Bourgoin, meanwhile, appear to have picked up some of Guazzini's ballast in switching their pool game against Munster . . . down for decision on the weekend of 12/13/14 of January . . . to the 30,000 Stade de Geneve in, you've guessed it, Geneva. According to the ERC, Geneva is a "gracious, lakeside city of 180,000 inhabitants framed by the Alps and the Jura Mountains. . . It's skirted by vineyards and is right next to France."

Sounds very pleasant indeed, and you can be sure the Munster travelling army will be supping from the fruit of those vineyards in their droves come January, but not before their side have come through a couple of potentially tricky games against Cardiff over the next fortnight. With two wins out of two, Munster top Pool 4 and you get the feeling that a victory at the Arms Park next Sunday will all but guarantee them a place in the quarter-finals. In all probability, they can afford to lose one pool game and still get a home quarter-final but there's no reason why they shouldn't account for an inconsistent Cardiff. So while Munster play their back-to-back games against the Welsh, Leicester will do the same against Bourgoin and Friday's game at Stade Pierre Rajon will be watched with interest in the province. If the home side are up for it, they could cause the Tigers problems and Munster's route to the last eight could be made easier.

If Munster's destiny appears reasonably straightforward, the same can't be said of either Leinster or Ulster. To Mark McCall's side first, who need to beat London Irish at the Majedski Stadium on Saturday if they're to have any realistic chance of qualifying. In many ways, it's not the most difficult of tasks considering the Exiles' patchy form but any betting man who knows his stuff would be reluctant to put even a spare fiver on Ulster away from home in this competition. They've yet to record a victory on either French or English soil in the Heineken Cup . . . and this despite winning the competition back in 1999 . . . but with their ever-increasing band of Irish internationals, lack of experience is no longer an excuse for McCall. It's high time that they fronted up away from home and won a damn game. Anything less than that on Saturday and their remaining pool games will be rendered pointless. Like the rest of their season.

While that may sound like a depressing scenario, it gets only marginally better for Leinster. The loss of Felipe Contepomi is going to be huge and while they have enough quality in their outside backs to account for Agen at Lansdowne on Saturday evening, the return game against the French outfit the following weekend, in what are bound to be extremely hostile conditions, has a tricky look about it. Leinster could probably afford to lose in the south of France if Gloucester take points off Edinburgh in their back-to-back fixtures, and providing they win their remaining game of course, but in such a scenario they're unlikely to earn a home quarter-final.

They've made things extremely difficult for themselves with that needless loss to Edinburgh and it could cost them dear come January.

As for Connacht in the Challenge Cup, you can't help but feel sorry for them. They were inches away from beating Harlequins at home, and more impressively, Bath away, but they ended up losing both games by late scores. They play Montepellier twice in the coming weeks, the first game taking place in Galway on Friday, and nine points from those two fixtures is an absolute must if they're to retain any hope of qualifying for the quarter-finals for the fifth year in a row. Like threequarters of the Irish challenge in Europe this season, they're really up against it.