Connacht now find themselves fighting a rearguard action as they try to avoid ending up at the bottom of Challenge Cup Pool 4 following Friday night's 35-22 defeat at Montpellier.

Michael Bradley's men have two matches left to avoid that humility as the chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals are now gone for both teams. Georgia's international flanker Mamuka Gorgodze scored a brace of tries for the home side, but it was the boot of Regis Lespinas (20 points) that proved the difference on the night. Connacht's Daniel Riordan also scored two tries of his own as his side outscored the Frenchmen four tries to three.

SAILOR TAKES BAN ON THE NOSE

Poor old Wendell Sailor. Currently five months into a two-year ban for testing positive for cocaine, the Australian international wing was forced to pull out of a five-aside beach football tournament in Sydney after sponsors of the event got a dose of the heebiejeebies. Still, Sailor is continuing to rally against his drug ban, even if he isn't exactly taking the 'I didn't do it' approach. "A drug ban is a massive slur on your reputation, " the winger said. "To be tainted as a drug cheat has made me sick to the guts. I cannot stress enough that I did not and would never have attempted to cheat in sport through any means. I'll do whatever it takes to fix things."

ONE MAN'S THRASHED SHORTS, ANOTHER'S. . .

Anybody not in Cardiff last weekend might be interested in the story of Donncha O'Callaghan's torn shorts.

A couple of hours after this season's most comical rugby moment, a Munster supporter arrived triumphantly into the Cardiff Blues clubhouse, looking onto the Arms Park pitch, with the second-row's damaged shorts on the end of his umbrella. Nobody could quite ascertain how the supporter got his hands on the garment but he proceeded to bring the shorts on a tour of Cardiff's best hostelries for the remainder of the night. We've checked e-bay a couple of times this week, but there's still no sign of the shorts. We can only guess they're in his living room now.

GREAT MOMENTS IN IRISH RUGBY

NUMBER 13: The IRFU purchase Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road hosted its first rugby international on 11 March 1878 against England but it wasn't until the early years of the next century that the IRFU actually purchased the ground.

Henry Wallace Doveton Dunlop (we're not kidding) initially leased the land in 1878 but as the years passed, Harry Sheppard, the honourary treasurer of the IRFU, took it off his hands. Although there was never any worry about using the ground while Sheppard owned it, his sudden death in 1906 kicked the IRFU into action.

The Union offered the representatives of Sheppard's estate £200 for the lease and, with that piece of paper in their possession, then went about securing the land on a more permanent basis from the Pembroke Estate.

THE LAW LIBRARY

There appeared to be quite a bit of confusion among supporters at the Madejski Stadium last weekend while London Irish were down to 13 men in the period either side of halftime. Dozens of home supporters were on their feet pointing at their watches while Delon Armitage and Justin Bishop were waiting to return from the sin bin and most appeared to be confused as to why the duo spent a good 15 minutes each on the bench. You see, the laws of the game state that any player temporarily suspended from a match must sit out of period of 10 minutes "playing time", ie 10 minutes and any injury time that has occurred during that period. That's not so much a problem in a big televised game, where the clock is there for all to see, but at lower levels of rugby, the referee has a fair bit of discretion as to how long somebody actually spends off the field. Still, they're all honest folk, we're sure.

WHAT WON'T HAPPEN IN RUGBY THIS WEEK American lingerie firm Victoria's Secrets confirm that they've offered a two-year modelling contract to Munster second-row Donncha O'Callaghan. "I was checking my emails on Monday morning and one of our European talent spotters had forwarded me a picture of Donncha, " said the company's CEO, Grace Nichols.

"He has the perfect package to promote our new range . . . long legs, flowing locks and a wonderfully pouty look on his face. Everything he does is just so spontaneous." An IRFU spokesman confirmed the approach. "The offer has been made but our policy is to hold onto the talent we have. We'll be doing everything in our power to keep Donncha within in the system and contract him until after the 2007 World Cup."

'NUMBER 10' IN A SERIES OF CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS

Let's hope you have plenty of room in your stocking for rugby books this Christmas. We've already mentioned the excellent Beyond Our Wildest Dreams (last plug, we promise) and Edward Newman's Lansdowne Through the Years, and it would be unfair to let things go without reference to Tony Ward's Life At Number 10. The book looks at the great out-halves through the years, and although there's a strong Irish slant to most of the book, Ward also runs the rule over some of the world's best number tens through the ages.

It's always nice to read about the ins and outs of speci"c positions on the rugby pitch from the experts, and there's probably no better authority out there on the workings of an outhalf than Ward. A thoroughly enjoyable read and if you get all three of the above books for Christmas, you won't be in a position to complain about your nearest and dearest.

RUGBY POSER .. What product is the Agen region best known for?

MOUTHING OFF. . .

The embarrassing thing was Rupeni (Caucaunibuca) stopped halfway down and then realised he could catch me Brian O'Driscoll admits his shame at almost being caught by Agen's tubby winger on his way to his first try at Lansdowne Road last weekend If you're a coach and you have to worry about motivating your team when you're just about to start an Ashes series, or a rugby World Cup, you've probably got it wrong Clive Woodward (right) passes on his advice to the England Cricket team. Can we take that as an admission that you got the Lions tour wrong, Clive?