, the stakes could hardly be higher.

''Each time you make the finals - even for some of the guys new in their careers - it is [about] limited opportunities at the end of the season,'' he said. ''You see throughout the season the team's performances and you see how hard it is to get into the four - the tight games we have won, the tight games we have lost. And you look at other teams and the tight games they have won and lost.''

Writing in The Telegraph, Will Greenwood salutes Toulouse's quiet man, the only question is, can you tell who it is yet?

"How many players from the Toulouse team can you name? Put the paper down, try to work them out, then carry on reading. I bet some names came more easily than others. The back three of Vincent Clerc, Clément Poitrenaud and Cédric Heymans would have rolled off your tongue. Yannick Jauzion would be mentioned in the first breath. Byron Kelleher and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde would have got called early on. In the forwards, Thierry Dusautoir, France's Grand Slam-winning captain, would be hard to forget. William Servat, perhaps the best hooker in the world right now, is a name most of us would recognise even if we couldn't place his face.

"But I would be willing to bet considerable sums of hard-earned cash that the blindside flanker for Toulouse never entered your mind. Even if I told you his name, you would probably have no idea who the hell he was and what he looked like. Which is a shame, because when Toulouse played in three consecutive finals from 2003 to 2005, and won two of them, he was there. When they lost to Munster in 2008 he was there as well. And when they face Biarritz, he will be there.

"His name is Jean Bouilhou and he is a Toulousain legend who is unknown by 99 per cent of rugby supporters. A one-club man, he has been at Toulouse since 1999. He is the rock which allows the Toulouse superstars to earn their plaudits and their sponsorship deals."

Hugh Farrelly is fulsome in his admiration for Biarritz No8 Imanol Haridordoquy who will again play through the pain barrier this afternoon, in The Irish Independent.

"Big talk requires big actions to back it up and Harinordoquy has not disappointed for, while acknowledging the athleticism, pace, skilful hands and physicality of one of the world's finest No 8s, if there is one quality that defines him, it is bravery. It was a privilege to witness his performance with a broken nose and broken ribs in the semi-final win over Munster. The man had no right to be playing, was wearing a ridiculous face mask necessary to protect the nose that had been operated on the previous week and required treatment on four occasions for the damage sustained to his ribs.

"Yet, Harinordoquy would not leave the pitch until Dimitri Yachvili kicked Biarritz ahead for the first time and the No 8 departed to an incredible ovation from the Biarritz faithful. The only comparable display that springs to mind is Ireland flanker Philip Matthews playing for almost 60 minutes with a dislocated shoulder in the torrid 15-15 draw with France in 1985. The Ulsterman realised the only available substitute was prop Mick Fitzpatrick and played with one arm until he could go on no longer.

"Harinordoquy is made of the same stuff. The ribs are still cracked but he scoffed at the notion that they might rule him out of today's final. Toulouse go in as overwhelming 2/7 favourites but the fact Harinordoquy is 7/1 favourite to scoop the man of the match award tells its own tale."

Does Toulouse's Top 14 semi-final defeat devalue the Heineken Cup final? © Getty Images

"The lingering question that haunts and threatens the grandeur of the occasion is the fact that neither finalist appears to be amongst the French elite. Biarritz finished a desperately disappointing seventh, failing to even make the play-offs, while Toulouse lost their semi-final to current French champions Perpignan last Friday. Is this a shabby final fling?

"Superficially, it might be so, but a more detailed analysis of the combatants suggests otherwise. Toulouse have been playing knock-out game after knock-out game for a few weeks, trying for the European and domestic double. The grind and gruel of these games forced Guy Noves into a gamble and he omitted five likely starters for Saturday night in a bid to squeeze past Perpignan and keep their powder dry for the final.

"The gamble failed as Perpignan’s power and single-minded focus on domestic honours did for a more talented Toulouse team whose focus was blurred by this weekend’s game."

Wallaby legend Matt Burke reckons the Waratahs can cause a shock at Newlands in the Super 14 semi-final, writing for Rugby Heaven.

"It's safe to say the NSW team that visited the republic in round two is different to that which is preparing for the semi-final. The immediate differences is the physicality in the team and the way they are able to find space with the passing game. When I mention the physicality and the players that have stood up in recent weeks, it is because of the injuries the Tahs have sustained. The line-up resigned to sitting in the grandstands is quite incredible, but depressing: Wycliff Palu, Sekope Kepu, Benn Robinson, Will Caldwell and Sosene Anesi.

"All are top-line players, but those that have filled the gap and stood up have done themselves and the jumper proud. Ben Mowen, Kane Douglas and Pat McCutcheon have been significant and influential contributors to the team's success. This is the ethos and desire that Chris Hickey and crew have brought to the team.

"The Waratahs have been based in Durban before the semi-final to escape the hype that will be surrounding Cape Town. This is a good move. This week is about themselves. Concentrate on the mental side of the game. They have the physical presence, save for a little bit of tweaking to get the body ready. It's all about Saturday (3.10am Sunday, Sydney time). Players need down time for a game like this - when you are off mentally, down tools, but when it's time to go, ante up."

Liam Toland considers the impact of the free to air debate on player welfare, writing in The Irish Times.

"As players are five to nine times more likely to be injured playing a match than at training, the IRFU have managed to keep our best alive and well by restricting games. Allied to this, the Magners League (with top-four format) is manageable for our best provinces while resting key players. The Guinness Premiership and Top 14 are a tad less forgiving.

"It is only looking back at the accumulative effect of pro rugby on our elite players over a decade that a true picture of the stress and strain can be analysed. Malcolm O’Kelly will retire this season after 12 international seasons, with touring each summer, world cups and Lions tours. His body is in reasonable shape. John Hayes, our record-holder, has almost never been injured and is still going at 36. Over his career Hayes will have played half the number of games compared to his equivalent in France. How has this been achieved?

"All this got me thinking about Minister Eamon Ryan. Forget the possible repercussions on winning trophies and titles: what of player welfare, fatigue and future?"

Writing in The Guardian, Paul Rees argues that the demands on players are only going to increase as the professional game develops.

"A year ago, the Lions were preparing to leave for their tour to South Africa. The season is not yet over for many players who went on that trip, with two European finals being staged this weekend followed next week by the play-off finals in the Premiership and the Magners League. And then come the summer tours.

"In the past year, surveys in England and Australia into player injuries indicate that doctors and surgeons are concerned that the growing physical demands on players, especially in training, are taking an increasingly telling toll. The International Rugby Board has been active in this area, but by increasing the number of matches on end of season tours it is ignoring the message of its own sermon in the dash for cash."

Andy Powell has spoken for the first time about the fallout from his golf buggy antics © Getty Images

In his first interview since his infamous early morning buggy ride, Andy Powell tells The Guardian's Donald McRae about the difficult fallout,

"After a hard night of drinking in Cardiff, the lure of a service-station fry-up on a winter morning proved irresistible to an impulsive reveller. Heading out on to the motorway in a 15mph buggy, Powell used one of his massive hands to scoop up a cone and a flashing orange light. It did not take long for the first motorist to call the police.

"After his arrest, and having failed a breath test, Powell was fined and banned from driving for 15 months. He was also dumped by Wales – with his banishment only ending this week when Warren Gatland named him in the squad to play South Africa next month before flying to New Zealand. But, simultaneously, he has been faced by a dilemma which could soon lead him to switch codes and become a rugby league player.

"It's been really tough," Powell says, his jokey manner replaced by sombre introspection, "and far harder than I ever thought. The last few months have been quite low and having an injury hasn't helped. I've been in a downward spiral I'm only just escaping. I once gave up rugby for a year when I doubted myself. But this time has been different. I'm having to ring friends to ask for a lift here, there and everywhere. It's putting other people out and I don't like that. I've got good friends around me but I really regret what I did."

As the free to air debate rages in Ireland, The Irish Independent takes a look at the players the IRFU would struggle to keep.

1 Brian O'Driscoll - A totemic figure not merely of Irish rugby but talismanic in how Irish rugby and money have been inextricably linked during this golden decade for the game. Flirted with France before and may still opt to play there for a year -- but not until after the next World Cup.

2 Jamie Heaslip - As with the majority on this list, Heaslip would never contemplate leaving these shores until after the World Cup in 2011 -- even if Philip Browne donned a 'Save Irish Rugby' cape and attempted to storm the Dail like a left-wing loony. After 2011? Anything goes. Has said he wants to try the Super 14.

3 Keith Earls - The flights of the Earls has been prominently promulgated in recent dispatches emanating from IRFU HQ. The man who painted a picture of O'Driscoll's hat-trick -- gleaned from terrestrial TV -- might take his own artistry elsewhere should his next deal not prove up to scratch.

4 Luke Fitzgerald - The injured Leinster star has unfortunately too much time on his hands to keep up with this prickly debate. As an international star, he will be like a new signing for Leinster next season. Could he be a new signing for someone else the following season though?

5 Rob Kearney - The man from Cooley who exhibits cool on and off the pitch -- but watch events bristle with red-hot energy should he ever declare his intention to leave Leinster. The South Africans, so in awe of his aerial prowess last summer, would be the first to invite him to eat braai.

Has Ireland coach Declan Kidney got the blend right for a testing summer tour? © Getty Images

If it is possible to be conservative and gamble in one sitting, then Ireland coach Declan Kidney has managed it with his 33-man squad for Ireland's summer tour to New Zealand and Australia according to the Irish Independent's Hugh Farrelly.

"Conservative in that this is an 'as you were' selection, based around the core of the unbeaten Grand Slam-winning squad from 2009, with the emphasis on hard-headed experience for what promises to be an arduous expedition. And a gamble in that it includes Paul O'Connell and John Hayes.

"With the imperative of making a worthwhile trip to countries where Ireland have not recorded an international victory since 1979, the argument for leaving behind the likes of David Wallace, Brian O'Driscoll and other front-line Lions never held water.

"Ireland need their heavyweights for this trip, to attempt to strike a psychological blow looking down the road to the next World Cup and, not least, because New Zealand and Australia would have been disgruntled if they did not get Ireland's full monty."

Ireland's Minister for Communications has caused uproar among rugby’s heavy hitters over his free-to-air plans, writes the Irish Times' Johnny Watterson.

"Three CEOs, [the IRFU's Philip] Browne, the ERC’s Derek McGrath and the Six Nations CEO, John Feehan, flanked by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the provincial CEOs, settled along the wall like generals in a war cabinet. Granite faced. Tight lipped. Language biblical. This was rugby battle prepared for the first time in 15 years.

"Browne outlined the threat of Minister Ryan on the horizon. Free-to-air rugby and the dismantling with the stroke of a pen a body of IRFU work globally admired.

