The Daily Mail's Chris Foy provides his take on the mooted summer season.

"English and French clubs are trying to revive the concept of a summer season in Europe as part of revolutionary plans for the sport, but traditionalists are in uproar.

The well-worn argument is that rugby union is a winter game - always has been. Well, so was rugby league until they switched it to the sunnier months and that has been a success.

It is time to at least consider the outlandish possibility."

Brian Moore previews Harlequins' Amlin Challenge Cup final against Stade Francais and reminds us of two classics served up by the sides in 2008 in The Daily Telegraph.

"The first, at the Stade de France, had Can-Can girls and jousting knights in armour and was watched by 78,000 people. The second, at the Stoop, was played in torrential rain, but both saw Quins win narrowly.

"The Cardiff City football ground might rustle up a few druids and a kazoo band on Friday night when the sides contest the final of the Amlin Cup but they will do well to replicate the tension and excitement of previous encounters.

"Quins, at the moment, are maddeningly uneven. At times they are inspired, like in their first-half blitz of Munster in the semi-final, but in equal measure are likely to choose the wrong option or err at crucial points during games. Stade Francais simply have not played well for most of the season, as their 11th place in France’s Top14 shows."

Robert Kitson looks at the 'new reality' of play-off rugby in The Guardian.

"And so begins the annual bun-fight known as the play-offs. There are still those who hanker after the old system of first-past-the-post but these days there are more pros than cons to sudden death. Whether it be the Magners League, the Top 14 or the Aviva Premiership, the public want to see the best players on parade for the big games, rather than under-strength clubs diluted by Test calls. You can also sell a few more tickets and promote your sport to a wider audience, increasingly essential for administrators in the current economic climate.

"This new reality suits some clubs better than others. Take Leinster. They finished 13 points behind Munster in the regular season table. Guess how many league games, out of a maximum of 22, were graced by their talisman Brian O'Driscoll? A grand total of seven. Of those the blessed BOD started and finished just three. Contrast that with, say, Northampton's Ben Foden who has been involved in 14 of his side's 22 Premiership games. O'Driscoll is entitled to some leeway on grounds of age, injury management and past achievements but, even so, it is a striking contrast. It will be interesting to see if Foden's first-class career lasts as long as O'Driscoll's."

Former England and current Fylde head coach Brian Ashton nominates two role models for rugby's latest miscreants to follow in the Independent.

"Joining the likes of Andrew Powell, Ben Foden and Gavin Henson in making the sporting headlines for the wrong reasons just recently were Delon Armitage (again) and Danny Cipriani (again). I cannot believe all the aforementioned failed to realise that their actions would provoke a media frenzy, but they did what they did anyway. It might just be worth their while taking time out, without a drink in hand, to reflect on the views and behaviour of two genuine English superstars of the world game over the last decade.

"The views are those of Jonny Wilkinson, arguably the highest-profile player in the sport since 2003.

As for the behavioural trait that our band of miscreants might like to ponder, it belongs to Jason Robinson, with whom I have had the privilege of working again this season. His on-field ability at world level has never been questioned, and the same goes for his generosity towards, and understanding of, his fellow human beings, even though he had to fight his way up from tough beginnings in life. Jason always worked hard to be the best he could be and has continued to do so, even while playing level-four rugby at Fylde."

Harlequins shed the burden that was Bloodgate a long while ago. Perhaps it’s time the rest of us did so, suggests the Daily Telegraph's Mick Cleary.

"Two years ago, Harlequins’s 6-5 Heineken Cup quarter-final loss to Leinster was to plunge the club into crisis, the impending sense of doom having nothing to do with the agonising margin of defeat and everything to do with the means employed to try and avoid it. It was dubbed Bloodgate after winger Tom Williams bit into a fake blood capsule issued by the former Harlequins physio Steph Brennan.

