Trevor Brennan's European Cup Diary: During the Six Nations I watched the games in the Killarney pub in Toulouse, with the exception of the Welsh match

We had the weekend off so I got the manager, Jean-Louis Putinier to book the Rutland Hotel in Andorra and we spent three days there, taking full advantage of the duty free prices to fill up the boot with just about everything.

Myself and Danny, my son, booked a two-hour skiing lesson, but in waiting for the lesson I decided to challenge a slope myself and ended up hugging a tree, screaming for help and having some good skiers coming to my aid. I was going in a straight line but couldn't slow down. A bit like my lines of running in rugby.

There are some beautiful sights on the hour-long drive on the way up along the Pyrenees. There you are, skiing on top of the mountains with the sun splitting out of the heavens.

We then lost to Biarritz in the first round of the play-offs on a hot sunny day away from home. Before the game, I pulled a muscle in my back in training, so on the morning of the match I took six anti-inflammatories.

Matt Williams and Willie Anderson were at the game according to reports, so I'm sure they had plenty of notes.

We rested our internationals, guys like Fabien Pelous, Xavier Garbajosa, and Clement Poitrenaud. They weren't used until late on in the second-half, and it was a bit too late. We lost 21-15.

The following weekend we watched the English game in the Killarney with about 150 English people, and about 15 Irish. It was a fantastic first 40 minutes, and it was just unfortunate for the boys that they gave away that soft try to Dallaglio. But as they started to tear away in the second half, Swing Low Sweet Chariot was being belted out in the Killarney.

Of course, there were one or two brave Irish people there, including one girl in particular, Paula Burke from Kilcock. She stood up on a stool and told them what to do with their chariots. Being the gentleman that I am, I was hoping a row wouldn't start up or I would have had to come to Paula's aid. Doing a quick head count, I discovered I was outnumbered by about 10 to one. In fairness, they were a good bunch of English lads and they took it well.

We got back on track last week with a good win at home to Bourgoin in the second game of the play-offs. We had everybody back, a full-strength squad. Bourgoin are known for having a very strong forward pack and they got 10 unanswered points within the first 10 minutes, but we came back and won 37-19.

We needed that coming into this big game against Northampton. They are a good all-round side but we're hoping that at home everything will click.

I spoke to Denis Hickie recently and he was telling me that they went to a Christy Moore concert the night before the English game, with Christy breaking into I'm an Ordinary Man. Christy gave me a mention and wished me well. The week of the All Blacks game, in November 2001, I got up and sang I'm an Ordinary Man with him.

Trevor Brennan's Heineken Cup column can be read on the ERC website at www.ercrugby.com)

(In an interview with Gerry Thornley)