Sean Diffley aims some criticism at Ireland coach Declan Kidney in The Irish Independent.

"There is only one individual in this green, misty and recessioned isle of ours who has never been criticised. Never. I refer to our national rugby coach, Declan Kidney. It's quite an achievement, isn't it? Governments, journalists, farmers, trade unions - an endless list and not necessarily in that particular order raise the ire of all types of critics.

"And critics, of course, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Thomas Beecham, the noted and irascible orchestral conductor, described critics as "drooling, drivelling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips". Thomas had a way with the letter D, hadn't he?

"But few in the passing centuries have escaped the dropsical down-put - Shakespeare, Mozart, James Joyce, Brian Cowen - they have all shipped their fair quota of disrespect. But there is that unique exception; Declan Kidney.

"However, all good things must come to an end and I gently place myself at the top of the queue to become the first to take issue with Kidney on the composition of his 39-man squad he has nominated for the autumn internationals, the confrontations with Australia, Fiji and South Africa, this November in Dublin."

Will Greenwood relives his shoulder injuries after a number of players were struck by dislocations in The Daily Telegraph.

"If you think it is hard to dislocate a shoulder, it is nothing compared to putting it back in again. As the spasms and pain come, so the shoulder becomes trapped in its new surroundings. That's why doctors and physios try to manipulate it back in immediately on the pitch. The longer the shoulder is out, the more damage is done to the surrounding ligaments.

"My first dislocation happened while I was playing against Oxford University at Iffley Road.
Audley Lumsden stepped inside my outstretched arm, the classic way an outside back would dislocate a shoulder; my body going one way, the arm the other with a player hitting the middle at full tilt.

"A doctor in tweed and wellies took me into the old changing shed, asked me to lie on my back, removed a boot, placed a woolly-socked foot under my armpit and yanked for all he was worth.
The tears rolled down my cheeks, I held back a scream. And then, under the traction of his foot, the pop came as the vacuum was filled, the shoulder slotted back in its place. I had a masochistic realisation that the pain I had just endured was worth it."

Peter Bills questions the extravagant prices charged for tickets to the dead-rubber Bledisloe Cup Test between New Zealand and Australia in Tokyo on Saturday in The New Zealand Herald.

"Tomorrow's match in Tokyo offers rugby fans a disturbing view of the game's future. If you wondered why earlier this year the IRB broke with tradition and announced the venue of not just the next Rugby World Cup but the next two, then all can be revealed.

"For sure, it's a wheeze Blackadder's servant Baldrick would have been proud of. If the Bledisloe Cup's dead fourth rubber is any guideline, the 2019 Rugby World Cup which is to be staged in Japan will produce eye-watering ticket prices.

"It seems the IRB's thinking is that if the tournament isn't going to take place there for another 10 years, the world has time to get used to the idea of super inflation mugging ticket prices for the sport's premier event.

"For those who reckoned that $242 for the best tickets to watch Wales play Japan in a pool match at the 2007 Rugby World Cup and $850 for the most expensive ticket to the Paris final two years ago were decent asks, then I suggest you find a comfortable surface and lie down before you read about the ticket prices being charged in Tokyo this weekend for a Bledisloe Cup match which is irrelevant, the All Blacks having long since retained the trophy this year."

Robert Kitson believes that Warren Gatland may have stirred up the wrong hornet's nest with his Premiership comments in The Guardian.

"You have to hand it to Warren Gatland. Is there a more gymnastic orator in rugby? One minute he is encouraging an all-for-one cross-border team ethos with the Lions, the next he is slagging off standards on the English side of the Severn Bridge. There is always an ulterior motive for his verbal hand grenades but, on this occasion, his artful lob would appear to have landed slightly too close to home.

"The beauty of Gatland, of course, is that he loves to stir whichever pot happens to be bubbling in front of him. By criticising the Guinness Premiership as "the weakest I have ever known" and not good enough for wannabe Welsh Test players, he is clearly hoping to lure back the likes of Eifion Roberts, the Sale prop who would appear to most neutrals to be a genuine international prospect. Welsh regional rugby gets stronger and the Premiership gets further diluted, potentially weakening the English national team. Job done, get the beers in.

"Except that the situation is not quite that simple. It is true that this year's Premiership has not been mind-blowingly good to date. The ebbing tide of multi-national talent to the Top 14 – not just the English – and decreasing squad sizes have had a draining effect on clubs like Sale and Gloucester, both of whom are enduring tough seasons. Wasps, Saracens and Newcastle are rebuilding, Leicester are injury-plagued and only London Irish and Northampton have been playing with any real freedom."

Greg Clark, in his preview of the historic Tokyo Bledisloe Cup match for Fox Sports, says the Wallabies will be playing for the sake of the game in Australia.

"Critics are writing off their chances of winning all five Tests on tour, and that’s why this trip takes on extra importance. In a season when no Aussie team made the Super 14 play-offs and our national team lost five of the six Tri Nations games, support for the code is disappearing fast.

"The best way to fix the problem, and silence the critics, is to win by playing an attractive brand of rugby. If the upcoming Tests all turn into boring ‘kick fests’, it’s not going to help to regain the lost support.

"Australia must take the game to the All Blacks on Saturday in Tokyo and then show the northern hemisphere that they mean business in the run up to the next Rugby World Cup in 2011.

"Coach Robbie Deans has shown his hand by making changes to the team that lost in such disappointing fashion in Wellington six weeks ago. Frustrated by that huge loss, Deans has issued a warning that no-one is safe from now on. "

Stephen Jones, in his Rolling Maul blog for The Times, believes that referees need to take responsibility for the mess at the breakdown.

"Warren Gatland was quoted last week attacking the Guinness Premiership for standards of play. He had a point, although he was standing in quicksand when he made it because the Magners League match on Friday between the Scarlets and the Dragons was one of the worst matches I have ever seen in the professional era. But the problem is across the game, not just in one competition or another. The problem is the breakdown. It is killing rugby, it is destroying the flow, it is boring the pants off everyone.

"Last Saturday's London Irish-Leicester match should have been one of the best of the season, but instead it was a whole pile of stodge with players off their feet at the breakdown and a total lack of dynamism in the rucks and mauls.

"When is the International Rugby Board going to do something about it? Let us look at the lowlights. You see the ball emerging at the back of a ruck and just for a delicious second, you are anticipating quick ball. No such luck. The scrum-half has no intention of whipping it away. So he usually calls in lurking forwards to extend the ruck. Either that, or he orders a small group of forwards to stand a few yards to the side of the ruck, then they charge mindlessly up the field to set up another one."

Writing on Rugby Heaven, Greg Growden calls on Australia No.8 Wycliff Palu to deliver a dominant display in Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup clash against the All Blacks in Tokyo.

"The mini typhoon which was supposed to hit Tokyo yesterday didn't occur, with the Wallabies instead training in perfect weather. However, these emotionally battered tourists are still hoping that a cyclonic force - otherwise known as Hurricane Palu, which has been in the doldrums far too long - will hit on Saturday during the year's final Bledisloe Cup fixture.

"While George Smith's demotion to the bench and Matt Giteau's retention of the five-eighth spot will have the Australian rugby world all atwitter today, a more pressing issue that could determine whether the Wallabies are competitive in this Tokyo Test centres on No.8 Wycliff Palu.

"If the Wallabies are to upset the All Blacks, it is time for Palu to step up. Australia have been waiting an eternity for someone to cement themselves in the Wallabies No.8 position. Until that occurs, and Australia can again boast a player of the calibre of a Mark Loane or a Toutai Kefu as the centrepiece of their forward assault, their performances will continue to fluctuate."

After a strangely subdued start to the new season, David Kelly of the Irish Independent analyses whether Munster really are in crisis.

"On the first Saturday of this year, Ulster travelled to Thomond Park and spanked Munster 37-11. Ronan O'Gara recalled the experience in his autobiography. 'The doubters and knockers had a field day,' he wrote.

"Fast forward 10 months and, despite last season's ultimate achievements in winning a Magners League and reaching the last four in Europe (still a "failure" in O'Gara's eyes), Munster have more knockers than a row of NFL cheerleaders.

"During that last winter of discontent, Munster had also lost to Connacht during the festive season and the ever-available obituaries were dusted down from the shelves and gleefully replicated by the usual punditry suspects.

"And yet, two months later, Munster produced arguably their most complete European performance when they destroyed the Ospreys in their Heineken Cup quarter-final. Their relentless assault on perfection in the guise of a League and Cup double seemed assured. It was an illusory ambition.