"Minister Ryan’s green foot print, we were told, would be the biggest of any politician, the one that crushed the professional game in Ireland. For 43 minutes the sound and the fury belted out around Stephen’s Green and at the heart of it a figure of €12 million, the IRFU’s calculated annual loss."

You can take Robbie Deans out of Christchurch, but his belief in Canterbury rugby proves harder to budge. The New Zealand Herald reports.

"A five-time Super rugby title winner with the Crusaders, the Wallabies coach is not quite predicting an eighth championship this year - but he expects Todd Blackadder's men to at least make the decider.

"Undeterred by the Crusaders' inability to win outside of New Zealand so far this year - and the fact they lost the corresponding semifinal last year 36-23 - Deans believed the Bulls' decision to rest practically their entire first-choice line-up from last weekend's derby in Cape Town could count against them.

"Deans doubted fatigue would be a factor despite the Crusaders having a short turnaround to the Republic after eliminating the Brumbies in Christchurch last Saturday, days after returning from an unsuccessful road trip to Cape Town and Pretoria via Perth."

Toulon fly-half Jonny Wilkinson is fit and raring to complete year without a break with victory in this season's European Challenge Cup Final. The England No.10 files his latest column for The Times.

"Twelve months ago when I attended the press conference in Toulon after I had signed I did not know how the team were going to gel, how the spirit was going to grow, how the team were going to perform. That has turned out to be incredible. We have had players from all corners of the world who have come together in a collective drive. There were so many variables for me: a new country, new team, new language, new rugby, new environment, new body, new knee, new everything. So many, what ifs? So to find yourself at the end of the season still having something to play for is great.

"The extra-time loss to Clermont was horrendously disappointing. The closer you get to things, the more ambitions you have. To reach the final was a realistic opportunity; it hurts like hell to fall short but it is a valuable experience. The level of intensity, the stage we were on, what that brings is invaluable. After 13 years I have never experienced anything like the enormous pride the area has in its team. It is unique. It is a pleasure being around people who are so selfless in their support. They don’t expect anything except for you to do your best."

Hooker Neil Clark feels Exeter will not throw away their chance to escape the Championship against his old side Bristol. Paul Rees writes in The Guardian.

"Getting back into the Guinness Premiership for a relegated club used to be a relatively straightforward matter: bank your parachute payment of some £4m, maintain a full-time squad with a far greater budget than that of your rivals, top the First Division at a canter and rejoin the big boys after a sabbatical.

"Bristol's route back since last season's relegation has been longer and more twisted. Finishing at the head of the Championship, as the second tier has now been renamed, was only the start of it: six play-off group matches were followed by a semi-final against London Welsh and tomorrow night they face Exeter at Sandy Park in the first leg of a final that will be concluded at the Memorial Stadium a week tomorrow.

"This season's Championship contained clubs who, in a previous generation, were marquee names: Coventry, London Welsh, Bedford, Moseley and Bristol, while Rotherham had two seasons in the Premiership in the 2000s. Exeter, though, are among the arrivistes and their ground will host its largest attendance, a 10,000 sell-out, as the South-west looks to broaden the geography of the Premiership."

The Bulls, with one eye on the semi-finals, rested their star players for last weekend's clash with the Stormers © Getty Images

Spiro Zavos of the Sydney Morning Herald believes that the Bulls may have made a serious error in judgement by picking a second-string side for last weekend's clash with the Stormers.

"Yes, the Bulls have given their frontline players a week off. They will be rested coming into the semi-final against the Crusaders, who will be making their second trip to South Africa in two weeks. But the Bulls have lost momentum going into the finals. That momentum, which is the engine that drives successful finals sides, lies with the Stormers, the Waratahs and the Crusaders.

"The other loss for the Bulls involves the fact that they will not play out the semi-final at Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld Stadium. That stadium comes into play with football's World Cup schedule. The Crusaders ran the Bulls to a close and controversial loss, 40-35, at Loftus Versfeld, so there is the possibility that the Bulls machine might not be as intimidating and as efficient away from their home ground. The referee for the match, too, is Australian Stuart Dickinson."

In his weekly column in the Irish Independent, Tony Ward takes a look back at Leinster's Magners League play-off victory over Munster, placing a particular emphasis on the performance of Jamie Heaslip.

"Heaslip's barnstorming second-half runs - stretching Keith Earls to the limit and almost poleaxing the brave Ronan O'Gara - made for the icing but the real leadership is the hard yards and momentum gained in defence allied to the tackle count and groundhog turnovers at the breakdown. Here Heaslip was sublime. He is without doubt the Irish skipper in waiting and already in my view the most complete No 8 forward to wear green.

"Whenever asked over the years to select my best ever Irish back row, it tripped off the tongue: John O'Driscoll, Fergus Slattery and Willie Duggan. The chemistry and balance between the three was so good. But when a player comes along with the athleticism of Ken Goodall, the intellect of Anthony Foley, the dynamism of Victor Costello but, most of all, the Lion-heart bravery in adversity of Duggan, then the call in the middle of the all-time Irish back row becomes a no-brainer. There is an honesty and maturity to Heaslip's game that makes him a certain future Irish captain."

Writing in the Irish Times, Gerry Thornley warns of the potentially devastating consequences for Irish rugby if Heineken Cup games involving the country's provincial outfits are reserved solely for free-to-air terrestrial television channels.

"Eamon Ryan is no fool. In seeking to vastly expand the number of sports events to be screened free-to-air on terrestrial television, the Minister for Communications has done his research. He has also identified a problem regarding the exclusivity of television audiences on pay-per-view. Sport should never become too smug about this and sometimes governments need to keep an eye on them.

"Minister Ryan is also on familiar terrain. He attended Gonzaga, played in UCD and his family, including an uncle who played for Munster, is steeped in the game. Thus, when he recently proposed that Ireland’s Six Nations games and Irish Heineken Cup games be ring-fenced on free-to-air television, it was all the more heartfelt.

"Minister Ryan cites audience figures for Leinster quarter-finals which were on terrestrial television and then on pay-per-view, which drew audiences of 250,000 and 70,000 respectively. He points to the Munster-Biarritz final of 2006 which drew 500,000 viewers in Ireland, and the 2008 decider which attracted just 100,000, and countless examples from other sports."

Greg Growden of the Sydney Morning Herald claims that Waratahs boss Chris Hickey would have been sacked had they been beaten by the Hurricanes on Friday night.

"The Waratahs' success in making the Super 14 finals has saved their coach Chris Hickey. If the Waratahs had lost to the Hurricanes on Friday night and missed out on the finals for the second year running, Hickey was under threat of going down the same road as his predecessor, Ewen McKenzie, and being replaced.

"Despite the recent assertions from NSW Rugby Union officials that - no matter what - Hickey would be their coach next year, the Herald has been told by several sources that some within the Waratahs organisation had before the final round began to look at alternative candidates taking over his job next season.

"It is understood that this was brought up at a meeting involving several NSW officials a few weeks ago, which Hickey did not attend. Numerous personalities have become close allies in ensuring that if there is a changing of the guard, they would take over key positions, which may even include important administrative roles.

"However, Hickey's success in extending the Waratahs' season for at least one more week means he has earned a reprieve."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Hugh Farrelly reflects on the way in which Michael Cheika has turned Leinster into the dominant side in Irish rugby since his arrival in Dublin five years ago.

"When 14-man Leinster defeated Munster in the titanic 2001 Celtic League final at Lansdowne Road, a yarn, which has never entirely been dismissed, recounts that a member of the then Leinster management team sent a text to his defeated sporting cousins.

"It simply read: 'Leinster 1, Munster 0.'

"The sides' subsequent divergent paths mocked that jibe, Munster's rise to unequivocal pre-eminence in Europe casting a dark shadow over an occasionally soulless Leinster operation.

"When Michael Cheika pitched up on these shores in the season that marked Munster's first Heineken Cup triumph, Irish rugby's ignorance of the Australian was mirrored by his ignorance of some of the intimate foibles of the Irish game.

"That 2006 semi-final embarrassment in Lansdowne Road at the hands of Munster offered him a rude awakening."

In his column in the Irish Times, Liam Toland argues that there is now a fundamental difference between Leinster and Munster: Munster create a blindside but Leinster create an openside.

"Once again our physically beautiful game has proved the adage right: attack when you have the ball and attack when you don’t have the ball. For long stretches of Saturday night’s semi-final Leinster couldn’t get near the ball but were more than happy to force Munster down cul-de-sacs.

"Munster came to the RDS with a gameplan and a bench to match it. Attack hard around the fringes, and, when the ball was quick, head down the blindside. Tomás O’Leary took responsibility off his captain Ronan O’Gara by channelling wave after wave into the Leinster blindside fringe. Was this the weakness? If so, the Munster bench would then be launched to exploit it.

"Leinster, too, had a gameplan which has evolved over recent seasons. First, stop the opposition from playing by attacking in numbers, attacking the ball and attacking the space, and when the opportunity presents itself ruthlessly exploit the space. Was O’Gara’s 10th-minute crossfield kick to Meathman, King of Fullbacks and Mick Lyons impersonator Shane Horgan a tactical ploy, or the result of Leinster pressure? The latter, I fancy."

Biarritz talisman Imanol Harinordoquy will venture into battle again next weekend in the Heineken Cup Final © Getty Images

Biarritz No.8 Imanol Harinordoquy played with a broken nose and broken ribs to get to the final against Toulouse, and he is not going to give up now according to the Sunday Telegraph's Brendan Gallagher.

"Harinordoquy has a favourite Basque proverb which he repeated so often when I visited him eight years ago in St Jean-Pied-de-Port – or Donibane Garazi, as he prefers to call his small home town in Basque – that I laboriously wrote it down as we enjoyed a beer in his local cafe which was already adorned with pictures of the young tyro. "Hil arteraino bizi, han arte ez izi", which he then translated as "Live until you die; until then, don't panic."

It was the young man's motto for life and sport and those words came flooding back earlier this month as I watched his heroic – no other word suffices – performance for Biarritz against Munster in the Heineken Cup semi-finals at San Sebastien."

Ireland's top players are showing the effects of too many games according to the Irish Independent's Jim Glennon.

"Is it just me or have our leading players looked absolutely knackered recently? Watching last week's final round of Magners League games, admittedly following as they did immediately upon our European disappointments of the previous weekend, it was difficult at times to avoid the impression that at least some of our top players are running on empty.

"When one sits down and thinks about it, the last 12 months for our top internationals have been hectic. The Grand Slam was followed by extended Heineken Cup involvement for two of the provinces; then came the Lions trip to South Africa in the summer, leading into an attritional season in which, coincidentally or otherwise, injuries have seemed far more prevalent than in previous years.

"With the end of the club season now in sight, there is the trip to the southern hemisphere for winter matches against New Zealand, Australia, and the New Zealand Maori. Looking further forward, a marathon World Cup season, in which our relatively shallow playing resources will be stretched to the maximum, begins in early August with the inaugural game in the new Aviva Stadium."