"Last Saturday, Harlequins took on another Irish side and became only the second to beat Munster at Thomond Park in a European tie. Quins relied on their God-given gifts to prevail and not on some cheap blood capsules from a Clapham Junction joke shop. They were smart, vibrant, assertive and composed, well, all bar Nick Easter, who must have aged 10 years in his 10 minutes off the field following his second yellow card for a rash infringement.

"Same name of club, same distinctive shirt, wholly different set-up. It’s not just that some significant individual roles have changed, principally Conor O’Shea for Dean Richards as director of rugby and chairman Charles Jillings resigning.

"Chief executive Mark Evans also headed off under his own steam last month to pursue other business interests. It’s more that there has been a flushing through, part cathartic, part the natural overhaul of playing personnel. The club was in denial for so long, aggrieved that outsiders would insist on referring to the scandal."

Donald McRae of The Guardian talks to Leinster's talismanic centre Brian O'Driscoll about his still insatiable appetite for success.

"On an ordinary Tuesday night in Dublin, after a relaxed meal at home with his wife, Brian O'Driscoll settles down in his chair. Yet it soon becomes obvious why O'Driscoll has been the northern hemisphere's most extraordinary rugby player for more than a decade. He might be rich and feted but the enduringly brilliant outside-centre is ravenous and driven.

"O'Driscoll does not linger over the fact that in the Six Nations last month, when Ireland hammered England, he broke a 78-year-old record for scoring the most career tries in the tournament. Nor does he waste time drooling over the dream of one last celebratory trophy before retirement.

"Instead, having committed himself to at least two more years of international rugby, O'Driscoll concentrates on the contrasting themes of ambition and doubt which he has controlled throughout his glittering career."

The changing of seasons helps Premiership provide the perfect balance of running and attritional rugby, according to Shaun Edwards writing in The Guardian.

"Well, the referees have to be applauded, particularly for the way they have been controlling the contact area. Tacklers who do not release after the tackle and who try to strip out the ball before they have released their opponent are now being penalised ruthlessly, so the breakdown has become more clear-cut and the ball recycled faster.

"Quick ball means continuity and a flowing game but the change in emphasis has also altered the mind-set of defences at the breakdown. Fewer defenders are being committed directly to the breakdown, instead there has been a growth in counter rucking, one of those new-found skills which has come to show just how far ahead of the game the Lions coach, Ian McGeechan, tends to be.

"When Sir Ian moved to Wasps six years ago, vigorous counter rucking was one of the areas of our game he improved. Now others have learned that instead of competing directly for the ball they are often better off clearing opposition players from the areas above and around the ball.

"Another development to catch on is the Irish idea of using a couple of defenders to keep the tackled player off the ground while he is stripped of the ball – something we saw a lot of when England lost in Dublin during the Six Nations – and, while it is mostly perfectly legal, referees are going to have to be extremely harsh on those defenders who apply a headlock as they go after the ball."

The Guardian's Paul Rees takes a look at the packed northern hemisphere schedule and while he believes there needs to be change, it's hard to find where to squeeze in a break.

"In the bleak midwinter, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone and a toll was taken on the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup. All the matches were played, but Edinburgh and Castres met behind closed doors at Murrayfield, Sale had to move their clash against Brive to Gala and only 98 spectators turned up, Wasps advised only supporters who could walk to Adams Park to turn up for the encounter with Newport Gwent Dragons and Toulouse had to wait a couple of days before playing Glasgow because the Scottish side's kit and equipment were held up at Heathrow.

"Premier Rugby is to raise the issue of scheduling with European Rugby Cup Ltd, believing playing the pool stages in two groups of three, rather than two rounds held in three stages in October, December and January, would offer a little more flexibility when extreme weather hits. It is a hazard of winter sports but, given that the Heineken Cup is regarded as the cream of European club rugby, is it right that matches are played whatever, regardless of the inconvenience to spectators? Playing three rounds in October and January would at least offer the prospect of rearrangements at the end of the month, even if international coaches would not be impressed.