"That Leinster tore up the script is now history. And now the question is posed once more: Are Munster finished? Next Saturday against Ulster will provide a conveniently timed prism through which to analyse whether Munster are indeed officially immersed in crisis."

In this weekly column in the Irish Independent, Tony Ward assesses the form of Ireland’s finest ahead of Declan Kidney’s squad announcement for the autumn internationals.

"Although not officially tagged the 'back door' route, Irish teams - and Munster in particular - may yet thank their lucky stars at the timing of the new play-off system when the business end of the Magners League marathon comes around.

"Like Shannon being consistently in the top four of the AIB League over the years, you know that, once Munster are in the frame, they're going to be extremely difficult to shake off.

"It is still early days, yet a third of the Magners League and Heineken Cup pool games have been played. An assessment of Irish form in domestic and European competition would suggest that, at best, it has been hit and miss."

Paul Rees of The Guardian believes that Michael Owen’s season-ending injury offers further evidence that rugby has developed an unhealthy obsession with size and power.

"A newsflash last week sent sports desk denizens all a-flutter. Michael Owen, it read, was out for the season with knee-ligament damage. Back pages were not held, however, when it emerged that the player being talked about was not an out-of-favour football international at Manchester United but a forgotten rugby international at Saracens.

"The two Owens were both brought up in Wales but there the similarity ended. The footballer is one of the most celebrated players of his era while rugby's Michael Owen is a victim of his sport's current obsession with size and power; not so much because he has suffered two serious knee injuries in as many seasons, but because his virtues, an ability to play with his head up and put others in space rather than into contact, are becoming increasingly seen as obsolescent.

"Rugby, with the emphasis on explosive power and a growing casualty list, has become boom and bust. Owen was a pivotal member of Wales's grand slam winning team in 2005, putting Ryan Jones into holes and helping his side play with a pace and a momentum that proved irresistible. Wales refreshed the game and the ungainly Owen went on to captain the Lions against Argentina the following May.”

Writing in the Irish Times, London Irish captain Bob Casey warns against the dangers of players failing to prepare for life after rugby by earning some ‘educational qualifications’.

"I must be getting old, not quite a dinosaur but it can occasionally feel like I’m close to extinction with the aches and pains after matches. Another way in which I can appreciate that some of my team-mates are from a different generation is the preoccupation they have with rugby to the exclusion of virtually everything else. It concerns me.

"I am a product of a time where the financial reward for being a professional rugby player allows a certain privileged lifestyle but there is no way that a player can salt away enough money to retire by the time he finishes playing the sport. I’m talking about someone who plays for eight or 10 years so you can imagine how precarious financially it might be for a player whose career lasts two or five years for example.

"It is so important that young players provide for a life after rugby and by that I mean earn some educational qualifications. I was encouraged to study while playing rugby as were many players of my generation. It was almost a throwback to the amateur days when international players worked nine-to-five and fitted in their rugby commitments around the day job."

The New Zealand Herald's Gregor Paul is confused by the All Blacks' latest coaching reshuffle.

"Earlier this year Graham Henry talked about loyalty, sharing his belief that sometimes it can be misplaced.

"Events of the past week make it impossible not to wonder whether he is making the mistake he warned others against. Steve Hansen has been shuffled into no-man's land - a position of vague responsibility where he will be able to dodge bullets as he's shielded by Henry and Wayne Smith.

"If the backs fail to deliver much thrust and flair, will it be the fault of the backs coach or the attack coach? Ditto, if the forwards don't do their bit in setting an attacking platform, should inquiries be directed to Henry or Hansen?"

Brendan Fanning, writing in The Irish Independent, takes a look at the ever-changing academy landscape.

"If you were reading your daily rugby coverage early last week, or tuning into sports broadcasts on tv and radio, the name of Stephen Archer will ring a bell. The 21-year-old prop came off the bench after an hour for his Magners League debut, in Murrayfield on Friday night, and did well. Well enough perhaps to start next weekend, given Darragh Hurley's injury situation, and the fact that currently Munster are in the horrors and Archer is unlikely to make it any worse.

"Perhaps it's the name 'Academy' but every time you hear that one of their number -- especially a front-row forward -- is being called up to the front line you think of schoolboys. And of course that's where their selection process starts now. Earlier and earlier in rugby we are lining up teenagers and hoping they mature into the finished article.

"Twenty one years ago in Belfast, a member of the Australian coaching staff gave a module to aspiring Irish coaches on talent identification and its importance in securing a bright future. He was talking to the wrong people. It was the IRFU he needed to educate first -- they would have run a mile at the time -- and in any case his audience that day thought talent identification was something you might do in a pub of a Saturday night."

Bath prop David Flatman has nothing but sympathy for Andrew Sheridan and is at a loss to explain how the game could be made 'safer', in The Independent on Sunday

"Contrary to what the armchair cynic might assume, seeing Andrew Sheridan dislocate his shoulder last week made me feel horrible. Of course, an injury to any man with whom one is in direct competition can only improve one's chances of a call-up, but in this instance I felt nothing but sympathy for my old friend.

"Perhaps it is because I have been where he is – in bed, in pain – and know exactly what he is going through. Apart from the physical discomfort, it is the feeling of uselessness that seems to affect the sidelined rugby player most severely.

"Knowing that all of your mates are out on the field running around, while you sip water to stave off the painkiller-induced cottonmouth and flick between Cash in the Attic and This Morning on the television, is utterly soul destroying. As much as you might crave the week off at the moment your alarm clock sounds in the early winter dark, a good injury lay-off is all it takes to make you appreciate being fully fit."

Stephen Jones has little time for England's use of the Saxons squad as a platform for the future in The Sunday Times.

"When Martin Johnson reveals his 32-man squad for the autumn internationals tomorrow he will have made his choice from such a denuded pool of players that, in comparison, the resources available in Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard would form a menu for a feast.

"Conservative estimates suggested that even before a tough programme of Guinness Premiership began this weekend, about 21 of the 64 players in the England and England Saxons squads would be unavailable for the opening match against Australia in two weeks, and many of them will play no part at all in the autumn season. Johnson will try to take it on the chin but his luck is shocking.

"Yet it is vital to grasp that there is another, far deeper force at work here. There is a disturbing fault in English rugby in the way young England players are developed from the age of 16 onwards, a fault that the injury crisis has merely exacerbated to leave Johnson drastically short of cover. The talent conveyor belt is malfunctioning badly, and England are weakening their teams with a bogus philosophy — of aiming, over-optimistically, for some kind of future vision and letting the present kick them in the crotch."

Kevin Mitchell meets respected referee Nigel Owens to discuss his difficult journey to the top of the game in The Guardian.

"Nigel Owens has made such an extraordinary journey from the depths of depression that it is difficult for this stranger to reconcile the charming and light-hearted man chatting now about his contented life as a universally respected rugby referee with the troubled soul who tried to take his own life because he could not cope with his own sexuality 13 years ago.

"April, 1996. It's half past three in the morning. I got up about an hour ago so that my parents wouldn't see me leaving the house. I hope they're still asleep so that I can do what I have to do. I've left a note telling them that I've reached the end of my tether and that the only solution for me now is to take my own life."

"It is as harrowing an opening to an autobiography as anyone could conjure. Owens, hooked on steroids and suffering from bulimia, lacking in self‑esteem because he thought he was fat, could not handle what he saw as the shame of being homosexual. He didn't want to be gay. He could not understand it. He did not want anyone to know and he did not know where to turn. So that morning he went up to the top of Bancyddraenen mountain, overlooking the village he had lived in all his life, Mynyddcerrig, and swallowed a bottle of sleeping tablets. He also took a shotgun with him, in case the pills didn't work. It was his great fortune to be found in time and he recovered in hospital."

Josh Rakic investigates some worrying financial implications for the Wallabies in The Sun Herald.

"Amid a sports administrator's nightmare scenario of plummeting television ratings, poor attendance figures, a demise in public interest and a struggling national team, the Australian Rugby Union is also believed to be battling to retain its $6 million-a-year sponsorship with Bundaberg Rum.

"Over the past two seasons the Robbie Deans-coached Wallabies have recorded a disappointing 56.5 per cent win ratio, and it is having an impact on the corporate world's ability to support sports teams. The Sun-Herald understands Ford and Vodafone - neither of which returned calls - have already declared their intent to cease their sponsorships of the Wallabies.

"While Bundaberg Rum marketing manager Andrew Hewson was reluctant to speak with The Sun-Herald, he sent a press statement issued by his media department. This refused to confirm the brand's commitment to the ARU beyond 2010, following the conclusion of its current five-year deal."