Next year New Zealand will have to find 20 new professional players as Super 15 squads expand from 28 to a minimum of 30 and maximum of 32. Every coach will want 32 - but from where will they come? The Sunday Herald's Gregor Paul asks the question.

"Places for two foreign players a franchise will help, although it's difficult to believe that, initially at least, we will see the maximum 10 foreigners contracted next year.

"...Jonny Wilkinson, Brian O'Driscoll and James Hook are the sort who add real value. They will put bums on seats, build credibility and make visible contributions on the field.

"If Wilkinson earns a reputed €408,000 ($760,000) a season after tax at Toulon, is he going to come to New Zealand?

"Plenty of Australians and South Africans will fancy it. The problem with that is it creates a merry-go-round where the talent pool doesn't expand, components simply swap places.

"Some Argentinians will come, but not the big names and not players who will either add commercial value or be discernibly better than domestic options."

Writing in the Sunday Times, Stephen Jones believes that Biarritz will be up against it when they tackle Toulouse in the Heineken Cup Final next weekend.

"When people in rugby discuss elite coaching, they always refer to the concept of shelf life. The game moves on so rapidly, and changes in its elements, that it is deemed almost impossible to hold the coaching reigns of a top team for longer than five years, and very few coaches do. It is also true that the video analysts of every opposing team work you out anyway, so to pop up full of surprises is almost impossible.

"So for Guy Noves to have held the coaching post at Toulouse for 17 years is almost beyond extraordinary. He was a shoo-in as ERC Coach of the 15 years of the Heineken Cup. On Saturday, Toulouse play Biarritz in the final at the Stade de France, aiming to become the first team to win the trophy four times. They are already the only team to win it three times. Noves, very much the driven touchline prowler and not the stand-seat analyst, has become as big an institution as the event itself.

"He does sometimes get things wrong. His is a harsh environment, because if Toulouse do not win at least one from the Heineken Cup and the French Top 14 every season, then it is deemed a disaster. Toulouse lost to Perpignan in the semi-final of the Top 14 on Friday so for them, Europe is the only game in town."

The Scotsman's Iain Morrison talks to Scottish Rugby's new performance director Graham Lowe.

"He's been kept hidden away from view for so long that you can't help wondering if Graham Lowe, the SRU's new director of performance rugby, might walk into the Murrayfield interview room with two heads sticking out of his shoulders. Thankfully not. In fact he looks a perfectly ordinary guy although he may just have the most important job in Scottish rugby.

"Born in Auckland, Lowe started his professional career as a strength and conditioning coach with the Otago age-group sides in Dunedin and so it is little surprise that he and his family have quickly settled in Edinburgh, the city that supplied Dunedin with its name and much else besides. "The nature and culture is quite similar between Scotland and New Zealand," he says. "We love Edinburgh, there is an easy connection with the Scottish people."

"He might not thank you for repeating it but Lowe is best known for his close association with the abject failure of the All Blacks at the last World Cup. He was the man behind the team's conditioning experiment, the withdrawal of 22 key players from the early months of the Super 14, a policy that took most of the flak after New Zealand suffered their worst showing, exiting at the quarter-final stage. Since Graham Henry et al refused to budge, Lowe was the most senior member to leave the All Blacks management group and fingers have been pointing his way ever since, so he wastes no time in clarifying a few points."

Writing in The Independent, Brian Ashton urges the now retired Mike Catt to coach the way he played.

"I see little point in looking back over Mike's playing career, for there have been numerous eulogies already, including two memorable appraisals from Jeremy Guscott and Will Greenwood, both of whom played alongside him in the England midfield and understood the things he brought to the mix. I must, however, mention that he was one of those rare individuals whose approach to rugby mirrored a couple of truths defined by my great sporting hero, Muhammad Ali: the idea that "he who does not dare to take risks achieves nothing in life"; and the notion that a sportsman should "defy the impossible and shock the world".

"My interest is in how Mike develops as a coach, because I believe he has the ability to make a mark. In essence, I'd like to see him coach as he played – to stay loyal to his creative instinct. When I worked with him at Bath in the early and mid-1990s, he was one of a group of players who made it their business to be provocative, challenging and bloody-minded in their pursuit of excellence. To put it bluntly, they were all a pain in the arse, and quite deliberately so. It came from their determination not to allow their rugby to stand still, never to be satisfied with the things they achieved."

The play-off semi-finals' rival fly-halves - Glen Jackson, Butch James and Toby Flood - have led the Premiership out of its defensive darkness according to Paul Rees in The Observer.

"It was not that long ago, when rugby union had become clogged in a defensive mind-set, that the role of a fly-half was perceived to have changed from being a side's conductor, setting tone and tempo, to a mere member of a one-note orchestra. There would be no more maestros in the mould of Barry John, was the dull refrain.

"...The spirit of John has flickered in the final months of the Premiership campaign, light shining where before there was almost total darkness. Three of today's four play-off semi-finalists, Saracens, Bath and Leicester, have been led into the land of promise by their fly-halves: Glen Jackson, Butch James and Toby Flood respectively.

Northampton have the most daring fly-half of all, Shane Geraghty, who provided many of the few flashes of inspiration in the opening months of the season before returning from England's autumn international campaign with his self-confidence dimmed. But he has played a bit-part role for the Saints in 2010, bench fodder for Stephen Myler, to be used only if a game needs to be chased in the final quarter. It is a waste, even if Myler has not betrayed his side's cause."

Jean de Villiers admits he struggled to adapt in the red of Munster, but he's hoping to sign off with a Magners League title © Getty Images

Jean de Villiers admits his early form at Munster wasn't up to scratch and is relishing another shot at Leinster after an under par performance saw Michael Cheika's men pile 30 points on in October, writes Gavin Cummiskey in The Irish Times.

"The earliest snapshot of de Villiers in red is Brian O’Driscoll scorching outside him, and then inside Keith Earls, for a scarily good try in that still hard-to-fathom 30-0 destruction Leinster inflicted at the RDS last October. That was only his second match and while no stranger to the big occasions, he had been flat out since the previous spring so the Jean de Villiers in the brochure was not what first pitched up in Limerick.

“Yeah, I knew how important the game was but I think maybe in a way I wasn’t prepared in the way I should have been, mentally. I don’t think (the Lions Test series and Tri-Nations) was an excuse. You try and think what it will be like but don’t really know because you haven’t experienced it. We have games back home with the same intensity, same rivalry but this is different. You are playing with different players. At that stage I wasn’t probably part of the team yet, part of the family, as such. From the first day I struggled with form. I struggled to get to grips with the team dynamics.

“No excuses!” he quickly adds. “We were beaten by a stronger team. On the day, they were fantastic and they have shown all year what a great side they are.”

The Independent's Chris Hewett speaks to Lewis Moody whose summer move from Leicester Tigers to Bath has raised eyebrows in the midlands ahead of the rivals' clash tomorrow afternoon.

"Strange days? There have been none stranger. A volcano in Iceland closes airports in North Africa, George Osborne and Vince Cable walk hand in hand into the fires of the banking crisis and Lewis Moody prepares to leave Leicester for Bath by playing for Leicester against Bath. And not in any old match, either. The second of tomorrow's Guinness Premiership semi-finals pits the most successful English club of the professional era against the greatest of the amateur era – clubs that built their supremacy on the assumption that no player operating at the height of his powers could conceivably contemplate joining someone else. On that basis, the man is flying in the face of history.

"As Moody's form is somewhere near its apex, it could be said that this is Leicester's "Simon Halliday moment". A couple of decades ago, Halliday left Bath for Harlequins – a decision that reduced the movers and shakers at the Recreation Ground to a state of spluttering disbelief. The England centre was not forgiven in a hurry. After Stuart Barnes, one of the guiding spirits at Bath, had earned his side a John Player Cup final victory over Quins by dropping a goal in extra time, Halliday extended the hand of reconciliation by saying: "If anyone had to drop a goal to beat me in a cup final, I'm glad it was you, Stuart." To which Barnes responded, sulphurically: "If I had to drop a goal to beat anyone in a cup final, I'm glad it was you, Simon."

The Bulls' decision to rotate 14 players is rightly being viewed as an invitation to the semi-finals for the Stormers, writes Gavin Rich in The Star.

"That the Bulls are coming to Cape Town with what amounts to a 'B' team has been well documented. Predictably, there has been an outcry, most notably in New Zealand and Australia, where they are rightly indignant at what they see as the Stormers being granted a free passage to a home semifinal.

"As predicted, the Stormers management have reacted by saying that this is the Bulls they are playing against, that the identity of the players wearing the light blue jersey is irrelevant, that they will concentrate on their own game, systems and structures. The Stormers are right to say that; the Bulls are equally correct in responding with a bit of chest-thumping and a promise that they are not coming to the Mother City to blow kisses.

"But at the same time, Stormers coach Allister Coetzee did give it away this week when he admitted that in order to prepare for this match, he had had to study videos of the Blue Bulls Vodacom Cup team in action. That is it in a nutshell - tough though the Bulls players might be on paper, the team shows 14 changes to the one that played the previous week. This team is thus playing together for the first time."

Schalk Brits has delighted in such measure this season, that The Daily Telegraph's Mick Cleary feels the South African shouldn't miss the Premiership final.

"There is, of course, far more to Saracens’ progress to Sunday’s Premiership play-off semi-final at Northampton than Brits’s mere presence. They are clever and rugged in equal measure. But Brits is the star turn, a formidable athlete, the motor that kick-starts so much, a trigger point for the new-wave Saracens who have emerged since adjusted law interpretations opened up the game.

"It would be a travesty if Brits, 29 tomorrow, were to be suspended for the final, should Saracens overcome Northampton. He made his gesture as he trudged from the field, groggy from a knock to the head. He took it upon himself after the final whistle to seek out the opposition fans and apologise. “It was not acceptable,” he said.

"Time for sanity and a sense of proportion to prevail. Brits has brought joy to Saracens fans and delight to neutrals. "

Jonny Wilkinson has found a new lease of life since moving to the south of France © Getty Images

England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson is on the brink of winning his first silverware in six years. He tells The Independent's Matt Gatward how a year in Provence put a spring back into his step – and why that's good news for England.

"Next Sunday, his expensively assembled Toulon meet the might of Cardiff Blues in the Amlin Challenge Cup final in Marseilles, but Clermont Auvergne are the first rather dangerous, chunky and stubborn obstacle barring Wilkinson's attempts to lay his hands on a trophy. Toulon take them on in tomorrow's Top 14 semi-final, and while a few English heads will be turned towards St Etienne, it's the anonymity and liberation of playing across the Channel that's floating Jonny's boat.