"The December rounds, with Christmas beckoning, would lead to any backlog carried into the new year, which is why the matches all went ahead either last weekend or this week. Some club message boards contained angry responses from supporters who had not been able to get to grounds asking why matches were not postponed, while reduced attendances left clubs counting the cost."

Samoa have improved greatly, as they showed at Twickenham, but England demonstrated a new adaptability according to The Guardian's Michael Aylwin.

"It might even be possible to argue that England played better here. Certainly there were individual performances to compare with those that shook up the morbid mob at HQ – Shontayne Hape played better this week than last, and Hendre Fourie has put Martin Johnson's captain, Lewis Moody, under severe pressure. How he must wish he could play with this lot every week.

"It did not stop there – Mark Cueto has suddenly rediscovered the form that made him the Premiership's finest try-scorer a few years ago. OK, his try-scoring drought at international level stretches on, but he has rediscovered an appetite for the ball in hand, rather than off the boot, that had deserted him at this level. And this weekend he was dealing with some serious tacklers.

"Cueto was involved in an incident midway through the second half that neatly summed up the difference. He received the ball from Ben Foden off a Samoan punt. He thought about the long pass to Chris Ashton, which seemed the sensible thing, but, the cheers of last week no doubt echoing through his head, chose to run it back at the phalanx of Samoans who were approaching. Well, it was a policy that worked last week, so why not?"

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."

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."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Vincent Hogan previews Connacht's European Challenge Cup showdown with big-spending Toulon.

"The flags adorn Salthill promenade; Quincentennial Bridge is a glorious blaze of green, yet Heaven alone knows if this is the sort of carnival soon destined to turn into an empty field.

"Connacht welcome Toulon to the Sportsground tonight and, with the promise of bad weather rolling in off the Atlantic, there is a soft murmur of uprising in the Galway air. The French, logically, should win this Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final rather easily, of course.

"They are bank-rolled by a comic book publisher to the annual tune of €16.5m, boast a galaxy of global superstars (some of whom have been blithely left at home) and currently top the French Championship. Connacht, meanwhile, survive on a €2.5m IRFU stipend and sit rock bottom of the Magners League. Yet, there is a peculiar chemistry to this fixture, a sense that something implausible might just happen if Toulon find tonight's surrounds a little too primitive and drafty."

The buzz and crackle about the Heineken Cup's little brother marks its coming of age, according to Wasps coach Shaun Edwards in The Guardian.

"I'm not pretending I wouldn't rather be elsewhere this weekend – say Toulouse or San Sebastián – but in its 14th season the Challenge Cup seems to have acquired the buzz and crackle that worthwhile competitions need.

"Now I can hear the voices out there saying: "He would say that, wouldn't he? He's got seats to sell", but Wasps have been here before and I can tell you the level of interest is up more than a notch or two. Perhaps it's the semi-final fixtures, but I suspect the Challenge Cup, now the Amlin, was growing last season when the French started to take a real interest and then got a huge lift when Toulon beat the then English league leaders, Saracens, at Stade Mayol in October. With Toulon marching towards the top of the French league, it gave the competition street cred."

David Kelly charts the rise of Munster's Heineken Cup successes against the backdrop of their visits to France, in The Irish Independent.

"It started with a hiss. Since Castres punctured their European bubble in the first season of the competition to deny them a semi-final slot, Munster have won more than they have lost on French soil. Twice they have denied heavily-fancied, super-rich French aristocrats at the final hurdle of the greatest club competition in the world. And yet without the remarkably poignant journey that had hitherto brought them so far and no further, one wonders if the joy upon reaching the final destination would ever have tasted as sweet.

"When Munster started their European adventure in 1995, in the frantic aftermath of post-amateurism -- where else but in Thomond Park with a win -- they were paid just 600 'punts' for each of their fledgling adventures in Europe. In the dreary Stade Antoine Beguere, Mazamet, one November afternoon, Munster kick-started their foreign odyssey amidst a sound and fury not even the most caustic of Munster Senior Cup rivalries could have prepared them for."

