EUROPEAN CUP DIARYFrench under-age rugby is in rude health which is good news for a depleted Toulouse, says Trevor Brennan

Toulouse, it would seem, is becoming a more popular destination for Irish people. Some view it as a good drinking weekend and a chance to see Toulouse in a Top 14 match. Some come over to play a round of golf and end up doing the same as the first group, and then there are the serious rugby punters who bring over teams, be they adult or adolescents, to pit their skills against French counterparts.

This season we've had various schools and under-age club sides over, such as Rockwell College, the Shannon under-16s, Navan RFC, Bective Under-18s, Old Wesley and Barnhall Under-18s. Last Saturday, we had 50 kids from UL Bohs under-13s and 14s in the pub for an Irish breakfast after I organised two matches against a local club, Balma, though a friend of Claw's called Ger Sheehan.

I'm starting to feel like I did in my playing days, getting calls to organise a hotel, a bus, a nice restaurant, a match, a game of golf . . . I've never had so many hits on the website (dedanu.com). I shouldn't complain, as it's all good business for the pub, but I reckon the Toulouse Tourist Board should be paying me a commission.

Three weeks ago I hosted the Barnhall Under-18s. They have reached the All-Ireland Under-18 final and the Culliton Cup final this season, so are possibly the second best club side in Ireland in their age category. And they were beaten by over 100 points to zero by the Toulouse Crabos A side! Some of these encounters have revealed gaping differences in skills, fitness, strength and organisation between Irish under-age sides and their French counterparts. But although games like this one can be devastating, I'd hope that at least one or two Barnhall players would have been inspired to up their own games.

Guy Noves may have to dip into the club's Espoirs and Crabos A sides sooner than he would have wanted. Not only did Toulouse lose to Clermont Auvergne - who I said last week have been the best side in France for the last two years - but they also lost some of their key players.

Vincent Clerc is out for the rest of the season with a cruciate ligament injury. Shaun Sowerby suffered a head injury, and so did Thierry Dusautoir, while our prop Dan Human has a suspected tear in his calf. Clement Poitrenaud (broken ankle), Florian Fritz (fractured tibia), Yves Donguy, Finau Maka (medial ligaments), Marcus Di Rollo and Maleli Kunavore are also all injured.

The toll of the season - the World Cup, the Six Nations, a tough Heineken Cup programme, setting the pace in the French Championship - is catching up with us now.

Admittedly, last Saturday they could still call on replacements like Gregory Lamboley, Omar Hasan, Jean Bouilhou and Romain Millo-Chlusky. But the squad is becoming thinner and thinner, especially in the backs. One of our up-and-coming secondrows, Julien le Devedec, suffered a broken leg recently too.

Yet Toulouse will travel to England next week to perform in their eighth semi-final and will want to win badly. Injuries aside, this is the time that great teams deal with their lot and get on with it. They've been here before and I know what would have happened on Monday morning. Saturday's game is over. Finished. "That's it lads. Forget about it. Mistakes were made. Some performances were good, some were poor. But the next game is what matters."

This is the moment that coaches like Guy Noves relish. This is why he is here, and has been for the last 16 years. He loves a challenge. He loves the fight. I have the utmost respect for him, as a man and a coach. He has a very visible and physical presence on the sidelines when you're on the pitch as a player. He reminds you of what he said earlier in the week or that day.

As somebody once said: "A mediocre coach tells. A good coach explains. A superior coach demonstrates, and a great coach inspires." Guy Noves epitomises the latter two. No earpieces are required for Guy. Every player on the pitch is aware of his presence. He has a way with words.

Before we played Northampton, he wound me up by maintaining "the Irish are afraid of the English". Before we played Munster, he said: "You play against your friends today, you are Irish, not Toulouse." Always challenging me.

Like before playing Leicester in the Heineken Cup, and asking me whether I would be "caviar to Martin Johnson" and whether I would react, would I fight, or would I take a punch for the team and keep my head.

I've experienced many coaching styles in my time, each belonging to some of those categories but only a few were inspirational. I only ever experienced Declan Kidney as a coach twice for the Irish As - once when I had to pull out of a game against Scotland with food poisoning and once as a sub against France in Ravenhill.

At the usual team meeting in the hotel before we'd travel to the game, he sat down, opened a book and started reading from it. The story was about a blazing oil truck which crashed in San Francisco. No-one could get near the fire because of the heat and the mayor offered a reward of $150,000 for the first fire crew which could put the fire out.

After a couple of hours comes this little, old fire engine with about 20 firemen hanging out of it, which bounces down the sloping streets of San Francisco and flies straight through the flames, before the boys jump out with hoses and sand buckets, and eventually bring the fire under control.

When the fire chief is being interviewed on television the mayor tells him he'd never seen courage like it, and asks him what they'd do with the $150,000 reward.

"The first ****ing thing I'm going to do is buy a new set of brakes for that truck."

Declan's point, as far as I can recall, was that when you don't hold back you're capable of doing anything. It's now been over five weeks since Eddie O'Sullivan resigned as Irish coach, and the IRFU don't appear to be showing much confidence in Kidney. What are they waiting for? For somebody to be released from a Super 14 job? England have picked Martin Johnson and everybody else seems to move quicker than the IRFU.

In terms of what his teams have won, he's probably the Irish coach most qualified to coach Ireland. But for some reason they seem to be holding back. I think it would be a shame if they gave it to somebody from outside the country when they probably have one of the best around in their own land.

Most people think Noves and Kidney will be opposing each other in the final and so do I, but if London Irish ever had a chance to beat Toulouse now is the time. They've a very strong lineout, and if they can stop the Toulouse lineout that's much more of a platform for us than the scrum. With so many injuries to the Toulouse backline, it's a hard one to call.

If you look at the Munster game against Leinster, you'd think that would be an example of how Saracens should take on Munster. Semi-finals are very much on the day. They're two-horse races, and like Joe Calzaghe against Bernard Hopkins, both of these matches could be 12-rounders.

But I'm still going for a Munster-Toulouse final, because of the greater experience they both have. In the Heineken Cup, you can't buy that.

PS: According to the French rugby bible, Midi Olympique, Stade Toulouse and Cardiff have joined Toulon in the chase for Daniel Carter when his contract in New Zealand expires at the end of the year.

Under the heading "Transferts Toulon Espere Recuperer Dan Carter", Toulon, who have reputedly offered over €1 million, are seen as favourites because Tana Umaga is there and their president says he has made direct contact with Carter. But Stade Toulouse - whom Midi Olympique point out have drawn in 380,000 paying spectators to their home games this season - and Cardiff have supposedly made offers of €930,000 and €1.3 million in what is now seen as a bidding war. Crazy money. Lucky Dan.