"The best thing about it for me," says Wilkinson, "is that I don't know the people I'm playing against. It's a nice break to play rugby, for the simplicity of playing rugby. There's a less complex edge than there was in England. When I started out as an 18-year-old, I had that same feeling. But after a while you know everyone and I was in international squads meeting up with the guys I was playing against. Then it's all about the match-ups, me versus him. Whatever one guy does for his team it's going to be different to what I needed to do. They are incomparable. In France, that simplicity is back because I'm not vying against some other No 10 for the France jersey. It's just about you and your team. That's a nice way for it to be."

Maori former All Blacks have welcomed NZRU's apology to Maori players excluded from All Blacks teams because of apartheid, saying "it had to come" and was the "right thing to do". The New Zealand Herald reports.

"Former All Black Waka Nathan, who was a young member of the Maori All Blacks when Maori were excluded from a South Africa tour in 1960, said an apology was the "right thing to do".

"I thought it was very good indeed, for New Zealand especially - we have always been against apartheid. It never even entered our minds," Nathan said.

"However, not all former Maori rugby players were so charitable about the NZRU's actions.

"The NZRU merely "towed along behind South Africa" to make a "token" apology to Maori this morning, says a player who missed out on his best chance to make the All Blacks due to racially-based selection policies."

This has been a season for growing up, for Ben Foden and for Northampton according to The Times' David Hands.

"No one would accuse Foden, 24, of lacking confidence but this season his feet have been firmly on the ground, planted there by Jim Mallinder, his director of rugby and a former England full back. In his previous life Mallinder was a teacher and it is easy to identify his methods: suggest to Foden that he could double up between his original position, scrum half, and full back and become a fringe player or be a full-time full back and be involved all the time.

"For too long Foden resisted the choice, despite the man-of-the-match awards showered on him when he wore 15. This season has been the first in which he has regarded himself as a full back pure and simple, in which he has worked specifically to improve his skills in the position."

There are plenty of reasons to back the away sides, Saracens and Bath, in the Premiership play-offs on Sunday according to Shaun Edwards in The Guardian.

"Run this one past your bookie. If there have been only two victories for the away teams in six years of play-off semi-finals then what odds will he give on two in one weekend?

Think about it; in 11 games only two away sides – London Irish at The Stoop last year and Leicester at Kingsholm in 2008 – have gone through to the final day, but this time it's wide open. More than that, Northampton versus Saracens and Bath at Leicester later on Sunday could be the best play-off weekend so far. The ingredients are there."

Jacques-Louis Potgieter is the only survivor of the Bulls' win over the Crusaders © Getty Images

Greg Growden has no problem with the Bulls' decision to rest 13 players for this weekend's meeting with the Stormers, saying is it their privilege as log leaders in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"A load of bull has been uttered about the Bulls. So what if they rest up to 13 top-tier players for the final round match against the Stormers this weekend? That is the privilege of finishing well ahead of everyone else.

"If they are able to rest 13 players, good on them, because it shows what incredible depth they possess. According to those in the know, the Bulls' B team is almost as good as the Bulls A team, and could well win – in Cape Town, anyway.

"This is nothing new. During their golden period, the Crusaders regularly rested players, and it didn't do them any harm. It was all part of keeping their full squad motivated."

Rugby World Cup 2011 chief Martin Snedden wades in on the recent controversy surrounding overpriced accomodation for the event in The New Zealand Herald.

"No one should back off this current debate about Rugby World Cup 2011 accommodation pricing. It is timely and will ultimately be helpful. Charging fair prices will be one of the factors critical to making this event a success.

"We want our visitors to enjoy their stay, linger long and leave with special memories. Let's face it. Our country has probably never had a better international profiling and marketing opportunity. This is not just about 45 days next year. It's also about our future well beyond Rugby World Cup 2011.

"The stark reality here is that we only get one crack at hosting this. If we don't get it right the first time, we don't get the chance to learn from our mistakes. Get this right and our international reputation will soar. Taint it by irresponsible profiteering within any aspect of hosting the event as a nation and we'll suffer badly. The consequential reputational and financial damage will be significant."

Hugh Farrelly hails the emergence of James Coughlan as a late boost to Munster's season, and possibly Ireland, in The Irish Independent.

"He readily acknowledges that Munster have only had an "okay" season, that Leinster have had the upper hand in their recent meetings and expresses the squad's determination to end the campaign on a positive note.

"The low-key affair is over in a matter of minutes and McGahan is getting up to leave when he is detained by a final question on James Coughlan -- the Munster No 8 who has been a huge success story this season and a somewhat unexpected one.

"Denis Leamy's long-term injury was a serious blow to Munster and, with Aucklander Nick Williams never quite stepping up to the plate, No 8 became a problem position. The emergence of Coughlan -- Irish rugby's 'late bloomer' -- has been a considerable boost."

Stephen Jones is predicting a rollercoaster ride in the Guinness Premiership semi-finals given the recent form of both Bath and Saracens in The Times.

"Once it all seemed certain. It has been assumed for months that the Guinness Premiership final would be contested by Leicester and Northampton, the two outstanding teams in the tournament, no matter who managed to stagger into the play-offs in third and fourth place.

"Except no-one staggered. Saracens and Bath fill the third and fourth positions on the back of a menacing momentum that has made this Sunday’s semi-finals anything but forgone conclusions. There is the first stirring of anxiety in the camps at Leicester and Northampton.

"This is all wonderful news for the finale. In my opinion, Leicester are still favourites to beat Bath, although if the Bath forwards can play out of their skins then it could be mighty close."

O'Kelly salutes the Leinster faithful following their 2009 Heineken Cup Final victory over Leicester © Getty Images

The Irish Times' Gerry Thornley talks to Lions, Ireland, Leinster and St Mary's College secondrow Malcolm O'Kelly who has finally decided to call time on his golden career.

"First Girvan and now Mal. A golden generation is coming to an end alright. And Malcolm O’Kelly was very much a key figure in that era. In terms of pure natural talent there has no more gifted lock than O’Kelly, with all due respect to Willie John McBride, Paul O’Connell, Donal Lenihan, Neil Francis and the rest. Big Mal was a total one-off.

"Eric Elwood once told the story of the Irish squad arriving in South Africa in 1998 and, as way of overcoming jetlag, all of them were immediately sent off on a run. O’Kelly returned to the hotel about third or fourth, quicker than all the other forwards and most of the backs, went straight to the team room and declared: “Is there any food, I’m starving.”

"...That heart, that stamina, that work-rate. The bigger the game, the more he busted a gut. Lifting or no lifting, he’d have ruled the skies. Memories will always remain of him dominating the England lineout at Twickenham in 2004, and his try-saving covering tackle by the corner flag on Mark Regan, along with many other virtuoso performances."

Glasgow's emergence among the leading lights of Celtic rugby will be assured this week when they fly the Scottish flag in the Magners League semi-finals, but a key group of players preparing to leave Scotland are determined Friday's match at the Ospreys does not mark the end of their Glasgow careers. David Ferguson writes in The Scotsman.

"There was a lot of emotion swirling around Firhill when Glasgow defeated Leinster three weeks ago to ensure their place in the inaugural play-offs, Dan Parks, Kelly Brown, Mark McMillan, Dan Turner, Tim Barker and others taking the ovation of the appreciative Glasgow crowd knowing it could be their last time playing there.

"Five minutes from the end of Edinburgh's match with Leinster on Sunday night, Glasgow seemed to be heading back to Firhill and a home semi-final, but two dramatic Leinster tries later and the league's top four was shaken again and the Irishmen finished with a home semi-final against Munster and Sean Lineen's side were handed the road map to Swansea.

"Now the team is in the knock-out stage; defeat ends the season and victory takes Glasgow on to a 'Grand Final' against the winners of the all-Irish affair. If Leinster win, the final will be in Dublin, but if Munster and Glasgow emerge victorious Lineen's side will host the final in Scotland."

Next week in Marseilles, Martyn Williams will fill in just about the only remaining blank on his glittering CV when he lines up for the Blues against Toulon in the final of the European Challenge Cup. The Western Mail reports.

"It was October 1996 when Martyn Williams made his European debut as Pontypridd’s openside flanker in a Heineken Cup victory over Treviso at Sardis Road. Now, 14 years and 77 matches later, the double Grand Slam winner can finally look forward to stepping out in a continental final when the Blues meet Toulon in the Amlin Challenge Cup final on May 23.

"Along the way it’s been something of a rollercoaster for the man nicknamed ‘Nugget’. There was the infamous Battle of Brive in 1997 and five Heineken quarter-final appearances – with Ponty (1999), Cardiff (2000 & 2001) and the Blues (2008 & 2009). And, of course, there’s been one hugely painful Heineken semi – last year’s outing against Leicester when he was the unfortunate soul to miss the decisive kick in the penalty shoot-out.

"But there has been no Euro final – until now."

The latest England squad to tour the southern hemisphere will be the strongest to cross the Equator since the World Cup-winning year of 2003, and as a consequence, results will be paramount according to Chris Hewett in The Indepdendent.

"The vast majority of the Elite Player Squad picked by the manager back in January will be present and correct, supplemented by a 20-strong group who can claim to be among the form players in the Premiership – or, in the case of Tom Palmer of Stade Français, the French Top 14 tournament. Johnson now has David Flatman, the best of England's loose-head props, at his disposal, along with a revitalised Olly Barkley, a rejuvenated Charlie Hodgson, a bristling Joe Simpson, a confident Dominic Waldouck and a clutch of new back-five forwards – Dave Attwood of Gloucester, Geoff Parling of Leicester, Hendre Fourie of Leeds – who will look to lay down a marker ahead of next year's World Cup in New Zealand.

"All told, then, this is a useful party – one that should be more than capable of avoiding the utter humiliation routinely associated with English encroachments on Wallaby territory."

With nine uncapped players selected and no Steve Borthwick or Louis Deacon, England are equipped for a gear change according to the Guardian's Paul Rees.

"So, no Steve Borthwick for England this summer as he recovers from a knee injury and no Louis Deacon, who started four of the eight domestic Tests this season. Dynamism may be the new order. Maybe.

"...England increased the pace of their game in Paris. It may not have been enough to defeat France but it provided some optimism for the future after another campaign in which the men in white had largely been conservative. Johnson swore by both Borthwick and Deacon, two grafting second rows, but with pace out wide and mobility in the front row, England are equipped for a gear change."

The Bulls and Stormers have proven that South African rugby remains in rude health © Getty Images

Peter Bills predicts more World Cup woe for the northern hemisphere due to their inferior skill levels in The Independent.

"We won't know for sure until the World Cup next year. I never think the end of season tours in either hemisphere are much of a yard stick as to serious form or trends.

"Players are invariably tired by the end of a long season. The idea of flying to another hemisphere and spending weeks away from home when you are mentally weary after a hard season is never attractive.