Writing in The Scotsman, David Ferguson looks at Scotland's shortage of out-halves and wonders how the situation can be improved.

"The need for debate over how Scottish rugby develops talent such as Alex Blair, Matthew Scott and Rory Hutton was underlined on Wednesday in bold red pen by Andy Robinson when he named just one stand-off in his first autumn Test squad as Scotland coach.

"There are 32 players in there, but just one recognised stand-off. Why? Simply, because we have not produced any others that Robinson and his assistants, Gregor Townsend and Graham Steadman, rate worthy of the Scotland jersey at this moment in time Embarrassed? We should be.

"The stand-off role may be the most glaring deficiency right now, but the whole system is under the microscope. Ian McGeechan tried to make changes as director of rugby in 2004-05, but had ideas binned, or agreed upon, but told there was no finance to implement them."

David Hands assesses Martin Johnson's injury-ravaged options for England's November Tests in The Times.

"Every successful side must have a strong spine. Strong players but also strong decision-makers because the spine embraces those by whose form the team as a whole will stand or fall — from hooker, through the No 8 to the half backs and, finally, full back.

"This is what Martin Johnson has been seeking since he became England team manager 15 months ago — a hard core of players around whom he can build a side to be measured against the World Cupwinning squad he led as a player. Individuals with experience, preferably, but also with that dependable quality: the ability to maintain a standard no matter the opposition.

"Think of the spine that won the World Cup in 2003: Steve Thompson and Lawrence Dallaglio in the forwards, Matt Dawson, Jonny Wilkinson and Josh Lewsey in the backs, of whom Lewsey was a relative newcomer but busting with character and resilience.

"It was noteworthy, too, that when England reached the 2007 final, they went back to the same generation, to Mark Regan and Andy Gomarsall to go with Wilkinson and Lewsey, who shared the full-back duties with Jason Robinson. The only newcomer was Nick Easter, the Harlequins No 8."

Writing in his column in The Guardian, Shaun Edwards is concerned at the spate of injuries in the scrum.

"Time to return to the world of the front rows and the scrum. Not something I'm immediately at home with, as I've said before, but it's an issue that fascinates and is becoming a major concern.

"In the past week England have lost their first-choice loose-head prop, Andrew Sheridan, and their tight-head, Phil Vickery. Both needed operations after scrums collapsed. Both will return, but they will be out of the game long enough to miss the autumn internationals against Australia, Argentina and New Zealand. As was chronicled here yesterday, Vickery and Sheridan are just two among the many not available to Martin Johnson when he names his revised squad next week, but it is injuries in the scrum that have a particular worry and, as those with a decent memory will know, this is a subject I've written about before.

"Back in April I wrote: "Phil Vickery recently said that when the front row goes down, as it seems to more and more, he feels his fate is in the lap of the gods. And if a guy like that, with all his experience, feels he is powerless to protect himself, then surely something is wrong." Now after talking to many more front-row specialists, I feel even more strongly that the scrum, and particularly "the hit", is an issue that has to be addressed rapidly."

Writing in the Irish Times, former Leinster captain Liam Toland discusses the changing nature of the relationship between the provinces and the national team as Declan Kidney looks to pick his squad.

"Kidney could be forgiven for thinking the provincial coaches are now dictating the form, confidence and timing of key Irish players through their need to balance expensive foreigners and winning cup matches. The provinces have done exceptionally well, but Kidney must balance form and pedigree for his squad. Confidence must be maintained this autumn, but players must be blooded. On merit and influence thus far there are now several contenders to the established starting international XV.

"So where does all this leave Kidney? Who’ll be his loosehead, tighthead, hooker, backrow and inside centre? Regardless of his pencilled-in squad, this weekend is another chance for a breakthrough. There is huge indecision throughout the provinces regarding their best centre combination. Will Kidney use the autumn to bed down these positions before the provinces rearrange them back to suit themselves?"

The Guardian's Robert Kitson lends his voice to the debate over the size of players in the modern game.

"And so it goes on. Another day, another injured England international struggling to play any part in the forthcoming autumn series. It has been feared for some time that Simon Shaw would be a doubtful starter against Australia on 7 November and today brought confirmation of the Lions lock's unavailability for most, if not all, of next month's Tests because of a lingering foot problem.

"Almost half of Martin Johnson's first-choice side will be missing for the opening date against the Wallabies. More worrying is that the sidelined Phil Vickery, Lee Mears, Andrew Sheridan, Shaw, Tom Rees, Riki Flutey and Delon Armitage represent the tip of a large iceberg. One-third of the 64 players in England's senior and Saxons squads are out of action with a mangled joint, broken bone or twisted ligament of some description. A bruising trade grows ever more brutal.

"Even if you set aside the recent spate of high-profile casualties, the underlying facts make stark reading. According to Simon Kemp, the Rugby Football Union's head of elite medicine, top-level professionals in England have a one-in-eight chance of suffering a significant injury when they lace up their boots on any given weekend. At any one time a Premiership or national coach will be minus almost a quarter of his first-team squad. Johnson, statistically, can expect to lose at least a couple more players before Sunday's national squad gathering."

Writing in The Irish Independent, David Kelly joins the debate as to Ireland's best XV.

"We are often told that the success of our provinces is so important to the health of the national team. And, with the leading Irish contenders perched prettily near the top of their Heineken Cup pool tables, in addition to Ulster at least remaining competitive, the gloom embraced by fickle fans merely a week ago should have lifted.

"Why, then, are so many Irish rugby supporters scratching their heads with less than a month to go before the opening autumn international against Australia? Perhaps because somewhere this morning Declan Kidney is also a tad bemused as he assesses the state of the nation following the temporary hibernation of the Heineken Cup.

"Despite Ireland's status as Grand Slam champions, there remains considerable cause for debate about what constitutes its best 15. Although planning for the World Cup 2011 is the main priority for Kidney and the national brains trust, the natural competitor in the Corkman would like to topple both the Aussies and later the South Africans in this year's unofficial world title bout."

Mick Cleary finds few points to cheer England manager Martin Johnson following the latest round of Heineken Cup games in The Daily Telegraph.

"There are other factors to explain the apparent fall from grace of English clubs. The demise might be short-lived, although the clubs themselves have long pleaded their lack of clout in the commercial market place when up against the big-spending, non salary-capped French sides. Squads are bigger in France, and those resources are beginning to tell.

"Of course, you have to acknowledge the role of good fortune in all this. The summer bad boys, Bath and Harlequins, were unlucky to succumb to Stade Français and Toulouse, respectively.

"However, elite competition is all about closing out the deal, delivering under pressure, coming through adversity and getting across the finish-line first. Johnson was a master of manoeuvring himself and his teams into just that sort of productive end game. Some may call it luck, wise owls call it the winning mentality.

"Johnson is not the type to panic. The elite player squad agreement was designed to help offset the residual difficulties of injury and fatigue. If he can get through this weekend without further mishap Johnson will feel he has a fighting chance."

David Leggat is intrigued by the reshuffle in the All Blacks' coaching ranks in The New Zealand Herald.

"It was slipped in after the naming of the All Blacks touring squad, sounding almost, but not quite, an "oh, by the way ..." moment.

"The three national selectors are swapping roles for the trip through Japan, Wales, Italy, England and France. Whether it continues next year probably depends on what happens in the Northern Hemisphere in the next few weeks.

"Head coach Graham Henry is to take charge of the forwards, longtime backs boss Wayne Smith will oversee the defence, and forwards mentor Steve Hansen is instead to focus on the attack.

"It was right that it came near the end of Sunday's announcement - the players should always come first - but it brings with it a hefty dose of intrigue."

The RFU are using technology to battle the effects of collisions in the wake of Andrew Sheridan's shoulder injury, according to Mark Souster in The Times.

"As Andrew Sheridan contemplates up to four months on the sidelines after his operation tomorrow to reconstruct his dislocated shoulder, the RFU is stepping up its efforts to reduce the risk of similar serious injuries with ground-breaking technology at the forefront of its campaign.

"The union, which for the past eight years has led the way worldwide in its assessment and audit of injuries, is now pioneering the use of GPS units in training. These units contain a small accelerometer that can accurately measure the force of collisions and offer valuable insight into the cause and effect of high intensity confrontations. The gadget, which weighs only 76 grams sits in a harness between the shoulder blades and is being used by Guinness Premiership clubs and England’s elite playing squad.

"GPS data is already beeing used to measure the speed and distances covered by players in training."

Paul Rees wonders about the effect of increased physicality on smaller backs in The Guardian.