Bourgoin celebrate their stunning victory over Toulouse at Stade Gerland in Lyon © Getty Images

Writing in The Independent, Peter Bills heaps praise on those clubs brave enough to chance their arm with showpiece games at big stadiums.

"Bourgoin, one of the least fashionable of the French Top 14 clubs who have struggled desperately against relegation all season, have a capacity of just 8,160 at their tiny Stade Pierre Rajon.

"Last Saturday, they met Stade Toulouse and moved the fixture to the Stade Gerland in Lyon, home of the soccer Champions League semi-finalists Olympique Lyonnais. In an instant, even a sell-out 8,160 was transformed into a 30,000 crowd.

"By any measure or means, these are extraordinary figures. What they reveal is a clear desire among a healthy percentage of the sports viewing population in both England and France to pay to see good quality rugby matches in top notch stadiums. As far as I'm aware, Bourgoin haven't sold out their crumbling old stadium once this season. Yet the minute they move to the major commercial hub of Lyon, they draw 30,000."

Writing in the Sunday Times, Stephen Jones believes we witnessed the death of international rugby last weekend.

"Can rugby’s world shift so profoundly from its familiar axis? Perhaps not, but an important process already in train can now be confirmed. International rugby has ceased to be the biggest game in town. The implications are huge. In terms of the intensity alone, it was extraordinary. The matches between Biarritz and the Ospreys, between Leinster and Clermont Auvergne, were thunderous, each won by one point as desperate last-second drops at goal faded wide. In 90 minutes against Munster, the young Northampton side matured as much as they would normally in a season.

"But if all eight quarter-finals in the Heineken Cup and the Amlin Cup were battles, they also snapped and crackled, there was an attacking devil to them. The grass down the tramlines out wide was well trodden. The brilliance of the extraordinary goal by Tottenham’s Danny Rose against Arsenal had its rugby equivalent in the 90-metre wonder try by Takudzwa Ngwenya, the American who plays on the wing for Biarritz.

"...We should ask exactly what the international game could offer to try and reclaim some of its old authority. Not much, except to lay bare the reasons for the decline and to butcher yet again the goose laying the golden egg."

The Western Mail's Simon Roberts finds much to admire about Toulon after taking in Saturday's European Challenge Cup clash with the Scarlets at the Stade Felix Mayol.

"The Scarlets didn’t just lose to a rugby side here, but to the sport’s latest phenomenon - one which harbours ambition of European domination.

"U2’s City of Blinding Lights blared out of the stadium’s speakers at the final whistle and there isn’t a tune more apt for the blind ambition of Toulon’s millionaire president Mourad Boudjellal in assembling an astonishing array of talent on the southern tip of France.

"George Gregan, Tana Umaga and now Jonny Wilkinson have all worn the red and black of Toulon and Carl Hayman, the former All Black prop, will do the same next season.

"Toulon are more like a Premiership soccer side than a traditional rugby team, sprinkled with genuine stardust."

The case of David Attoub could show that rugby has a real problem with the application of cross-border suspensions according to Shaun Edwards in The Guardian.

"So what will now happen to Attoub? Clearly he and his representatives will know about Tincu and the CNOSF ruling, and they will also know that French justice has a habit of looking at things rather differently than perhaps we are used to over here. For example, back in 2003 Stade's South African-born prop, Pieter de Villiers, tested positive for cocaine and ecstasy. In most nations where rugby is played that would have earned him in a two-year ban. But De Villiers was tested out of competition and French anti-doping laws stated that players who failed such a test could only be banned had they been found to be taking performance-enhancing substances.

"As a result the prop got off with a three-game ban for bringing the game into disrepute. He would clearly have celebrated French independence of mind. But there are now suggestions that moves are afoot for the LNR and the Fédération Française de Rugby (FFR) to go further and to set up their own disciplinary commission for players who have been banned at a European level."

According to Peter Bills in The Irish Independent, the northern hemisphere cannot blame the IRB for the current state of rugby.