"Perhaps New Zealand regularly buck such a trend, as their demolition of France in Marseille last November showed. But the Springboks had a dire end of season tour to Britain and Europe last November. Did that make them a declining force? Not on the evidence of this season's Super 14 where the Bulls and Stormers are currently the leading lights."

Spiro Zavos, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, can't get his head around the kicking tactics of certain New Zealand Super 14 sides.

"On Friday night, I taped the Hurricanes-Reds match before attending a concert by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Just before leaving I couldn't resist having a peek at the game. The scoreline was 21-8 to the Reds, after 32 minutes of play. A close-up shot of Hurricanes No.8 Rodney So'oialo showed him looking exhausted and anguished. The Hurricanes were facing a hiding. While later listening to melodic baroque music, I constructed an analysis of the resurgence of the Reds.

"Their rise in 2010, I decided, has vindicated Robbie Deans's insistence that Australian sides needed to get back to their traditional game, which involves playing expansively and skilfully. Similarly, the rugby nous shown by most of the New Zealand teams has deteriorated, a result, I believe, of the loss of Deans and the intellectual property he created while the leading rugby thinker there."

The New Zealand Herald's Paul Lewis has nothing but fear and contempt as the Queens Wharf project continues to stall in the build up to the Rugby World Cup.

"With apologies to Martin Luther King, I have a dream. Rugby World Cup minister Murray McCully and Auckland Regional Council head Mike Lee are in a large building on Queens Wharf.

"It is a giant tent which covers and links two sheds. The two men are inside, standing around a big punch bowl, surrounded by bunting and other jolly party stuff. They are alone. The wind is blowing.

"Down the road, at the Viaduct, the party is in full swing after the 2011 Rugby World Cup final. People are hanging off the walls, dancing in the streets, sloshing their drinks. They are having great fun. Back at the giant tent (all right, I know it's not really going to be a tent but the image was too good not to dream about), McCully shifts uncomfortably. A napkin is blown across the empty floor space, like a dead weed across the tundra."

Hugh Farrelly runs the rule over Ireland's selection problems prior to their summer tour in The Irish Independent.

"What this semi-final pairing has done is give Irish rugby a welcome injection of energy after the season appeared deflated from a disappointing end to the Six Nations and a triple European exit. The meetings of Munster and Leinster never want for intensity but with the summer tour to New Zealand and Australia just a matter of weeks away, there will be an added 'final trial' bite to the Ballsbridge atmosphere.

"This expedition appears increasingly hazardous for Ireland coach Declan Kidney. The intention was to gain a first victory in the southern hemisphere in 31 years, which would engender confidence in the squad for their World Cup campaign in 2011. However, with injuries affecting a chunk of Kidney's battle-hardened front-line warriors, there is now the opportunity to test the depth of Ireland's resources."

The Waratahs thrashed the Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday © Getty Images

John Eales tries to reveal the substance behind the Australian teams' Super 14 bid as the regular season draws to a close in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"The Waratahs this year have been a bit like an autostereogram. The players could see it – they kept telling us as much. The coaches could see it – many thought they were simply defending their jobs. A few others could as well. But most critics and fans, as hard as they tried, and as much as they may have wanted to, didn't see anything particularly exciting jumping out of the page at them . . . even though they kept winning.

"The Brumbies, who have been similarly underwhelming in many of their displays, also find themselves situated favourably for a semi-final appearance. Their destiny as well is in their own hands, albeit with a challenging head-to-head battle with the Crusaders to determine who plays on for another week.

"The Reds, on the other hand, have all but bowed out of contention with their enterprising but ultimately ineffective effort against the Hurricanes on Friday night. It is just mathematics and some memory of advanced probability and statistics that give them a sliver of hope."

Brendan Nel compares the current plight of the winless Lions with the 2002 Bulls in his column for Supersport.

"I remember sitting in the office of Heyneke Meyer at the time, where Meyer at one point looked exasperated, and turned to myself and a colleague from Beeld, asking us “So what do you think we can do to turn this ship around?” It was a moment which most people don’t get to experience, but also one which will sit with me for a long time.

"At the time Meyer was probably the most promising coach in the country, but was pushed without the necessary resources into a competition which is so unforgiving that a simple mistake could ruin your season’s hopes.

"Meyer, to his credit, went back to the drawing board, cleaned out the dead wood at Loftus Versfeld and made a power play to exclude the meddling officials. Sounds a bit like what Dick Muir should do at Ellis Park, doesn’t it? But he also had the support at the time of a chief executive named Stephan Pretorius, who is now at the Southern Kings, and together with an equally ambitious and hard-working talent scout Ian Schwartz, they started building an empire which now rules the Southern Hemisphere."

Bath prop David Flatman breaks the mould and lets slip that he'd love to tour with England this summer in The Indepdendent.

"As a sportsman, one is almost duty-bound to refrain from giving any actual opinions, voicing any concerns or sharing any genuine desires when asked a question by anyone other than one's own mother. In the terrifying interview situation, the straight bat is the tool of choice when the brain is scrambling to find an answer that will not offend anybody or let too much go. However, as a sports fan, I am as bored and frustrated as anyone by the allergy to actual information that seemingly infects the minds of sporting interviewees the world over. So I thought I might break the mould a little.

"In a few days, Martin Johnson will announce his England squad to tour Australia and New Zealand. It wouldn't half be nice to be in it. I know, I have now opened myself up to the ritualistic banter and haranguing reserved solely for a rugby player by his team-mates but it is true; I want to go. Were I not selected then the disappointment would outweigh the boys' fun anyway, so the risk is minimised at least."

Brian Moore believes that the recently retired Mike Catt can inspire England's backs, even if he does have terrible shoes, in The Daily Telegraph.

"Mike Catt was not at the Recreation Ground in Bath on Saturday, but he may have had an enigmatic smile on his face at the news that after a number of fallow seasons, his alma mater may at last be on the way to restoring the glory years he experienced there with many other legends of the game.

"He would have approved of the score of 39-3 against Leeds, and he would have felt a tad wistful about the manner of the victory. It is too soon to say that Claassens, James, Barkley, Hape, Maddock, Banahan and Adendenon are the equal of say Hill, Catt, Guscott, de Glanville, Adebayo, Sleightholme and Callard because their inclusive performance on Saturday has not yet achieved much frequency, but the potential to match this former backline is there.

"Could they go on to emulate arguably one of the strongest English club combinations; that of Hill, Barnes, Guscott, Halliday, Trick, Swift and Webb?"

The Guardian's Stephen Moss gets up close and personal with everyone's favourite cerebral sportsman, Jonny Wilkinson.

"It's surprisingly difficult to interview someone who has a black eye and gashes on his nose and neck, especially when you're sitting two feet away from him on a sofa. Jonny Wilkinson, England rugby legend, hasn't been in a fight on the way to the Rosslyn Park rugby ground (we meet in a messy backroom full of balls he has to sign for some unspecified promotional purpose). He got knocked about the night before playing for his new French club Toulon against Connacht, has flown from Ireland to London to spend a day coaching competition winners for his sponsor Volvic, and is heading back to Nice this evening.

"We are not going to get long together, which is frustrating because Wilkinson – England's starriest rugby player in the past decade, but also one of its most injury-prone – is just about the most cerebral, intense, self-questioning sportsman I've ever met; as complex as the choreography of his famous place-kicking routine. He looks like a Californian surfer, and there are times when he talks like one too, trying to explain his philosophy of sport and life.

"I had intended a softish opening – "You must be knackered after last night's match" – but immediately, in his gentle, earnest, slightly nasal voice, he is telling me why he could never be a rugby commentator in a sporting afterlife that is now not far away. "I'd be the commentator that TV stations would want rid of straightaway – I would be so non-committal with regard to players' performances."

Winger Joe Rokocoko has been in fine form for the Blues in recent weeks © Getty Images

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Gregor Paul wonders whether Joe Rokocoko has played his way back into the All Blacks starting line-up.

"Similar to Mark Twain's death, reports of the counter-attack wing being back in business might be greatly exaggerated.

"It happens every year - the Super14 seduces people into believing test football will be wild and adventurous. That it will be won by cavaliers, not roundheads.

"The reality, even under the current law interpretations, is that kick and chase football will still be effective and the No 1 priority for anyone playing in the back three is proficiency under the high ball.

"All Black defence coach Wayne Smith believes the balance might have swung back a little towards the power athlete; that there is more of a need to have wings who can use the ball effectively."

In an interview with The Independent, Austin Healey offers his views on Martin Johnson's attempts to return England to its former glories.

"To a man obviously in love with the game of rugby - and speaking about it - Austin Healey's new role analysing the Premiership for ESPN next season should be the dreamiest of dream jobs. But there is one the motor-mouthed Healey rates higher.

"Martin Johnson is hugely passionate about what he does," he says of the England manager, who also happens to be one of his best mates. "He's certainly feeling the pressure of the job, and who wouldn't be? But I've basically said to him 'I don't know what the problem is, it's the best job in the entire world, just think, you could be on the front line in Pakistan'."

Brendan Fanning of the Sunday Independent is warning that the Irish set-piece is in need of serious attention ahead of next year's World Cup.

"A couple of weeks ago, Cian Healy was kicking a ball around on his day off when he was cornered by a group of kids, eager for a few minutes of his time. No problem. He is always helpful in this regard, probably because there is much of the big kid in him still. They asked the usual stuff. Then one of them asked had he enjoyed the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Clermont. Without pausing for a second, Healy responded: "I didn't like sitting on the bench too much."

"At least that night he had come on and got to finish the game. Last weekend in Toulouse, the sight of Healy sitting down well ahead of schedule was one of the enduring images of the weekend. Another came the next afternoon in San Sebastian: John Hayes, typically stoic, in sharp focus, as yet another scrum had been busted with the prospect of more to come.

"Perhaps the most poignant however came in the immediate aftermath of that game, always the most fertile period for getting Ronan O'Gara as he is. He had to abandon the piece with the man from Sky for fear tears might take over. Had Munster been whopped by 30 you reckon O'Gara could have coped with it, but he knew they had been beaten by a team nowhere near as good as the one they had buried in the 2006 final. If you were 23, that would be deeply frustrating. Add 10 years and it's enough to make you weep."

Writing in the Sunday Times, Stephen Jones feels that if England's players do not return from their upcoming summer tour revitalised it will represent a dereliction of duty on the part of Martin Johnson and his coaches.

"Precious time, precious tour. For teams not faint of heart, every harsh assignment is an opportunity. On Tuesday, England - our beleaguered, shambling, England - announce their party to tour Down Under in June.

"In all respects, it is a perfect opportunity for a rediscovery and a revival. One season out from the World Cup, it is an itinerary from heaven. If the party does not return revitalised, and coherent, it will represent a dereliction of duty on the part of Martin Johnson and his unmerry men."