"Backs, it seems, are shouldering a problem of the professional game: as players become bigger and stronger, as collisions multiply with blitz, rather than drift, defences now de rigueur and as the stealthy abolition of rucking has created a static pile-up in which inert bodies are often hit hard by a late arrival, injuries seem rugby's biggest growth area.

"A few years ago, knee ligament surgeons were in big demand; today it is shoulder specialists. If a look at the England elite squad does not suggest that careers are getting shorter, with 12 of the 32 players over the age of 30 and a 13th, Andrew Sheridan, another shoulder injury victim, joining them in a couple of weeks, a closer inspection reveals a clear split.

"Ten of the 18 forwards, not including Sheridan, are 30 or over but only two of the backs have reached that landmark, Jonny Wilkinson and Mike Tindall, although Mark Cueto and Riki Flutey, who is currently out with a shoulder injury, will say farewell to their twenties during the course of the season.

"Wilkinson and Tindall have not reached their thirties without numerous operations. Wilkinson's fearless tackling landed him with neck and shoulder problems that cost him after the 2003 World Cup and his story shows that a little 'un will be left battered and bruised by big 'uns."

Gavin Rich questions SARU's recent proclamations of the sport being recession-proof in The Cape Argus.

"There was a press release issued from SA Rugby headquarters the other day in which chief executive Andy Marinos celebrated the highest attendance figures for Springbok matches since 2004. I am more supportive of Marinos than many are, but it was a bit disingenious of him if you consider this was the year of a British and Irish Lions tour.

"Surely this year can only really be compared to 1997, when the Lions last visited here, and not to the other seasons where Tri-Nations games are preceded by matches against usually under-strength minor nations and are played in what could be described as a warm-up atmosphere.

"For me it was disturbing that this season I attended two top Test matches at King's Park which were both far from full. The one was against the British and Irish Lions, the other was against the All Blacks. Sorry, but I never thought I would see the day when the Boks would play those opponents at that venue and there would be empty seating."

Emily Dugan, writing in The Independent on Sunday, praises the increased numbers of women taking up the game.

"Rugby, traditionally described as a game for hooligans played by gentlemen, is increasingly being taken up by women.

"Female participation in the game has soared, and is expected to increase further as a result of the sport gaining Olympic recognition for 2016.

"There are now more than 200,000 women and girls playing in teams around the world, with the number of girls' rugby clubs in England alone tripling in the past six years, from 87 in 2003 to 274 in 2009. The number of women over 18 playing regularly in England has gone up from 4,124 to 5,019 in the past two years, and the number of girls has risen from 5,961 to 7,925 in the same period.

"Next year England will host the Women's Rugby World Cup for the first time. Unlike the men's team, which is ranked a paltry seventh, the English women are second in the world, with three Six Nations wins under their belt and a good chance of making the top spot by the end of the season."

The Sunday Telegraph's Paul Ackford believes that England have to beat the struggling Wallabies by a significant margin.

”If England don't beat the Aussies by a significant margin when the two sides clash at Twickenham in three weeks' time, then Heaven help Maestro Martin Johnson and his merry men. Seriously. I can't remember a period in the last decade when Australia have looked so discombobulated.

“The on-pitch stuff is bad enough, just one win in six from their Tri-Nations encounters, and a big fat zero when it came to Australian sides participating in the knock-out stages of the Super 14 competition. But it is the declining allure of the sport which is most alarming.

“According to a leaked report, commissioned by the Australian Rugby Union, crowds for Test matches have fallen by 37 per cent in a three-year period, declining from 617,555 in 2006 to 386,287 this year.

“Research into the game's 'brand health' also indicated that rugby union was the least entertaining, innovative, grass roots-orientated and social when compared to rugby league, Aussie rules, soccer and cricket, as well as being "exclusive and hard to follow".”

Eddie Butler accentuates the positives after Northampton Saints slipped to a Heineken Cup defeat against Perpignan at the "demonic" Stade Aime Giral in The Observer.

"Much as Treviso's 9-8 home win in round one over Perpignan, who are only the reigning champions of France, was greeted as one of those boosts for the game in general – and for Italian rugby in particular – the applause in Northampton was possibly qualified by the thought that somebody might have to pay for it.

"And so it was in the demonic Stade Aimé Giral, as deafening in its appreciation of an opposition kick at goal as Thomond Park, Limerick, is silent, the slighted champs of the Top 14 threw everything at last week's rather noble victors over Munster. Actually, it is hard to see a bald, genial, English Kiwi, bearing the name of Perry Freshwater, as a son of Satan – unlike the splendidly untamed Jean-Pierre Perez in the Perpignan back row – but the large loose-head prop played his part in the demolition of the Northampton scrum.

"Add to the frenzy of the Perpignan forwards the sheer class of Maxime Mermoz in the centre and the industry of Nicolas Durand at scrum-half and it could all have unravelled for the visitors. They said they had done their homework and knew what to expect, but nothing can ever really prepare you for a descent into the Aimé Giral."

Stuart Barnes admires the turnaround at colourful Top 14 giants Stade Francais in The Sunday Times.

"In their florid pink shirts, Stade Français could have been a poetic fancy conjured up by Baudelaire after a heavy night on the hashish and absinthe. And for the first five matches of the season one of the most glamorous of all the French clubs performed as if they could not shake off the bleary effects of the night before.

"Stade were languishing 13th in the Top 14. Think the Tigers perched precariously above Leeds in the Premiership and you understand the shock. The Parisians didn’t have a defence as much as a sieve. In those five games they conceded an average of 31 points, including an infamous 40 at home to Montauban, whose modest aspirations are for nothing more than mid-table security.

"That defeat was followed by another 30-point fiasco in Biarritz and that . . . that was followed by action more drastic than anything achieved until then on the field.

"Max Guazzini, their extravagant owner, with a showtime penchant for Moulin Rouge girls and jousting knights, showed the less playful side of his character, dismissing head coach Ewen McKenzie, once an Australia prop, and assistant coach Christophe Dominici, a former Stade and France wing."

Richard Loe, writing in The New Zealand Herald, believes that the All Blacks should experiment on their end of year tour.

"For my money, the All Black selectors should leave several senior players at home for the end of year tour and trial some new blood.

"The touring squad is announced this morning and, if I was a betting man, I would bet against the selectors doing what I am advocating. But my job is to tell you what I think they should do.

"Leave Mils Muliaina, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Piri Weepu, Jason Eaton, Stephen Donald and Neemia Tialata. And maybe Luke McAlister, if he's not fit. I know they won't do that - or not all of it anyway - but I think this is the last year they will be able to experiment and build. So why wouldn't they?

"Let's face it - if Mils Muliaina really needs a rest, give him a rest now and not in the first rounds of the Super 14. Sivivatu has a groin injury and may not be right in time. Leave him here to recuperate properly - there's no point in taking away people carrying injuries, as I have said endlessly. That's the thing with McAlister, too. If he's not right, take Tim Bateman instead."

Chris Rattue muses on the validity of television match officials in the wake of Hawkes Bay prop Sona Taumalolo's disallowed try against Canterbury in The New Zealand Herald.

"What a stunning "try" to the Hawkes Bay prop Sona Taumalolo against Canterbury, and what a disastrous shame it wasn't awarded. And what a spectacular Air New Zealand Cup match between the leaders in Napier. It was a stirring rugby night, even if the home side relied a bit too much on putting up bombs in front of their home crowd.

"Had Taumalolo been awarded the 80th minute try, Hawkes Bay's ace goalkicker Matt Berquist might have slammed over a sideline conversion for a draw and an extra competition point. That point could be vital in the semifinal washup - let's hope it isn't, although this may be hard to quantify.

"We can all be couch replay experts these days and repeated frame-by-frame analysis of the incident leaves no doubt at all that Taumalolo clearly scored. Absolutely no doubt at all.

"It was a sensational effort from Taumalolo, who charged on the angle from a tap penalty, then dived and stretched out an arm to score in the corner with the tracking tacklers and a hesitant wing surprised by his acceleration, and well beaten."

Stuart Barnes previews Northampton's trip to face Perpignan at the Stade Aime Giral in The Times.

"Pathetic would be a gross overestimation of Perpignan’s effort against Treviso. There is complacency and then there is Perpignan. Terrific as the result is for Treviso and Italian rugby in the short term, it leaves one of the teams which should be amongst the leading contenders for the Heineken Cup on the brink of European obliteration.