"The gnashing of teeth and loud wailing from on high among certain members of the Fourth Estate based in the northern hemisphere about the state of the game must be inducing complete bewilderment around the offices of the IRB in Dublin.

"A hue and cry has started, a cause celebre begun. What have those wicked witches at the IRB done to OUR game, they wail? A try has become as rare as a full river in drought-stricken central Australia, games are being kicked to death by the fear factor.

"It's all the fault of the IRB; they've done nothing, sat on their hands and just let the game descend into its current mess. Terrible, terrible people, shouldn't be in charge of a chip shop, never mind a world sport. Huff, huff...

"Of course, by never letting the facts get in the way of a good story, these gentlemen of the profession are able to circumnavigate a few rather important points. In the process, they are also rewriting history."

The sight of Matt Hampson at the Rugby Players' Association launch in central London was a curt reminder of the perils of contact sport, writes Mick Cleary in the Daily Telegraph.

"That the RPA was able to present the former Leicester prop, who was paralysed from the neck down after a scrum collapsed at an England Under-21 training session in March 2005, with a cheque for £20,000 to help install a hydrotherapy pool at home illustrated that compassion has a place alongside brutality. You smash him, then you embrace him. It's just as well that there is a benevolent infrastructure underpinning the game for there has been an alarming incidence of injury so far this season. We shouldn't be surprised.

"...Has rugby become too hard for its own good? Another weekend of no-holds-barred competition has certainly taken its toll. Injury bulletins from several clubs make for grim reading. Much more of this and they'll have to appoint 'Hot Lips' Houlihan to tend to the MASH-like scenes that are now the norm at grounds."

In the first of his weekly columns for the Irish Times, London Irish captain Bob Casey recalls the build-up to one of the most extraordinary matches of his career.

"It was a tough week from a personal perspective, more so than I’d imagined. I’ve spent the last eight years at London Irish, three of them as captain, so there was no question of compromised loyalties, but I have never played against so many friends with so much at stake.

"In the build-up to last Friday night’s game I occasionally thought about what it would be like to go back and take on Leinster, but in an abstract way. Suddenly it wasn’t hypothetical any more and I found that difficult mentally. I had supported them, played for the province at various levels; it’s also where I am from, and obviously so too my friends and family.

"The first inclination of how emotive it was going to be was fulfilling the media duties during the week. The questions constantly directed me to recall memories and friendships from my time with Leinster. That had an affect, not in terms of softening my determination to ensure a London Irish victory but just in emotionally complicating the build-up."

Writing in The Scotsman, David Ferguson ponders the chances of Scotland making an impression on this season's Heineken Cup.

"The Ospreys are lifting Welsh hopes of a first-ever Heineken success, but the Scots are so highly regarded that they were almost conducting their interviews in the car park at this week's tournament launch in Reading.

"Quel surprise. The venue itself was an indication of the standing of Scottish clubs in the European firmament. Separate Heineken Cup launches were held in Ireland and France, which the Italian rugby media also attended, with the Welsh, English and Scottish media invited to one briefing in Reading. Handy for the cash-strapped English and Welsh media perhaps; not so for Scotland. But do Scottish teams deserve better treatment?"

The Heineken Cup's unloved, slightly spotty cousin will certainly be harder to win after a significant overhaul according to Rob Kitson in the Guardian.

"The inspired invention that is European club rugby returns this week in all its glory. To gauge the impact the Heineken Cup has made since its inception 15 seasons ago, just try to imagine the game without it. A life lived in black and white, as opposed to glorious technicolour, with only domesticity to enliven the winter months? It is possible that professional rugby union would never have flourished in the way it has without its most stunning centrepiece.

"Loitering in the shadows, though, has always been its unloved, slightly spotty cousin. The newly restyled Amlin Challenge Cup, which aspires to be an oval-ball Europa League, has mostly been regarded as a consolation prize that not every competing club seems to cherish. Only in the knock-out stages has it traditionally come alive as everyone suddenly appreciates it might just be a pot worth lifting. The sense of Heineken Lite, even so, remains hard to shake."