Brian O'Driscoll shows his disappointment at Leinster's Heineken Cup exit © Getty Images

As the Irish club season reaches its conclusion, Tony Ward laments the growing gap between the amateur game and the successful regions in The Irish Independent.

"The introduction of the Heineken Cup has provided the biggest plus from the game going open. Losing out on Grand Slam and Triple Crown - my, haven't we come a long way - was disappointing, yes, but the gloom hanging over Irish rugby since last weekend's double Heineken Cup defeat sums up where priorities now lie and just what the premier European competition means to rugby folk and, indeed, to folk generally on this island.

"The flip side of the Heineken coin is, of course, the All-Ireland League. As the provincial competition goes from strength to strength, the club game erodes ever further.

"Today the club season reaches its climax with the Division 2 and 3 finals in Anglesea Road and the main event, the Division 1 final in Athlone's Dubarry Park."

Wynne Gray calls for a moment of common sense following Ma'a Nonu's expletive-laden post-match interview last week in The New Zealand Herald.

"The midfielder, by all accounts, was a little bit emotional after a tough win for the 'Canes when a radio reporter plonked a microphone under his nose and asked a few questions.

"What did the soundbite searcher expect? "Oh, I'm really tired now but it was wonderful to get a victory and stay in the hunt for the Super 14 playoffs." Instead he got the raw emotion of the moment and those back in the studio chose to broadcast the response.

"If they did not like the tenor of the conversation, they could have cancelled it with their dump button.Nonu had just scored two tries as part of a great Hurricanes comeback and, when interviewed, let rip with seven expletives in a short space of time."

Bath prop David Flatman revels in the return of the scrum as an attacking weapon in the wake of the Heineken Cup semi-finals in The Independent.

"As French rugby sails full steam ahead towards the promised land, leaving the game in the British Isles paddling around in the shallows with its trousers rolled up to the knees, it is time to identify the things separating them from us.

"Their clubs have more money, for a start, along with greater pulling power: domestic championship attendances are now within 6,000 of the average gate in the top flight of professional football. They play for the most part in superbly appointed municipal stadiums, they have comprehensive television coverage and – very important, this – they all have a scrum.

"Yes, we're back in the age of the dear old set-piece: the 16-man game within a game where an inch gained here and there allows a team to win by miles. Last week, both Toulouse and Biarritz prevailed in their respective Heineken Cup semi-finals because they tore up the opposing scrum."

Stuart Barnes previews Bath's vital Guinness Premiership meeting with The Times.

"Where else to concentrate our attentions than Bath for the clash of the two most astonishing English teams of 2010? At Christmas, it looked like this match would be heavily significant - but for reasons diametrically opposed to this weekend's.

"Leeds were exactly where most pundits expected them to be, at the foot of the table, but it was Bath helping them buttress up the rest of the Premiership that had us talking. The West Country club was floundering around in the relegation rip tide. Some Cassandra-like voices prophesied an almost apocalyptic finale with Bath battling Leeds for the Premiership’s last lifeboat.

"For once I was not one of the siren voices. Bath always had too much ability for the drop; I was certain they would emerge from their miasma but it didn’t cross my mind that Round 22 would see them playing for a place in the play-offs. Their run has been the equivalent of a racehorse missing the break by 15 lengths in a five-furlong sprint and winning the race with a length in hand. It just doesn’t happen – until this season."

The axe has fallen on Newcastle's Steve Bates © Getty Images

Wasps coach Shaun Edwards ponders the recent spate of sackings and resignations at the bottom of the Guinness Premiership in The Guardian.

"Where does the axe stop? One by one, moving up the table from Worcester, the side who will be relegated to the Championship, three Guinness Premiership coaches have been shown the door in little over a week.

"Cecil Duckworth reviewed the situation at Sixways, pronounced himself unhappy and left Mike Ruddock to do the decent thing. Worcester announced that he had resigned as director of rugby. The same day Sale said Kingsley Jones would be staying on as director of rugby, but that Jason Robinson was out, Mike Brewer replacing him as head coach. A day later Brewer spoke, making it clear he, not Jones, was in charge. The much-travelled former All Black said: "I've got complete autonomy on the rugby side of things ... what we can't have is the players answering to two masters."

"On Tuesday the axe fell again. Steve Bates may have staved off relegation but that was not enough for Newcastle's owner, Dave Thompson, who thanked Bates for his contribution, wished him the best and showed him the door, saying he expected better than another season dodging the bullet. Bates would be entitled to ask why Newcastle have bumped along the bottom for so much of the professional era, especially after getting off to such a bright start."

Chris Hewett believes that the answer to England's scrummaging problems may lie with Bath's returning loosehead David Flatman, in The Independent

"England's great leaps forward in the Test arena have not been blindingly obvious this season – to most eyes, they have taken a series of small steps backwards – and their work in the scrum, the very foundation of their game, has been particularly unimpressive. This might be about to change, just in time for the build-up to next year's World Cup. The Bath prop David Flatman, last capped in 2002, has recovered from his latest injury hassle and is ready to challenge for a place on next month's five-match trip to Australia and New Zealand.

"Indisputably the most effective loose-head scummager currently available to the national team – his rejection by the manager Martin Johnson has been one of the mysteries of the age – Flatman has been struggling with a biceps problem in recent weeks. But Steve Meehan, the Bath coach, confirmed yesterday that the 30-year-old forward would "play a part" in this weekend's Premiership meeting with Leeds, which the West Countrymen must win to secure a place in the semi-finals."

Greg Growden reacts to Steve Walsh's suggestion of having two referees on the field with a quick pushing over of the pram in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Have we just discovered the ultimate in human torture? Aren't referees subjecting us to enough misery in having one of them on the field without now having to ram bamboo underneath our fingernails by arguing that there should be two whistleblowers out there wrecking the game?

"Enough, I say, enough! No, not now the ''three cheers for the ref'' routine … I will confess to everything.

"Rugby can be such an infuriating game because it is dominated by a convoluted law book, made even worse by a good majority of referees wanting to stay onside with their assessors up in the grandstands by rigidly sticking to the letter of the law."

Wynne Gray salutes Ewen McKenzie's handling of the Reds this season in The New Zealand Herald.

"When the Reds began another Super 14 campaign with a loss there were the usual "here we go again" laments.

"Others were more encouraged by the two-point loss to the Waratahs, they saw advances on a pretty sorry Reds record since 2003. In seven series, the Reds had not finished in the top half of the table.

"Enter Ewen James Andrew McKenzie, the 44-year-old former World Cup-winning tight-head prop, only the second Victorian to play for the Wallabies, a coach who had served an apprenticeship at the Waratahs and Stade Francais. McKenzie was head coach of the Waratahs from 2004 to 2008. Prior to that he was an assistant at the Brumbies and with the Wallabies."

Ireland's Girvan Dempsey is set to hang his boot up at the end of the season © Getty Images

Girvan Dempsey's decision to retire from professional rugby at the end of the season will mark the culmination of an outstanding sporting career according to the Irish Times' Gerry Thornley.

"Celebrated as a player, his qualities as a person will not be overlooked by those who played with and against him. Modest and articulate, he brought quiet, unfussy footballing intelligence to the pitch.

"His career might be defined by his ability to swallow whole towering garryowens without a hiccup but with a strike-rate of just over one try every four matches for Leinster and Ireland it would be churlish to ignore those scoring exploits. Arguably his greatest playing quality was his positional sense, honed by countless hours of video analysis deciphering the facial tics and body language “tells” of hundreds of outhalves: very few found the corners on any pitch upon which he played."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Peter Bills finds fault with the way that Biarritz booked their place in this season's Heineken Cup Final.

"Time was, when losing a game of rugby was a minor inconvenience when set against a raucous night of drinking and partying. Sometimes, defeated teams joined their conquerors for a night of celebration, content that the spectacle was so exalted they had participated in a wondrous piece of entertainment.

"Right, now let's put that aside, and talk of Munster's defeat to Biarritz last weekend. No wonder the dining area where the Munster players ate after the game resembled more a funeral parlour. To misquote that renowned Irish outside centre Oscar Wilde, to lose a Heineken Cup semi-final may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose it to a team playing no rugby just looks careless."

Lewis Moody is ready to take over the England captaincy if required following news that Steve Borthwick has lost his battle to recover from a knee injury. Mick Cleary and Gavin Mair report in the Daily Telegraph.

"Moody took over from the Saracens lock for the final match of England's Six Nations campaign against France in Paris. Borthwick is still experiencing pain from the knee injury that ruled him out of that match, the first he had missed since taking over as captain on Martin Johnson's appointment as manager in the summer of 2008.

"If I were asked to do the job again, I'd absolutely love it," said Moody, who has had no contact on the matter with the England management yet. I was only filling in for Steve but I'd support whoever was asked to be captain."

Under-fire England boss Martin Johnson is tapping into the knowledge of Welsh rugby’s top brass in a bid to take the Red Rose back to the top of the world again, Gareth Griffiths reports for the Western Mail.

"Lions legend Johnson and RFU head honcho Rob Andrew were spotted at Wales’ Vale of Glamorgan training HQ yesterday conducting a secret spying mission into what makes Warren Gatland and his team tick. Johnson, whose future was said to be on the line earlier this season, was the instigator behind the cloak and dagger trip to Wales.

"The former England World Cup-winning skipper conducted a two-hour look at the state-of-the-art training complex used before matches by Ryan Jones and his 2008 Grand Slam-winning team-mates.

"It is understood Johnson is also studying the Surrey-based training HQ of Carlo Ancelotti’s Premier League champions elect Chelsea, as well as top facilities in France. Johnson wants to replicate the Wales-style training complex somewhere in England for his own team as he looks to revive the Red Rose fortunes for next year’s World Cup."

Former Crusaders coach Robbie Deans is now in charge of the Wallabies © Getty Images

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Chris Rattue believes that New Zealand rugby sorely misses former Crusaders coach and now Wallabies boss Robbie Deans.

"Deans could speak as strangely as the next rugby man - apart from John Mitchell obviously - but unlike the other wafflers he put results on the board.

"Now, the Crusaders are sliding down the slope, where they will crash into all the other useless New Zealand franchises.

"The New Zealand teams may play fancy football at times, but in this level of sport the aim is to win trophies. And the prospects are as dire as last season when the Waikato lambs headed to an inevitable final slaughter in Pretoria.

"The powerful, determined Deans alone among New Zealand coaches knew how to compete for titles by creating an empire where scouting, development, selection and coaching were spot on."

Cork Con's Evan Ryan has the world at his feet as he prepares for Saturday's AIB League Final against St Mary's this weekend. Gerry Thornley writes in the Irish Times.