"Munster away and a visit to Franklin’s Gardens promise little but pain. Somehow they have to find their self belief – not to mention their form – and undo the Italian job by winning at least one of these fixtures. Before that however, comes the small matter of maintaining their awesome home record. God, I hate that lazy Americanisation "awesome" but with 15 straight home wins and 26 victories from 28 home ties it's as good a term as any.

"Northampton, if they are going to emerge from this pool, are being forced to do it the hard way through absolutely no fault of their own. A week prior to the Munster match the European giants were humiliated by Leinster but such was the quality of the Saints performance that they deservedly rode the Irish side's inevitable backlash to win the match.

"This week, Perpignan will have been flogging themselves after the humiliation that occurred north of Venice. Whether they have already thrown the Heineken towel in or not, they will be desperate to respond in style after last Saturday. Northampton will have to beat the champions of France on Friday night, not some set of imitations."

Writing in The Guardian, Shaun Edwards says the Challenge Cup is enjoyable, but he feels he's missing out as he looks forward to the weekend's Heineken Cup action.

"I still feel a little like the bloke who wasn't invited to the party and is left on the sidelines. No disrespect to Paris, Bayonne, Rome or any other of the fine sides like the table-topping Saracens who tussled with Toulon last night, but after six years of Heineken Cup rugby, winning the competition twice, I'm missing it like hell, especially as once again it's proved to be a competition that constantly surprises.

"Those with even short memories will recollect me predicting success for at least two of the Irish regions. The argument went along the lines of the Heineken Cup being made for sides who could rest important players and then get them to peak condition for a limited programme.

"Leinster, I remember, had done particularly well in recruiting the likes of the international scrum-half Eoin Reddan from Wasps, the prop Mike Ross from Harlequins and the Lions second-row Nathan Hines. The feeling was that with an Irish back line that included Brian O'Driscoll and other Lions in Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney, the beefed-up pack would go even better than it did last season when Leinster pipped Leicester in the final in Edinburgh.

"Now their competition hangs in the balance and should they go down at Brive there will be more than a few red faces returning to Dublin on Saturday night."

Stephen Jones' latest Rolling Maul blog for The Times takes in the superb game witnessed at Franklin's Gardens, between Munster and Northampton.

"It wasn’t the greatest day, last Saturday, despite an explosive start. An old Irish hack, Fanning, who thinks he’s my friend, and that playing a few games for Clontarf makes him an authority, demanded a lift from Heathrow to Franklin’s Gardens for the Northampton-Munster match. He told me to pick him up at the Holiday Inn. There are 23 Holiday Inns at Heathrow. He was in the 21st, whining that I was late. We had to miss lunch, and steamed up the M1 at, er, 69.9 mph

"The game was at the godforsaken hour of 6pm. Why? I know it’s a waste of time asking for your sympathy, but by the time we’d finished work, it was well past ten, no way you could even think of stopping for a decent meal; straight back down the M1 in the wet, and a ghastly fish and chips at Toddington Services, an old-style services from the Dark Ages. At least I got rid of Fanning at about midnight so I didn’t have to listen to him drone on into Sunday. I got back too late even to see Smarmy Lineker say goodnight.

"But there was a bit in between the late dash up and the sad return home, that provided just a little something in the way of a lift to the spirits. The Match, and The Occasion. It was just the most thrilling event, Lions tour apart, I’d been to for a long time. It was, put simply, professional club rugby at its very best, as an entertainment, a bitingly-ferocious contest, a demonstration of many things that are wondrous about rugby, and a theatrical gem."

Paul Rees takes a look at the EPS agreement's influence over the opening round of Heineken Cup action in The Guardian.

"Harlequins were so driven by the desire to reach the Heineken Cup semi-finals last April that they tried to cheat to get there. But having survived calls for their expulsion from this season's competition they rested their three England elite squad members for their first match – an eminently winnable one, against the Cardiff Blues – and left the Welsh capital without even a bonus point.

"The next day, Sale arrived in Toulouse missing a number of senior players and found themselves 36–3 down within 50 minutes. On Saturday, London Irish will take on the Scarlets missing Paul Hodgson and Steffon Armitage. Why are clubs fielding weakened teams in Europe's premier club competition?

"Under the new agreement between Twickenham and the Premiership clubs, which is worth £150,000 a year for every national squad member the teams provide, such players have to miss a match between the fourth and seventh weekends of a season. This coming weekend is the seventh."

	Can Wallabies boss Robbie Deans get his team firing for their end of year tour? © Getty Images

"There were plenty of sideways glances and shuffling of feet when Deans and two players, Stirling Mortlock and Matt Giteau - each upset at either losing the captaincy or not being considered for a leadership role - fronted the media as the Wallabies went into camp in Sydney yesterday.

"The body language gave it away. Giteau was edgy. Mortlock was more relaxed, and Deans was trying to put a lid on it all by making the right sounds. Even if the smoke billowing from the peace pipe was stifling, it wasn't exactly hugs and kisses all round."

The sight of Matt Hampson at the Rugby Players' Association launch in central London was a curt reminder of the perils of contact sport, writes Mick Cleary in the Daily Telegraph.

"That the RPA was able to present the former Leicester prop, who was paralysed from the neck down after a scrum collapsed at an England Under-21 training session in March 2005, with a cheque for £20,000 to help install a hydrotherapy pool at home illustrated that compassion has a place alongside brutality. You smash him, then you embrace him. It's just as well that there is a benevolent infrastructure underpinning the game for there has been an alarming incidence of injury so far this season. We shouldn't be surprised.

"...Has rugby become too hard for its own good? Another weekend of no-holds-barred competition has certainly taken its toll. Injury bulletins from several clubs make for grim reading. Much more of this and they'll have to appoint 'Hot Lips' Houlihan to tend to the MASH-like scenes that are now the norm at grounds."

In terms of job satisfaction it would be difficult to think of a better environment in which to work as a rugby player than London Irish, according to Mark Souster in The Times.

"The man in charge, Toby Booth, preaches the need for his side to enjoy themselves, not to forget that they are in the entertainment business and to win where possible with a smile. He sums up his ethos as “good versus evil” and he preaches the virtues of attack over defence. There are no prizes for guessing in which camp the exiles belong.

"In what has been largely a drab season to date in terms of quality, one dominated by aimless kicking, safety-first rugby and a desire to slow down opposition ball at the breakdown, London Irish have produced the only real splash of colour. They are the top tryscorers in the Guinness Premiership, but also possess the meanest defence, the latter a fact that is routinely overlooked."

Allister Hogg did not appear to be in a trance as he spoke to the media at Murrayfield Stadium yesterday, but the Scotland No.8 was struggling to convince reporters that he had overcome the horror of Edinburgh's opening Heineken Cup defeat, David Ferguson writes in The Scotsman.

"Hogg has been here before. He came off the bench with Scotland having been stunned by losing 21 points to Italy in the opening seven minutes of 'that' RBS Six Nations match in 2007, and has played in games with the likes of New Zealand where he shared teammates' frustrations at giving up the early initiative only to rally in the second half. In Edinburgh's colours, he too has rued many wasted first halves, as recently as two weeks ago when the Magners League game at the Ospreys was tossed away early on by mistakes.

"He insisted that it was wrong to blame Edinburgh's open style of play for contributing to their downfall, that basic errors were the chief reason, and insisted there should be no tightening-up of their attacking philosophy."

It's time for the Wallabies to knuckle down to business according to Greg Growden in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"When the 1984 Wallabies arrived at Heathrow Airport for the start of their Grand Slam tour, coach Alan Jones gave them strict instructions. He told the players to write on their arrival cards, under ''purpose of visit'', ''business … because that's what we're here on''.

"Australia subsequently attended to their business, becoming the first Australian team to win all four Tests against England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Twenty-five years on, the 2009 Wallabies will - after playing a Bledisloe Cup match in Tokyo - head to London aiming to emulate Jones's history-makers. When they arrive at Heathrow on November 1, coach Robbie Deans should go through the same routine, telling the players to write exactly the same word on their arrival cards. Business."

There is no easy answer to rugby's worrying injury trends, so says the players' union, which has been urgently trying to find out why there has been such a high casualty toll in the first six weeks of the season. Gavin Mairs writes in the Daily Telegraph.

"Such has been the attritional start to the campaign that leading clubs such as Leicester and Wasps were barely able to field competitive sides in European action at the weekend. Leicester could muster only 24 fit players from a squad of 38 for Sunday's Heineken Cup match against the Ospreys while Wasps have only 25 players fit out of their 38-man squad.

"...It all follows a warning from the Lions doctor James Robson at the end of the tour to South Africa in July that players had become "too muscle-bound and too bulky" and had got "too big for their skill levels".