Writing in the The Telegraph, former England international Brian Moore queries the ERC’s handling of ‘Bloodgate’.

"I am a former captain of Harlequins. I am also a friend of Dean Richards. He lied and cheated, his punishment was harsh but deserved. Quins were rightly punished and had they been banned from this season's Heineken Cup they could not have complained.

“I make the above statement because I have had an agenda over the 'Bloodgate' affair – I want justice to be done properly, all the facts and actions of all the parties to be known and all outstanding questions to be answered.

“However, in assisting Blackett's inquiry it is interesting that ERC stated after their last meeting that they had authorised only relevant evidence to be passed, when appropriate, to Blackett. Given ERC's refusal to answer serious questions about its part in this affair and the way its disciplinary panel allowed judgments to be released on different dates and to contain selective and damaging material, I and many others had doubts about this being done properly.”

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Brian Moore insists that ERC has to stop acting as a loose association of amateurs meddling in a professional world.

"Unfortunately the role and conduct of the governing body, the ERC and its independent judicial process, cannot be consigned to history because other players and their clubs are inevitably going to face ERC justice (another oxymoron).

Those people who say that all of this scrutiny of the ERC is a smokescreen to deflect attention from Quins could not be more wrong as it is the only thread that is common going forward; it is therefore of the greatest importance that ERC now deals with these matters immediately.

Questions in this column have gone unanswered in spite of them being repeatedly put. Grown up and professional bodies do not refuse to answer legitimate inquiries, especially ones that echo what is being said by the ordinary supporter of the game in which the organisation has a major role."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Peter Bills speaks to Tana Umaga about his first meeting with Brian O'Driscoll since that infamous spear tackle during the Lions' tour of New Zealand in 2005.

"It has taken 1,518 days, 50 and a half months and just 24 hours short of 217 weeks. But it has finally happened. Brian O'Driscoll has met Tana Umaga for the first time since the New Zealander's fateful tackle that ended the Irishman's Test series as captain of the 2005 British & Irish Lions, after just a minute of the 1st Test.

"The meeting took place not in the kind of rugby citadel one might have anticipated, such as Eden Park, Auckland, the ANZ stadium Sydney or the Millenium stadium, Cardiff. Instead, it was on a training ground at Nice rugby club beside the Mediterranean where two of the true greats of the game finally came face to face once more."

Writing in The Sunday Times, David Walsh speculates that the Harlequins CEO Mark Evans' role in the so called "Bloodgate" affair is the next to be scrutinised when Tom Williams gives his account tomorrow.

"Harlequins’ use of a capsule filled with red dye to falsely create an impression of injury to Williams has been called “Bloodgate” after its political forerunner, and perhaps the greatest similarity is that again on this occasion the cover-up has been more reprehensible than the original offence. It is also likely that the role of Harlequins chief executive Mark Evans will be called into question.

"Last weekend it became clear that Williams was determined to tell the truth at the appeal and once that happened, Harlequins’ house of cards began to crumble. First director of rugby Dean Richards resigned, which some saw as his belated acknowledgement of responsibility for something that happened on his shift. It should have come months before but Harlequins tried to brazen it out, insisting they had done nothing wrong. Without evidence of their involvement the three club officials originally charged, Richards, club doctor Wendy Chapman and physio Steph Brennan, were exonerated.

"But the most important question that must be asked of the club is who among their top management knew that the club was not going to accept responsibility for the fake injury at the original hearing? Is it conceivable that chief executive Mark Evans didn’t know what happened at the end of the Leinster match and wasn’t aware that his club would not own up to cheating in their evidence to the ERC disciplinary committee?"

Peter Jackson highlights what he sees as the worrying inconsistency in the European disciplinary system using the case of Calvisano's Nicola Cattina as an example of the problem. Read his thoughts in the Daily Mail.