"The shirt, tie and suit is the giveaway. Evan Ryan has joined the real world. The 24-year-old captain of Cork Constitution has a law degree and three weeks ago joined AL Goodbody Solicitors in Dublin as a trainee solicitor, so realistically this Saturday’s AIB League final in Dubarry Park against St Mary’s will probably be his last game for the club, for three or four years at any rate.

"He will, most likely, join a Dublin club. For the moment though, he can’t see beyond Saturday. Con like to be first in, having won the inaugural AIL title and the inaugural AIB Cup (which they won again this season), and regard this season’s revised format and eight-team Division 1A as a chance to make their mark again by completing a double."

There will be no more playing careers such as that of Mike Catt, who has finally called time after 18 years representing Bath and London Irish. David Hands writes in The Times.

"It has been a remarkable journey for the boy from Port Elizabeth, who will be 39 in September. Seven years ago he lashed the ball into touch to seal England’s World Cup final victory over Australia in Sydney; four years later he captained England against France at Twickenham, where once he had endured the jeers of a crowd who did not consider him worthy of a place in England’s back division.

Catt played in four World Cups, the last of them in France in 2007 when he appeared in what was probably his most effective position, inside centre. But he had talent enough to play with equal facility at fly half and full back in a career of 75 England caps, and if he can bring to coaching the same vision he brought as a player, a new generation of backs will be the beneficiaries."

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has indicated that he will use mostly northern hemisphere based players to fulfill the Boks' Test fixture against Wales in Cardiff on June 5. The Independent's Peter Bills runs the rule over some of the selection possibilities.

"In France, the likes of Joe van Niekerk, Shaun Sowerby, Ross Skeate, Gerrie Britz, Francois van der Merwe, Jacques Cronje and Daan Human would all come to mind for slots in the pack. Behind the scrum, Marius Joubert is fit again and playing well for Clermont Auvergne while Frans Steyn (Racing Metro) Philip Burger (Perpignan), Noel Oelschig (Stade Francais) and Brent Russell from Clermont could also be considered.

"From Ireland, the Springboks could draw Jean de Villiers, BJ Botha and CJ van der Linde. The versatility of van der Linde means that he could fill in on either side of the front row. In England there are many candidates.

"Bath's exciting late challenge for a place in the Guinness Premiership play-offs has been spurred by the outstanding form of three South Africans; half-backs Butch James and Michael Claassens plus No. 8 Luke Watson. They have helped lift a side that, back in January, seemed likelier to be facing a struggle against relegation than contesting the Premiership title in one of the play-off places. Then there is lock forward Marco Wentzel who has been a huge inspiration to Leeds Carnegie in their successful bid for Premiership survival."

Toulouse's Byron Kelleher and David Skrela celebrate their Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Leinster © Getty Images

Writing in his column in the Daily Telegraph, Brian Moore hails the rugby lesson handed down by Toulouse and Biarritz in the Heineken Cup semi-finals.

"There are those who like to classify games as darkness versus light, ambition versus force, and they would see the progress of the two French teams into the Heineken Cup final this weekend as a triumph of evil over good. They are wrong.

"The successes of Toulouse and Biarritz against Leinster and Munster respectively were based squarely on their efforts up front, but that was far from the whole story. In any event the question must also be put: so what? If teams are able to apply huge physical force and no little skill in the forward exchanges, why should this be deemed inferior to the skills shown by players whose athletic bent is fleetness of foot?

"In truth, the distinct impression from the two semi-finals was that the French teams could have played pretty much as they liked and would still have won. There was no discernible lack of effort from either of the Irish provincial sides, though Munster have not played as poorly as they did on Sunday for some time, but they were bested in the set pieces after being competitive early on."

We could be looking at a repeat of 2001 when no New Zealand teams made the Super rugby play-offs according to Richard Loe in the New Zealand Herald.

"I'm certainly not confident - or at least I wouldn't bet the farm - on any of our sides making it through.

"Before they headed offshore, the Crusaders were sitting just where they wanted to be. Now they have lost two in a row and I can't see them beating the Bulls in Pretoria next weekend.

"With their confidence down and the travel factor to consider, I think they will also find it difficult to come home and beat the Brumbies in their final game.

"The Hurricanes have improved in recent weeks but, again, I can't see them winning both of their last two games. They might win one, but not two."

According to Supersport's Gavin Rich, it remains a remarkable feature of the Stormers season that the matches they have lost have been by such narrow margins, while their wins have tended to be by the proverbial mile.

"Not one of their eight victims has come within 10 points of the Stormers, let alone the seven you need to garner a bonus point. Of the five wins scored against New Zealand opposition, the closest one was the 12 point victory in Auckland over the Blues. That is some record.

"And yet while this suggests the Stormers should not be dropping games like those to the three Australian sides, I cannot quite go along with the theory that had those three games been won, the Stormers would now be sitting unbeaten at the top of the log.

"It just doesn’t work like that, and while it is an over-used old cliché, that little phrase about learning something from defeat is nonetheless a meaningful and relevant one. In a tough competition like the Super 14, you have to accept that there will be days you are slightly off your game, and most opponents in this competition are good enough to punish you when you are."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Tony Ward believes the Heineken Cup semi-final defeats for Leinster and Munster should act as a wake-up call for the national side.

"If you have to experience the lows to truly appreciate the highs, the past few days have certainly cast an even rosier light on Irish rugby's extraordinary achievements of 2009. Short of winning the World Cup, I doubt we will ever witness its like again.

"But one year on, it's the French who are well on top. In the Six Nations showdown in Paris in February, and in both Heineken Cup semi-finals as well as the Amlin Challenge Cup penultimate round, they have reconfirmed their dominance over the Irish in the most emphatic way.

"Even at this distance, France can be underlined as serious contenders for next year's World Cup. Could we have said the same about Ireland a year ago?"

Away semi-finals on French soil proved a couple of bridges too far for Ireland’s European standard-bearers according to the Irish Times' Gerry Thornley.

"In truth, Munster fell away more disappointingly than Leinster had done 24 hours beforehand in what was a comparatively poorer quality encounter in San Sebastian. In a reprise of the first semi-final, being obliterated in the scrums was one thing, but having their normally prolific lineout dissected was simply too much to cope with.

"Despite looking dangerous whenever they ran at Biarritz and taking the lead through a Keith Earls’ try, such were their starvation rations that they were increasingly forced to do so from virtually impossible positions. By the end, Munster cut a slightly sad and well beaten force.

"Though again played in a constant din of drums, it was a far cry from the energy-sapping heat of the quarter-final which Biarritz won here five years ago. The rain drizzled under cloud-filled skies, and at around 13 degrees it was even a little chilly. Even so, by the end, the 6,000-plus Red Army had been drowned out and Munster looked well beaten, mentally as much physically."

Writing in The Scotsman, Richard bath reflects on the election of former Scotland and Lions international Ian McLauchlan to the post of Scottish Rugby Union president.

"Election fever may be sweeping the nation, but one part of the community remains happily immune.

"There was a time when this democratic ferment had its equivalent in Scottish rugby; when the shape of the game was the subject of heated argument, and renowned former players went head to head in the quest for high office. Not any more.

"This year, Ian McLauchlan, the former national captain, has been nominated unopposed for the presidency of the Scottish Rugby Union. While some critics might equate that lack of opposition with a lack of interest, others, including McLauchlan himself, think it is indicative of a greater harmony which now prevails within the game."

The £4m Guinness Premiership salary cap is being blamed for the failure of an English club to reach a European final this season and Leicester are pushing for a re-think, Paul Rees writes in The Guardian.

"Apart from 1996, when English clubs did not take part in the first Heineken Cup, and 1999, when the clubs imposed a boycott for political reasons, England have always been represented in at least one European final. This season, Toulouse will play Biarritz in the Heineken Cup final at Stade de France on 22 May and the following day Toulon will play Cardiff Blues in the Amlin Challenge Cup.

"The Premiership is split on the issue of the salary cap. While clubs like Leicester and Northampton, who average five-figure crowds, have long advocated that the cap be either raised or abolished others, such as Sale and Wasps, who struggle to attract 10,000 spectators to their football grounds, fear that such a move would lead to a wealthy few dominating the Premiership and hogging England's places in the Heineken Cup."

Biarritz fans create a wall of sound at the Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastien © Getty Images

The Irish Independent's Billy Keane reports from Biarritz's victory over Munster in San Sebastien.

"Now we know how the cowboys felt when they heard the Apache war drums. This was very much a home game for Biarritz. They outnumbered Munster five to one and their club arranged for thousands of red and white plastic batons to be placed on the supporters' seats.

"The damned things created a permanent wall of sound. It was like living next door to Ringo Starr. They were all shouting "BO" which is short for Biarritz Olympique and does not in any way refer to the personal hygiene of Munster's fans who are always spotlessly clean.

"Biarritz had all the possession but they dropped more balls than kindergarten for jugglers, but somehow they won through the deadly accurate boot of Yachvili. Biarritz were just bigger and they wrecked our set-piece but they were there for the taking."

The Guardian's Rob Kitson reviews the Heineken Cup semi-finals.

"It would also have been a travesty had Dimitri Yachvili or Imanol Harinordoquy finished on the losing side before a typically delirious Basque audience in San Sebastián. If Byron Kelleher set a dauntingly high standard with an exemplary display of scrum-half play for Toulouse on Saturday, Yachvili raised the bar with a performance which did much to sooth the hurt of his team's previous defeats by Munster, most notably in the 2006 final in Cardiff. Six penalties from six attempts took him through the 500-point barrier in the tournament but the deftness of his handling and shrewdness of his option-taking were arguably even more impressive.

"It also helps to play behind a pack so obviously in the ascendant and in tandem with a No8 of Harinordoquy's quality. With extravagant facial strapping protecting a broken nose, the bounding Basque resembled a cross between Zorro and Concorde and spent much of the game doubled up in agony caused by a rib problem. On half a dozen occasions the medics arrived to cart him away, only to be sent packing. There have been few braver performances this season and the Biarritz coach, Jack Isaac, was suitably grateful. "The fact he put the mask on and ran out for us boosted the group," he said. "It was a reflection of the courage all the boys showed today."

Usually mild-mannered Hurricanes second-five Ma'a Nonu let rip in a bizarre post-match interview laden with seven swear words following his side's win against the Chiefs on Saturday. YahooExtra recounts the scene.

"Radiosport sideline commentator asked Daniel McHardy asked "What's going through your mind that was an amazing game to watch what was it like to play in?"

Nonu replied: "It's one of these games that makes rugby so spectacular, after they got a lead of 24-8 or something, f*** we were on our tryline and f*** everyone didn't know what was hitting us, then 50 minutes later we came out on top and scored a f***** last minute try and get this f***** bonus point.

With laughter coming from the commentary box McHardy held his composure to ask Nonu whether he thought the season was gone when the Callum Bruce lined up a potential match winning penalty for the Chiefs.