"David Barnes, the Bath prop and chairman of the players' union, which changed from the Professional Rugby Association into the Rugby Players' Association on Monday, said there was "no quick fix" to the problem, despite the ongoing work to improve player welfare."

In the first of his weekly columns for the Irish Times, London Irish captain Bob Casey recalls the build-up to one of the most extraordinary matches of his career.

"It was a tough week from a personal perspective, more so than I’d imagined. I’ve spent the last eight years at London Irish, three of them as captain, so there was no question of compromised loyalties, but I have never played against so many friends with so much at stake.

"In the build-up to last Friday night’s game I occasionally thought about what it would be like to go back and take on Leinster, but in an abstract way. Suddenly it wasn’t hypothetical any more and I found that difficult mentally. I had supported them, played for the province at various levels; it’s also where I am from, and obviously so too my friends and family.

"The first inclination of how emotive it was going to be was fulfilling the media duties during the week. The questions constantly directed me to recall memories and friendships from my time with Leinster. That had an affect, not in terms of softening my determination to ensure a London Irish victory but just in emotionally complicating the build-up."

The end of the league stage of the Currie Cup season brought to a conclusion what on the face of it can only be described as a horrific year for the Lions, Gavin Rich writes for SuperRugby.co.za.

"The current Lions team lacks when it comes to experience, talent and skill, but they did deliver this season on the mission statement that was issued by White at the press conference which I attended in Johannesburg in June where the Winning Ways partnership with the Lions was announced.

To refresh memories, [Jake] White was adamant the union did not have the players to be talking about trophies, and he handed out a couple of pages of statistics that pointed to the Lions’ lack of physical conditioning. But there were two things that White said that stick clearly in the memory: firstly, he promised that he would improve the Lions’ defensive system, which he rated as hopeless, and secondly he would ensure that they would play to the last whistle of every game."

Writing for Rugby Heaven, Duncan Johnstone praises the International Rugby Board for their use of All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu to help get the Olympics job done and urges the New Zealand Rugby Union to follow their lead.

"It should be an embarrassment to New Zealand rugby that we have done so little to acknowledge his presence beyond his All Blacks achievements. If ever there was an ambassadorial figure for the modern age it is Lomu.

"Yet he has been used little if not at all to promote the game in this country or promote the New Zealand rugby cause overseas. Lomu has matured into a fine man, comfortable to operate in the corporate surroundings as well as athletic environments."

	Matt Giteau was passed over for the Wallabies' captaincy © Getty Images

"An insider yesterday told the Herald a number of players believed Giteau deserved to at least be ''sounded out'' for a new leadership position before any decision was made by Wallabies coach Robbie Deans. Giteau has not enjoyed his best year, but his supporters believe he has done enough in previous seasons to warrant consideration for a higher leadership role."

The NZRU'S attempts to restructure the Air New Zealand Cup have been a dismal failure according to Richard Loe in the New Zealand Herald.

"Fair enough, the NZRU has had to bail out unions like Tasman - but the key factor now is that things have changed.

"The Air NZ Cup, which looked forlorn when it began, has taken off. It has done so across the board, with teams evenly matched, with most sides capable of beating any other, and with crowds in the grassroots, heartland areas pleasingly strong. But the NZRU seems incapable of adjusting to this and seems set on pressing ahead with plans to drop Tasman, Northland, Manawatu and Counties Manukau into the new six-team first division - some of the very areas where support is strongest."

The weekend's Heineken Cup was a mixed bag of tense finishes and flashes of brilliance but insufficient sustained quality, writes Brian Moore in the Daily Telegraph.

"Leinster's problem came from the fact that they won the kicking duel by a good margin. However, because they gained ground during the exchanges and stayed in Irish territory, they seemed to assume the superiority would somehow automatically turn itself into points. When it didn't, nobody had the presence or nous to abandon the tactic until they were behind and it was too late.

"Furthermore, whilst the superior length of kicks gave Leinster better field position, they could not challenge either scrums or line-outs on the Irish ball. There is little point in putting in raking 60-metre kicks if you do not compete at the subsequent line-out. Several times no Leinster forward even jumped for London Irish throws inside the visitors' 22."

Writing in The Scotsman, Iain Morrison picks through the pieces of Edinburgh's Heineken Cup mauling at the hands of Stade Francais.

"It is happening a little too often for Edinburgh's dismal performance against Stade Francais to be dismissed as a bad day at the office. Edinburgh leaked four tries to the Ospreys last week, they conceded four to Leinster at the same stage of the Heineken Cup last year and Stade had their bonus point inside the half hour on Saturday.

"If the 12,000 capacity crowd in Stade Jean Bouin had lined up and demanded their money back they could have been forgiven because the second half of this match was an utter non-event which Edinburgh actually won 7-3. It's just as well that Stade's millionaire owner Max Guazzini had gifted a block of tickets to Edinburgh supporters who certainly deserved a refund."

Billy Twelvetrees crowned his dazzling first start with a touchline conversion to save ravaged Tigers, Simon Turnbull writes in the Independent on Sunday.

"There were 10 minutes to go before kick-off at Welford Road yesterday when Billy Twelvetrees was handed the Leicester No 12 shirt. Dan Hipkiss had fallen victim in the pre-match warm-up to the Tigers' backline curse that had already accounted for three men in morning fitness tests (Aaron Mauger, Harry Ellis and Matt Smith), the in-form England centre having complained of suffering from what Richard Cockerill, Leicester's director of rugby, described as "aching joints and swollen testicles".

With Toby Flood, Sam Vesty and Geordan Murphy all on the long-term injured list, that left Twelvetrees with a debut occasion in front of a 20,000 crowd against the Ospreys – James Hook, Tommy Bowe, Shane Williams, Lee Byrne and all – in a Heineken Cup Pool Three opener. Having been released from Leicester's academy in 2008, and re-signed for the club last May after a season with Bedford in National League One, there might have been a question of whether the 20-year-old with the Pacific Islander name – but with home roots actually from Pulborough in West Sussex – happened to be equipped with the cojones for the big occasion."

Writing in the Guardian, Michael Alywin sings the praises of the Heineken Cup after witnessing Northampton's victory over Munster.

"It makes you wonder how we cope when there is no European rugby. Yes, the Guinness Premiership is tense and competitive, the Magners League improving, the Six Nations historic. But the fizzy competition beats them all for drama, intensity, quality and cross-border rivalry.

"This was the kind of soaring epic that only the Heineken Cup seems able to provide. When Munster are in town it does strange things to people, and Northampton were never going to treat this as anything less than their biggest guaranteed fixture of the season. If they carry on playing like this, though, they will find even bigger fixtures further down the line."

Eddie Butler, writing in The Observer, revels in London Irish upsetting the old order at the RDS on Friday.

"The countenance of the game between the daring defending champions and the devotees of adventure from across the water was so delicious that it was inevitable Leinster-London Irish should become an exercise in keeping the warts at bay. It was going to be beautiful; it turned out to be lumpy. But the 9-12 scoreline represented an outstanding victory for London Irish and a shake-up to the order of Europe.

"Leinster found themselves frustrated at every turn, with Brian O'Driscoll contained by the midfield of Elvis Seveali'i and Seilala Mapusua, with back-up from wing forward Steffon Armitage. Apart from a dash with his first touch in the opening minute, when he followed the scent that only he can sniff near the contact area, O'Driscoll was held up. The harder he tried, the more he was tackled and the more he came up rubbing his head.

"Frustrated is one of those words that, in rugby, implies a spot of bother. This came in the first half, with Nick Kennedy claiming Shane Jennings had gone for his eyes. The gouged of last season's semi – Leinster at the hands, or fingers, of Munster – were the gougers of this season's opener. Surely not."

Bath prop David Flatman muses on the significance of Ravenhill following his side's Heineken Cup defeat to Ulster in The Independent on Sunday.

"As the final whistle blew, we celebrated for a matter of seconds before our thoughts drifted back to our fallen friend. The changing room was both relieved and sombre at the same time; sombre, that is, until I checked my phone. Expecting a message of congratulation from my parents at home, I was staggered to see Wally's name pop up on my screen. "I'll get through this, boys, don't worry," he said, "just you lot say hi to 'The Fly' for me." The fact he was comfortable enough to text was promising but that did not stop me being confused; what was The Fly?

"The Fly, as it turned out, was the nightclub to which we all flocked that night for a celebratory drink. Ulstermen and Saracens alike shared jokes, beers and kebabs (I had salad) late into the night and Wally was toasted more than once. This week's visit was similar in terms of atmosphere, although somewhat more restrained (a 9am flight home can't help but temper one's enthusiasm).