"Cattina's name does not ring any bells outside Italy despite his status as captain of the Junior Azzurri and, therefore, nobody would have been the least bit bothered about his sentence to the doghouse. He took his punishment on the chin, so to speak, and faced the consequences of losing his temper without a murmur of complaint when he had every reason to feel aggrieved.

"His fate highlights a flaw which ought to concern the fairminded, one which calls into serious question the consistent administering of justice, or rather the lack of it, as applied in the European rugby court. It is to the shame of the organisers that they have, however unwittingly, made a mockery of the old saying: You've done the crime, now you do the time."

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mick Cleary predicts financial trouble ahead as the gulf grows between European rugby's rich and poor.

"The upside of professional rugby looks buoyant. A full house of 77,000 at the Stade de France last weekend, Harlequins set fair for a 50,000 capacity crowd at Twickenham for their Dec 27 league game against Leicester, and sold out signs at various Premiership grounds.

"Rugby to be the new soccer? I doubt it. Scratch that shiny surface and things are not so wholesome. True, the big-hitters, such as Perpignan, Stade Francais or Leicester and, coming up on the rails, Quins, have either got high-rollers bankrolling them or have solid foundations. The name of their game is a mix of consolidation and expansion.

"But what of the likes of Newcastle or Bristol, clubs scrapping away to keep themselves on sound commercial footings? It's easy to get drawn to the headline attendance figures. The turnstiles aren't clicking all over the land. Wasps attracted only 7,596 for their important Heineken Cup game against Edinburgh; Glasgow, lively and potent the previous weekend, a paltry 3,306 for their return fixture against Bath. The Scottish regions rarely break the 5,000 barrier."

Mick Cleary was amongst those packed into the Stade Aime Giral to watch Dan Carter's impressive Perpignan debut. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he believes there was value for money on show.

"Big money, great value. Dan Carter's debut for Perpignan produced a packed stadium, joyous hearts and a few nervous flutters as Leicester rallied in the final stages, but ultimately the points were in the bag and the slenderest of lifelines beckoned in the Heineken Cup.

A decent afternoon's work for Carter: 16 points and a Man of the Match award. In these times of devaluation, Carter's worth, even at £30,000 per match, shines brightly. He did miss two straightforward shots at goal either side of half-time, but hey, no one expects him to walk on water just yet. The All Blacks fly-half even managed to survive a tip tackle from Harry Ellis. And Ellis somehow survived without getting a yellow card."

Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care describes how he felt after a moment of madness in the dying moments of his side's historic Heineken Cup victory over Stade Francais. A penalty to Quins on their own line appeared to have given them victory but Care's premature celebrating saw it reversed - luckily for Care and Quins they were able to hold on for the win. Check out his latest diary entry at ITV.com

"I didn't say a word to the referee, but I did shout in Juan Leguizamon's general direction. The whistle had gone, I knew the clock was up so I thought we’d won the game. Which I suppose at that stage we had! It was just sheer relief, I was really happy - and they’d been giving us a bit of stick too.

"After that, in the last two minutes with Stade camped on our line, I've never been so scared in my life. I'd never have forgiven myself if they'd have scored but thankfully we held out. And I said sorry to all the boys afterwards."

On the occasion of the Heineken Cup clash between Stade Francais and Harlequins at the 80,000 capacity Stade de France and Quins' Premiership clash with Leicester at Twickenham later this month, Chris Hewitt offers a special report on the booming club game. Read his thoughts in the Independent

"There is a new numbers game in town – or, to be more precise, in two cities. Before this month is behind us, events in Paris and London will prove that union at club level is booming in inverse proportion to fortunes in the Test arena.

"...Meanwhile, the game's so-called "custodians" – the council members of the Rugby Football Union and their peers in Wales and Scotland, Ireland and France, New Zealand and South Africa and Australia – look on in amazement and, increasingly, alarm. As the two major domestic leagues in world rugby, the English Premiership and French Top 14, move onwards and upwards, they fear a decisive shift in the balance of power, away from the international game."