Heineken Cup Draw, New RaboDirect PRO12 suppositories launched, and Sharks take on the Lions

Please grease before insertion

This is how the groups panned out this year in the Heineken Cup draw. Leinster are sitting pretty in the pool of life (with all due respect to Bath, Glasgow, Montpellier) and should get into the next round no problem. It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out – last year they had to beat Clermont, Racing and the Saracens to get out of the group and they were so bullet proof after that nothing was going to scare them. Maybe easier matches make you lose your focus – we’ll see. Munster have a medium sized mountain to climb out of their groups, Saints are their big threat, and Scarlets and Castres away are going to be tricky fixtures. Ulster have it tough, with the Tigers and Clermont to overcome- it’s going to be difficult to make it into the last eight two years in a row for them. Finally Connacht have their work cut out, but it’s certainly going to add a lot of glamour to their Galway ground to be entertaining the likes of Toulouse.


I’d fancy London Irish to make it out of their group as well.

Bit of a puzzle though – these are by no means the 24 best teams in Europe. How do Aironi sneak in there with a grand total of two wins last season, one in the Heineken and one in the Magners? Is a re-jig of the Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cups not in order?

Did somebody say Leinster? Here's the BOD in legendary form from the Magners Final:

Heineken Cup Pools for 2011/12

Pool 1: Munster, Northampton, Scarlets, Castres
Pool 2: Cardiff Blues, London Irish, Edinburgh, Racing-Metro

Pool 3: Leinster, Bath, Glasgow, Montpellier

Pool 4: Leicester, Clermont, Ulster, Aironi

Pool 5: Biarritz, Ospreys, Saracens, Treviso

Pool 6: Toulouse, Harlequins, Gloucester, Connacht


Magners League now RaboDirect PRO12


Suppository makers everywhere will be cursing their luck as rugby steals all the good names. RaboDirect PRO12. Maybe it will grow on us. Like a fungus. Good to see there are still companies and money willing to back rugby though.

Shark Bite

The Sharks need to keep their heads this week – while the Lions’ tag of ‘Worst team in Super Rugby…Ever!’ is normally theirs and theirs alone, they have put some half decent performances in recent weeks. And the SA teams normally reserve their real venom for each other. Hard to see the Sharks losing though. Elsewhere, Blues and Crusaders and Stormers and Bulls are two top six match ups that should go down to the wire.

IRB Junior World Championship

This kicks off in Italy tonight. Ireland are in a pretty tough group, with England and SA to best. They play England tonight, and I know the Queen's been to visit, and we're all friends now, but...we still want to kick your arses in rugby! There are some very bright sparks in this Irish side, Rhys Ruddock, Craig Gilroy and Luke Marshall in particular. Of interest and a bit of a concern is that there no Munstermen in the starting 15. I don't know any of the English players, but have to go green and back Ireland.

 IRELAND U-20: Craig Gilroy (Dungannon/Ulster); Andrew Conway (Blackrock/Leinster), Brendan Macken (Blackrock/Leinster), Luke Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster), Andrew Boyle (UCD/Leinster); Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster), Kieran Marmion (UWIC/Exile); James Tracy (UCD/Leinster), Niall Annett (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) (capt), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster), Michael Kearney (Clontarf/Leinster), Iain Henderson (Queen's University/Ulster), Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster), Dominic Gallagher (Dublin University/Ulster), Eoin McKeon (Galwegians/Connacht).

Replacements: David Doyle (UCD/Leinster), Conor Carey (Ballymena/Ulster), Daniel Qualter (Buccaneers/Connacht), Shane Buckley (Garryowen/Munster), Peter du Toit (UCD/Leinster), James McKinney (Queen's University/Ulster), JJ Hanrahan (UL Bohemians/Munster).

ENGLAND U-20: Ben Ransom (Saracens); Andy Short (Worcester Warriors), Elliot Daly (London Wasps), Ryan Mills (Gloucester), Jonathan Joseph (London Irish); George Ford (Leicester Tigers), Chris Cook (Bath); Mako Vunipola (Bristol), Mike Haywood (Northampton Saints), Henry Thomas (Sale Sharks), Joe Launchbury (London Wasps), Charlie Matthews (Harlequins), Matt Kvesic (Worcester Warriors), Matt Everard (Leicester Tigers), Alex Gray (Newcastle Falcons) (capt).

Replacements: Rob Buchanan (Harlequins), Ryan Bower (Leicester Tigers), Sam Twomey (Harlequins), Sam Jones (London Wasps), Dan Robson (Gloucester), Owen Farrell (Saracens), Marland Yarde (London Irish).


Pool A


Argentina

Italy

New Zealand

Wales

Pool B

Australia

Fiji

France

Tonga

Pool C

England

Ireland

Scotland

South Africa




Super Rugby


Friday , June 10

Chiefs vs Hurricanes 19:35

Brumbies vs Melbourne Rebels 19:40

Saturday , June 11

Crusaders vs Blues 19:35

Waratahs vs Highlanders 19:40

Western Force vs Reds 20:05

Lions vs Sharks 16:05

Stormers vs Bulls 18:10