"Ulster, or rather Ravenhill, retains all that is sacred about the rugby ground. To play there is to enter one of Europe's most hostile, oppressive environments where everything – weather included – seems stacked in favour of the home team. The howling, growling wind and the horizontal, seemingly grit-infused rain conspires to make forward progress remarkably difficult. But as soon as the match is over, the animals become gentlemen and all of rugby's bad intentions seem to evaporate into the Belfast mist as the men with whom one was just brawling enquire as to your movements for the evening."

Tom Croft tells Paul Ackford about Lions tours, Jack Russells and ping-pong in The Sunday Telegraph.

"Cocker is Richard Cockerill, the famously pugnacious Leicester head coach, who apparently is a sucker for 13-week-old Jack Russell pups. Interesting. And the bloke rescheduling the interview? That's Tom Croft. Croft of Leicester Tigers, Croft of England and now Croft of the British and Irish Lions, who will come face to face with many of his Lions colleagues on Saunday afternoon when Leicester and the Ospreys meet in what is bound to be a seismic encounter at Welford Road.

"I love that opening vignette, the image of excited dogs interfering with training sessions and the reference to the religious responsibilities which fall to godparents. It's so wonderfully retro and middle-class.

"Croft went to Oakham School, both his parents are teachers, and, later, he talked of how competitive he was in relation to the ping-pong sessions which take place in the house he shares with Ben and Tom Youngs, Leicester team-mates. Ping-pong! It all seems so antediluvian that Croft could well be a refugee from the amateur era. Who says that rugby has changed?"

Stephen Jones meets Leicester centre Dan Hipkiss as England search for the answers to their midfield injury woes, in The Sunday Times.

"It was at first an exercise in nostalgia. Danny Hipkiss, even though he had a fist clenched around a drinks bottle containing one of the modern high-tech concoctions (in this case coloured lurid red) was going back in time. I asked him to trace the origins of his quick feet. They are two of the fastest in rugby, giving him a priceless ability, using dazzling footwork, to make breaks through the midfield almost in the style of the breaking centres of old.

"Let’s see. There was the inspiration of Chris, his father, who was good enough to make England Under-16s and who was an admirer of the twinkle-footed Phil Bennett, whose electrifying sidestepping set off that Barbarians try. “We used to watch videos of Phil Bennett.”

"Then there was the family garden. “We had a line of trees in it, and Dad used to get me to run along and to step in and out of them.”

Mark Souster meets the mellowing Leicester prop Julian White on his farm to talk about life after rugby in The Times.

"Julian White sits across the pine table in the dining room of his farmhouse that doubles as an office. Books on sheep husbandry, as well as farming paraphernalia, cattle passports and general household paperwork, are scattered about.

"A big arm reaches out and clears a space. His left hand grasps a cup of tea with the word “Farmer” emblazoned on it. In the kitchen, the squeals of his daughters, Lucy, 3, and Charlotte, 1, can be heard. It is a scene of domestic contentment that has eluded him for much of his life and explains a lot. Lucy runs in and is scooped up. She is Daddy’s girl. An angry man is beginning to mellow.

"White is a mass of contradictions, but underneath the brooding exterior lies a shy, uncomplicated man who is the first to acknowledge his shortcomings. His life now has purpose.

"It has not always been the case, but after a nomadic existence living in three countries and playing for five clubs, the Leicester and England prop forward is for the first time settled and putting down permanent roots."

Robert Kitson, writing in The Guardian, talks up Northampton centre Shane Geraghty's England chances.

"He does not look like a destroyer of defences. Blond, pale, more wisp than battering ram, he even seems slightly unsure about his own ability to run a game. If you had to guess Shane Geraghty's profession you might go for trainee chartered surveyor or mild-mannered snooker player. He has Irish roots but there is also some English reserve. Until, that is, you throw him a ball in a bit of space, at which point a thrilling transformation takes place.

"At his best, Geraghty is one of the few playmakers currently resident in England capable of earning a curt nod of mutual respect from Matt Giteau and Berrick Barnes. Before he can go head to head with the elusive Wallaby pair next month, though, the string-pulling pivot has to prove himself worthy to do so. They no longer do formal Test trials but a Heineken Cup pool encounter against Munster is the most sulphuric of acid tests.

"Tomorrow is a big day, too, for Northampton, hoping to take what their director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, sees as an important stride in their development. Since these two clubs met in the 2000 Heineken Cup final, Munster have won the tournament twice and never failed to reach the last eight. The Saints have been relegated and seen more coaches come and go than National Express. They have had to graft tirelessly on and off the field for the status they are now slowly regaining."

Paul Rees recalls a few blood 'n' thunder clashes between French and Welsh sides in the Heineken Cup ahead of Brive's trip to face the Scarlets in The Guardian.

"Brive return to the Heineken Cup tomorrow after an 11-year absence. They do so, perhaps fittingly, in Wales. There they face the Scarlets in Llanelli, but the milieu they step into to is far different to the one they were used to in the early years of the competition.

"The Heineken Cup was then known for confrontations between Welsh and French sides on and off the field. Local police forces were put on alert, arrests and charges were far from the exception and the board of European Rugby Cup Ltd became used to sitting in judgement on warring Celts and Gauls.

"Cardiff's first match in the inaugural tournament in Bègles in 1995 became so violent that their second row, Derwyn Jones, at one point shouted: "Circle the wagons." Llanelli and Pau were each fined £20,000, half of which was suspended, in 1997 after a match ERC said was smeared with examples of gratuitous violence. Brive and Pontypridd fought a notorious encounter the same year: two players were sent off and a brawl erupted that night in a bar packed with players from both sides."

	Wilkinson has found form and fitness in France © Getty Images

"I have quickly been reminded that there is no perfect world. Last weekend, I had a last-minute kick to win a league game for Toulon, it was from about 50 metres and an angle, but I knew I could get it — and I didn’t. The disappointment was horrendous; I haven’t felt that down for a long time. But then I realised I recognised that horrid feeling — it’s like an old friend. When I was injured, I didn’t have to deal with friends like that.

"How is it going? I’ve got a long way to go. People want to know how I rate my form, but I almost always say about six out of ten. When I get a bit farther down the road, I might get as far as 6½. Or maybe not. There is so much more that I am shooting for here; I am still nowhere near where I want to be."

Writing in The Scotsman, David Ferguson ponders the chances of Scotland making an impression on this season's Heineken Cup.

"The Ospreys are lifting Welsh hopes of a first-ever Heineken success, but the Scots are so highly regarded that they were almost conducting their interviews in the car park at this week's tournament launch in Reading.

"Quel surprise. The venue itself was an indication of the standing of Scottish clubs in the European firmament. Separate Heineken Cup launches were held in Ireland and France, which the Italian rugby media also attended, with the Welsh, English and Scottish media invited to one briefing in Reading. Handy for the cash-strapped English and Welsh media perhaps; not so for Scotland. But do Scottish teams deserve better treatment?"

The Heineken Cup's unloved, slightly spotty cousin will certainly be harder to win after a significant overhaul according to Rob Kitson in the Guardian.

"The inspired invention that is European club rugby returns this week in all its glory. To gauge the impact the Heineken Cup has made since its inception 15 seasons ago, just try to imagine the game without it. A life lived in black and white, as opposed to glorious technicolour, with only domesticity to enliven the winter months? It is possible that professional rugby union would never have flourished in the way it has without its most stunning centrepiece.

"Loitering in the shadows, though, has always been its unloved, slightly spotty cousin. The newly restyled Amlin Challenge Cup, which aspires to be an oval-ball Europa League, has mostly been regarded as a consolation prize that not every competing club seems to cherish. Only in the knock-out stages has it traditionally come alive as everyone suddenly appreciates it might just be a pot worth lifting. The sense of Heineken Lite, even so, remains hard to shake."

Matt Giteau might be moved from the Wallabies fly-half spot and Lachie Turner could play at fullback as part of a radical back-line revamp for the coming northern hemisphere grand slam tour. Greg Growden writes in the Herald.

"The Herald has been told that the Wallabies selectors are contemplating swapping Berrick Barnes and Giteau around in midfield, but this development could easily destabilise the team as it is known Giteau wants to remain the Test five-eighth. Turner, whom Wallabies coach Robbie Deans appears to be a fan of, will be switched from the wing to the last line of defence.