Nonu continued with his expletive tirade.

"I never think our season is gone, I've always backed myself for this team and after I scored that fluke try I thought 'Mate we've got to f***** hold onto the ball in the last five minutes'.

"And then they get a penalty mate. Typical Hurricanes games mate....last minute penalty two minutes to go and it's like f*** it's all over again. We get a steal from our line and Hosea makes a big break beyond their line he misses the kick f***** score after the hooter's gone," he said."

The New York Times previews the latest '30 for 30' series of documentaries that looks at how the Rugby World Cup in South Africa in 1995 was used to help defuse apartheid’s racial divisions.

"Mandela would wear the Springboks cap and the Springboks jersey. Before South Africa played France in the World Cup semifinal, he spoke at a rally.

“I ask you to get behind them tomorrow,” he told a crowd that included some puzzled blacks, “because they are our pride, they are your pride.”

"[Director, Clifford] Bestall interviews numerous Springboks, including the only black player on the ’95 team, Chester Williams. But he most clearly establishes the divide over Mandela’s support of the team through the words of two people: Justice Bekebeke, a black activist who vehemently disagreed with Mandela, and Koos Botha, a conservative who once favored hanging Mandela.

"They are a fascinating and dramatic pair because, in Bestall’s use of their parallel stories, Botha’s resistance to Mandela melts long before Bekebeke’s."

Writing in his column for the Sydney Morning Herald, former Wallabies captain John Eales insists the Australian Super 14 sides must grab their opportunity for southern hemisphere glory.

"'You've got to get them while they've got a hard-on." The words of legendary celebrity manager Harry M. Miller are just as relevant for the teams battling for semi-final positions in the Super 14 logjam today.

"Miller's words were about taking opportunity when it was presented. For him it was about selling a personality while they were hot because you're never sure how long the window may be open. For the teams competing for a chance in the Super 14 finals it is similarly about not wasting an opportunity.

"The completed weekend's round provided a tale of both lost opportunity and growing possibility as many teams with scope to secure semi-final positions wasted it, and the ensuing logjam on the ladder might find a few of them ruing their carelessness. As it sits now there are still seven teams with a more than reasonable opportunity to claim a play-off spot."

Sir Clive Woodward, the man who masterminded England’s rise to the top of the world, believes Martin Johnson’s current team could be built around such outstanding young talents as Danny Cipriani, Shane Geraghty and Ben Youngs. He spoke to Matt Hampson in the latest edition of Rugby World magazine.

"England need to field an incredibly quick team, playing at a pace even the southern hemisphere can’t match," Sir Clive, now Performance Director for the British Olympic Association, told Hampson.

"I’d have liked to see the team built around Ben Youngs, Danny Cipriani and Shane Geraghty over the past two years. They’re among the most talented players I’ve seen in a long time. They could be as talented as Matt Dawson, Jonny Wilkinson and Will Greenwood at their best. There is also real competition, notably from Joe Simpson and Toby Flood.

"I first saw Cipriani play when he was 11, my son Joe played next to him. It was clear then he was a special talent. You need to spot talent at that level, possibly even earlier. You need to look younger and younger and get the right people involved in the talent identification process and their ongoing development.’"

There was a time when Olly Barkley was seen as one of the 'bad boys' of rugby but, as Paul Ackford of the Sunday Telegraph discovers, the centre has had some life-changing experiences.

"Olly Barkley was late, which didn’t bode well. ''The last time we spoke I found you spiky,'' I reminded him. “What do you mean: spiky? A bit reactive?”

''Yeah. But it was more than that. You didn’t seem happy in your own skin. That’s a huge cliché, I know, and you might have been cross for some reason, but that was my sense of you.''

“That’s fair enough. I can be quite spiky, but the last year was one of the worst of my life and it’s taught me an unbelievable amount about where my friends are, and where my heart is. It sounds really cheesy and spiritual, but I feel at peace with where I am at the moment.”

All Black sides have often had a player with the x-factor heading into a World Cup but, as Gregor Paul of the New Zealand Herald reports, there doesn't seem to be one this time around.

"It feels like there's something missing from the national game at the moment. It's not just that New Zealand's teams have been a little flat, either. It's bigger than that.

"The Super 14 hasn't unearthed anyone new and exciting this year. No new heroes have arrived offering something different; something that looks capable of taking the All Blacks to a new level.

"And, 16 months out from the World Cup, the All Blacks are in need of something a little different. What they have is a core of well-known, experienced players. Dan Carter and Richie McCaw don't so much offer x-factor as the ability to perform the basics at a higher level than everyone else."

Writing in the Sunday Independent, George Hook argues that the manner of Leinster's defeat in Saturday's Heineken Cup semi-final clash with Toulouse has highlighted a real crisis in Irish rugby.

"Toulouse, as expected, reached the final of the Heineken Cup in Paris. They stuttered in the process, but it would have been a travesty had they lost a game that they dominated from the off.

"It was a sad way for Leinster to bow out, but their luck was always going to run out away from the heady atmosphere of the RDS.

"It took just 12 minutes for this game to move away from Leinster. The first scrum of the match demonstrated the gulf between the two teams and only Toulouse's conservative and nervy performance allowed the Irish province to survive.

"However, it would be unfair not to credit Leinster's indomitable spirit and organisation. The winning habit is hard to break and this team never gave up against a vastly superior force. But the facts of rugby union are immutable; forwards win games, the backs determine by how much. Michael Cheika may reflect on Eoin Reddan's near-try, but, in truth, his team threatened just twice to break free from the French shackles."

Speaking ahead of Sunday's Heineken Cup semi-final showdown with Munster, Biarritz fullback Iain Balshaw tells Peter Bills of The Independent that he is enjoying life in France despite sometimes being left frustrated by his side's inconsistency.

"Iain Balshaw was a callow 18-year-old who was just beginning his career with Bath when fellow full-back Jon Callard scored all 19 points in the West Country club's 19-18 win over Brive in the 1998 Heineken Cup final in Bordeaux. The teenager must have envisaged many more European glamour ties.

"Now a thirty-something, he may finally get his chance to play in a Heineken Cup final – but with the French club Biarritz, who meet Munster in the semi-final in San Sebastian this afternoon. It may be his last chance."

Will Biarritz be celebrating another famous European triumph this weekend? © Getty Images

Writing in the Irish Independent, Hugh Farrelly believes Biarritz have the required class to overturn the Munster marauders in their Heineken Cup semi-final in San Sebastien.

"Biarritz, although devastated by the loss of Traille, have a single-minded focus going into tomorrow's encounter with plenty of motivational factors. Top of the pile is the fact that their Top 14 campaign is over and the Heineken Cup is their only target.

"This is accentuated by the carrot of a Paris final and a possible showdown with Toulouse. Then there is the memory of their defeat to Munster in 2006, a result they have an overwhelming desire to overturn.

"And finally, there is the solidarity that comes from being locked away in their private training camp in Hendaye and the determination that comes from not wanting to let their supporters down in a Basque citadel.

"Tactically, the Biarritz selection suggests a 50-minute bench-emptying exercise. Hang in with Munster until then and then release Barcella, Florian Faure, Julien Peyrelongue and Philippe Bidabe -- not a bad plan."

Writing in the Irish Times, Gerry Thornley previews Leinster's mouth-watering Heineken Cup semi-final clash with Toulouse.

"This is it then. The Champions of Europe put their crown on the line against the Kings of Europe. As the final touches were being put to Le Stadium yesterday, even empty it almost represents as daunting an assignment as it looks. Leinster couldn’t have a tougher May Day rendezvous.

"The forecast of rain beforehand, and perhaps during, along with a drop in temperatures is unlikely to dampen the ardour of the rouge et noire supporters, who will bop to the familiar chant of “Qui ne sauté pas, n’est pas Toulousain”. He who doesn’t stand up is not Toulouse.

"The first advances of blue drank beers in the outdoor bars of the pink city yesterday evening on a cloudy day, with temperatures around the 20 degrees, but Leinster having returned over 1,000 tickets of the 5,000 allocation they settled for, they’ll be outnumbered by around seven or eight to one."

The Daily Telegraph's Will Greenwood believes Munster's Tomas O'Leary and Biarritz's Dimitri Yachvili hold the key to their Heineken Cup semi-final showdown.

"If you want a clash of styles think McEnroe and Borg. What about Botham and Boycott, or Davis and Higgins? Can anyone doubt the class of these greats? Yet they seem to be diametrically opposite in how they go about achieving their goals.

"On the one side we have people who have been called ice-cool, straight-laced, unimaginative, and even deadly dull. On the other you have explosive, swashbuckling, nerve-jangling, death-defying exponents of their chosen sports, who live on the edge but also get over the line first. It is the beauty of sport that there is no right or wrong way to do things. There is only winning and losing.

In San Sebastian, Spain, we have two contrasting players who hold the key to Biarritz and Munster's Heineken Cup hopes. And while they do not enjoy the personality extremes of the rivals above, they are scrum-halves at opposite ends of rugby's evolutionary road."

Writing in The Scotsman, Allan Massie addresses the issues of cheating in the modern game.

"It's not a word most of us like to use – particularly where our own team is concerned. Pushing the laws to the limit or even bending the law are more acceptable terms. Often indeed this is fair enough. We don't, I suppose, think of the flanker who flirts, or does more than flirt, with the offside line as a cheat, and not only because this has always happened and some of our favourite players – John Jeffrey and Finlay Calder, for example – have been masters of this practice. I'm not sure if we even think of the scrum-half who doesn't put the ball into the scrum straight as a cheat – if only because there isn't a single scrum-half who regularly abides by the law.

As French and Irish clubs vie for Europe's top honours, Tigers coach Richard Cockerill tells The Independent's Chris Hewett why they have the edge.

"It has been a desperate campaign, comfortably the worst since the English first ventured forth into continental competition in 1996. Unsurprisingly, those who speak for the Premiership are clinging grimly to the "blip" theory, arguing that this time last year, the French found themselves in precisely this position. They also point out that for a range of reasons – fake blood, missed drugs tests, internal upheavals, mass player departures – Harlequins, Bath, Gloucester and Sale were in no proper shape to take on the likes of Toulouse, Stade Français and Biarritz when the first cross-border hostilities broke out in early October.

"But there was, and is, more to it than that. Jim Mallinder of Northampton, the only Premiership side to find their way into this year's knockout stage, warned after his team's quarter-final defeat at Munster that the sands were shifting fast, leaving the English clubs vulnerable to growing economic and organisational forces. "We don't have the financial muscle you see in France and we're not set up like the Irish, who prioritise the Heineken Cup in a way that isn't open to us," said the Midlanders' director of rugby. "Do I think the trophy will come back to England? It's becoming increasingly difficult."