ON RUGBY:ON WEEKENDS such as the one just past, and especially the momentous one ahead of us, you really would feel sorry for the Magners League, the English Premiership and the Top 14. Cue a Heineken Cup weekend and the drama levels and quality of the rugby just goes up several notches. It's almost like a different sport.

There are a myriad of factors at work here. Better standard of refereeing; fuller grounds in true rugby hotbeds across six countries and Sky’s enthusiastic and stylish blanket coverage. Perhaps most of all there’s the format. Even with end-of-season play-offs, the domestic leagues just cannot replicate the drama almost guaranteed over these two weekends – helped as it is by the bonus-point scoring system. Super all right. Whoever designed them has contributed to more endgame interest than even Brian O’Driscoll.

Think how duller so many of last week’s endgames would have been, as home crowds willed Leinster, Northampton, the Scarlets and Toulouse to fourth tries – the first-named trio completing the feat in the 80th minute or beyond. This also serves to emphasise how teams are so much more positive in the latter rounds as the chase for tries and bonus points assumes even greater importance.

The ramifications can usually be felt across several countries. For example, when the Scarlets completed their own bonus-point win over London Irish and also denied the latter even a losing bonus point, it suddenly opened the door for them and others.

But no sooner had that door opened than another was slammed in their faces. The groans which greeted Alain Rolland’s award of Northampton’s third try by Lee Dickson would have doubled in volume in Ulster, Cardiff, Sale and Llanelli (all of whom are on 13 points) when Jon Clarke’s try in overtime took Northampton on to 18 points.

As it is, that quartet will all be rooting for Munster and Leinster this weekend. Were Munster to beat Northampton, and deny them a bonus point, it would guarantee Leinster a place in the last eight as one of the two best runners-up. Alternatively, were they to lose to Northampton, they could be left needing a win or draw by Leinster to go through.

However, were Munster to win at Thomond Park, London Irish would still then be best placed to overtake Northampton by simply beating Leinster at Twickenham – but were Leinster to win that game then, who knows, the Scarlets could simultaneously be chasing an unlikely but not impossible seven tries or more at Brive. Come Sunday, and Sale (at home to Toulouse) could be chasing a bonus-point win to claim the last place.

Failing that, then the likes of Sale, Cardiff, the Scarlets, Ulster and also Gloucester, Edinburgh and Glasgow can still reach the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals. The ERC’s decision to reward the third, fourth and fifth best runners-up with a place in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals has made this weekend even more interesting while also giving a leg up to the poorer relation of its two flagship tournaments.

It’s funny too, isn’t it, how the big guns all start coming out to play circa rounds five and six in January? Cue the quarter-finals, and the usual suspects are already lining themselves up – Munster, Leinster, Toulouse and Leicester have eight Heineken Cup wins and 15 finals between them. Throw in Biarritz and this quintet have 40 appearances in the quarter-finals to their names.

Clermont may only be on the verge of their second appearance in the last eight, but they have been knocking on the door for a few years now. Their anticipated progress from the shark-infested Pool Three is further testimony to Munster’s achievement in qualifying ahead of Vern Cotter’s multi-talented team for the previous two seasons. A team for all conditions, Clermont will be a serious threat and, sport being sport, it could even be they are destined to reach and win their first Heineken Cup in a Paris showdown after 10 failures in Top 14 deciders.

No English presence in the last eight of the Cup would not be welcomed by Sky or the ERC. It shouldn’t come to that, with Northampton, Leicester and London Irish still in with varying chances of winning their pools, and at the very least they should procure one or both of the two best runners-up slots.

Come Saturday’s 6pm kick-off at Twickenham, and if Munster have beaten Northampton by more than seven points, then a win of any hue would be enough to send the Exiles through. After such a loose, distracted wide-wide performance against the Scarlets (Steffon Armitage played more like an auxiliary back than doing what he does best) Irish would surely prefer to revert to the tighter, more physical approach which stymied Leinster on the opening night in October. But if they have to chase a few tries and/or a bonus point, then that might suit the holders.

Realistically, the Ospreys are Wales’ last hope and their clash with the Tigers at the Liberty effectively amounts to a last 16 cup tie in a reprise of round six last season. As it’s also their sixth meeting in four seasons, familiarity has bred a fair amount of contempt between the two, and such festering rivalries are another feature of the cup.

More handsome bonuses could be heading the way of the IRFU, and potentially lucrative home quarter-finals are on offer for Leinster and Munster. Also at stake are ERC ranking points which determine seedings for next season’s draw. Based over the previous four seasons, each club is given one point per finishing place, plus another point for advancement to the quarter-finals, and thereafter two more points for reaching semi-finals and the final and outright victory.

In other words, pool winners receive five points and the two best runners-up each obtain four points. Munster are protecting 11 points from their success in 2006, and Leinster six but Bath, for example, could lose six points if they finished bottom of Pool Four as they accrued seven ranking points for winning their group and reaching the semi-finals in ’05-06. The net effect would see them drop from one of the top seeds to the second or even third tier.

In the greater scheme of things though, that’s merely an addendum to the last-ditch clamour for places in the knock-out stages. It will be mesmerisingly good fun, and nothing quite sorts out the wheat from the chaff than these two weekends in January.