PLANET RUGBY:WAT IS die telling? There appears to be no end to how cosmopolitan Leinster rugby has become.
The province educated their 15,000-plus crowd on Friday night with a page on how to learn Afrikaans with their South African Stephen Knoop. The above means 'what is the score?' and as Leinster know, the score is very much in their favour these days.
Munster's plans ruined
MUNSTER ARE very close to moving into the new Thomond Park.
Alas, all hopes they would be contesting the Under-20 title against Ulster in the first game to be played at the new ground next Friday were dashed over the weekend in Donnybrook, when Leinster beat the side coached by Ian Costello and Anthony Foley 16-3.
The Irish senior team are, of course, to face Canada in the first international to be played at the new stadium, on November 8th.
The venue will have a capacity of 26,000 when completed, which includes seating for 15,000 spectators and terracing for 11,000.
Nacewa plays with broken arm
ISA NACEWA will have done a lot for Leinster's reputation as a tough outfit. Playing at outhalf on Friday night, Nacewa hurt himself late in the game and when coach Michael Cheika asked him what was wrong, the Kiwi said he thought that he had broken his arm.
The pain, however, had not stopped him from making the last tackle in the match.
Over 52,000 attend charity match
THE HELP for Heroes charity match in Twickenham drew in 52,254 fans over the weekend. The hotly contested game was a mix of old internationals and members of the British armed forces.
Ireland was well represented, Justin Bishop and Guy Easterby starting and hooker Shane Byrne among the replacements.
England's Martin Johnson received a standing ovation when he came on while flanker Paul Volley showed that although it was a friendly, it need not be uncompetitive; he was binned in the second half for handling the ball on the deck.
Rethink needed at Sandymount
THE IRISH Rugby Football Union has made much of the fact that when the new Lansdowne Road is completed there will no longer be the mammoth crush we had all come to love when the barriers went down over the Dublin DART line.
But fear not! The crush is alive and well at Sandymount.
When about 300 people get off the train at once on their way to the Magners League match in the RDS, the couple of turnstiles at the station ensure the exodus from the platform is reduced to a mere trickle.
The kids have taken to leaping over the barriers in order to get out quicker, which has led to at least one youngster "face-planting" himself on the road as he caught his foot in mid-jump.
A rethink there maybe for evening matches?
Reddan's Wasps get stung again
EOIN Reddan has been having a trying time with Wasps. The Ireland scrumhalf, who will be hoping to play in the autumn internationals in November, was again on the losing side this weekend when Wasps went down 24-20 to Northampton saints in Franklin's Gardens.
It was the third straight loss for the reigning English Premiership champions, who have now managed to put together a run that adds up to their worst-ever start to a Premiership season.
Nor is the side comforted by the fact that it is the first time in 21 years they have lost their three opening games.
Ospreys wing flies in for award
COACH MATT Williams possibly had a bout of wishful thinking when Tommy Bowe arrived in Belfast last week.
The Ireland winger was one of several players to jump ship last season at the nadir of Ulster's slump.
But Bowe, who spent more time on the pitch than any other Ulster player last year, flew in to pick up an award from the Ulster Rugby Supporters Club (URSC).
The Ospreys wing had been voted player of the year by the Ravenhill faithful.
From a list of eight, Bowe got over 50 per cent of the vote.
He subsequently remarked, "If the team sometimes didn't turn up, the supporters always did."
Now that Ulster are propping up the Magners League table, the fortitude of those supporters is again being severely tested.