"If Giteau is moved to inside-centre, it could see him reconsider his future as an Australian player. It is known that Giteau, who is contracted to the Australian Rugby Union until the next World Cup, has been disenchanted for some time and that at least two French clubs are desperate to get his services - sooner rather than later. One of the clubs is believed to be Toulon."

In a strongly-worded editorial, the New Zealand Herald disects the Blues' woes on and off the field.

"According to an old adage, a sporting team's performance on the field will be only as good as that of its front office. On that basis, it is probably logical that the Blues stumble from crisis to crisis. The dominant side in the early days of what was then the Super 12 rugby series has struggled to reach anywhere near those heights in the past few seasons.

"In the normal course of events, this state of affairs should have united the franchise's three unions, Auckland, North Harbour and Northland, and fostered a resolve to bring back the good times. Instead, relations between the partners have sunk to a new low as they argue over match arrangements, player payments, dividends and franchise venues."

	Referee Nigel Owens talks to the Harlequins coaching team during the infamous 'Bloodgate' match © Getty Images

"Owens has replayed the incident in his mind many times after he allowed the Harlequins wing, his mouth full of fake blood, to leave the field and to be replaced by a hobbling Nick Evans in Quins' unsuccessful attempt to win the match with a last kick at goal.

"..."Maybe looking back now I am a bit disappointed that I didn't [do more] but you didn't expect this sort of thing to happen, even though I had my suspicions as he had been warming up," Owens said."

Kenny Logan, writing for The Scotsman, believes that Scotland's Heineken Cup cause would be helped by allowing only one side in to the competition.

“Scottish teams don't have a good track record in the Heineken Cup, but it should be exciting for Scottish rugby fans as they prepare for the kick-off this weekend. Why? Because this is where you prove yourself and both Edinburgh and Glasgow have the talent to do something this year.

“Being honest, the wider world doesn't care how the Scottish teams do in the Magners League. Most of our players are used to performing on the international stage now and they know that clubs prove themselves in the Heineken Cup. And when that pressure has come we've failed miserably so far.

“The major thing holding us back is consistency. You only have to look at Glasgow's result in Toulouse last year to see how well they can play, but you can't then go to the Dragons and lose. Glasgow face the Dragons again this year and if they can't beat them, they can forget about a first appearance in the quarter-finals.

“You have to admit there are differences in strength in depth between the Scottish teams and the top 20 sides in Europe, who have academies, better facilities and finance to buy in top-quality players. We are also very much 'Scottish' teams, whereas the majority who step into the European cauldron next week will be a virtual 'League of Nations' roll-call. The competition is also tougher now – it's harder to reach the last eight than when Edinburgh did so in 2004 – but the Scottish teams are also much better now.”

David Kelly meets Leinster's Michael Cheika and Munster's Tony McGahan to chew over the fallout from last weekend's huge Magners League showdown in The Irish Independent.

"Michael Cheika woke up on Sunday morning bathed in beams of bright sunshine and raucous birdsong filling his ears. For Tony McGahan, Sunday morning arrived dark and despairing, with a thumping headache assailing his senses.

"Sunday morning, it was very difficult to wake up," admitted McGahan yesterday, returning to the city where Leinster had so comprehensively touted their European supremacy less than a week before the 15th Heineken Cup competition fizzes refreshingly into view.

"You were hoping for a bit more darkness and that the morning wouldn't come. Yesterday was a long day as it always is after any sort of loss, especially so after the one on Saturday night. It certainly hasn't got any easier, we're still very disappointed with our performance."

"Nobody would be foolish enough to suggest that the balance of power has swung irreversibly towards Leinster following a decade of European dominance from the men in red.

"Certainly not anyone within Leinster, as Cheika avers. "I've said genuinely that not a lot of people expected us to win the Heineken Cup last year," he admits. "And I think even less people expect us to back it up."

Is rugby too reliant on alcohol sponsorship money? Paul Rees takes a look in The Guardian.

"One of the conclusions of those who answered a questionnaire from the task force set up to investigate cheating in rugby was that a win-at-all-costs mentality increased the risk of players succumbing to the temptation of drink and drugs.

"One player called for a restructuring of the domestic season, arguing that: "Boys are probably getting mentally fatigued with the length of the competition and looking for their own ways of freshening up." Sponsors provide a means, with the English and Celtic leagues and European rugby's premier club competition all sponsored by companies associated with alcohol. After the boos comes the booze.

"In England, the Illicit Drugs Working Group is working with Premier Rugby and the Professional Rugby Players' Association, in association with Diageo, the company that owns Guinness, to highlight the consequences of illicit drug-taking and irresponsible drinking. While the dangers of recreational drugs have been highlighted by high-profile cases this year, there is a perception that such indulgence is a corollary of drinking to excess.

"Are rugby's administrators sending out the wrong message by relying on the largesse of the likes of Guinness, Magners and Heineken? Should the British government follow their French counterpart and legislate against alcohol producers sponsoring sports, where would rugby union turn? The British Medical Association last month called for a ban on all alcohol advertising, including sport and music sponsorship, arguing that alcohol was one of the leading causes of death and disability."

Bath prop David Flatman digests the dangers of injury for professional players in The Independent.

"Over the years, I have been unlucky enough to stumble across various directors of rugby who, for some reason known only to themselves, think it is a worthy idea to visit a Royal Marines training camp before the start of the season.

"These weeks are generally beyond hard and tend to leave the average player physically exhausted, malnourished and mentally drained. The coaches see it as some sort of bonding experience, visiting the very edge of our bodies' limits together, as brothers.

"We, however, see it more as a good way to lose hard-earned muscle mass, miss out on valuable sleep and remove any existing enthusiasm and intensity from our minds. Thankfully, Steve Meehan is not a believer. I remember being told to carry a log the size of a Transit van around a field, indefinitely. Our instructor was called, appropriately, "The Beast". "I'll let you know when it's time," he snarled, a 5ft 7in ball of hate with forearms like a Silverback. "Dislocated expectations, lads – keeps you guessing." Thing is, in a game of rugby, we happen to know roughly when we are due to finish."

Brian Moore mingles with Harlequins fans and judges the ongoing reaction to 'Bloodgate' in The Daily Telegraph.

"The most interesting thing on Saturday at the Stoop was not on the field; although Quins fashioned several clean breaks, they amounted to nothing and of the rest of the game, the least said the better.

"For England manager Martin Johnson and backs coach Brian Smith, there was little of quality to note. No, it was in the bars and in the stands that the real fascination was to be found, because it was there that the heartbeat of the club and the impact of the summer's scandal could be examined.

"I spoke to scores of people about what had been revealed during the past months; few members of the media have bothered to try to examine how the recent scandal has affected the ordinary fans.

"Some thought their former director of rugby, Dean Richards, had been harshly sentenced, but most accepted his three-year ban with regret; not one person condoned the cheating and no one tried to excuse it by pointing to acts of similar nefariousness perpetrated by other clubs. What was universal was the anger at the holier-than-thou condemnations from other clubs and the manner in which their club's trial had been needlessly prolonged and, especially, that this had been done publicly."

Aurelien Rougerie, Clermont Auvergne's talisman, talks frankly about Top 14 heartbreak ans the Heineken Cup with Stephen Jones in The Times.

"If ever sporting misery was personified, its name last June was Aurelien Rougerie. He was inconsolable. He was called “an extraordinary player” by Bernard Laporte, the former France coach. Rene Fontes, the president of Clermont Auvergne, the club Rougerie captains and that begin their Heineken campaign next weekend, said: “Aurelien is our franchise player, as the Americans call it. He is our marquee player. Our hero. He is the heart of the club.”

"Make that broken heart of the club. Rougerie was captured on television at the end of the French Championship final at the end of last season. Clermont had just lost a magnificent match to Perpignan, the latest of their 11 finals, the most of any French club. They have won none of them. “Sometimes you feel that the current group, and maybe even this club itself, is fated not to become champions,” Rougerie said in the hour of defeat.

"Most of the truly great rugby clubs in any country are strongly identified with the community around them. Rougerie, 29, is effectively a local boy, from Beaumont, Puy de Dome, near Montferrand, where Clermont play. The club was created before the first world war by the Michelin Tyre Company, for the use of their employees, and the current stadium is still called Marcel Michelin, after its founder. Their desperation to finally win the French Championship typifies the dilemma of many French clubs when it comes to the Heineken Cup."

Television ratings in Australia have confirmed what many rugby fans already knew - that Super 14 and Test rugby have become the most boring forms of the game to watch in the country. Josh Rakic writes in the Herald on Sunday.

"Only 146,000 Sydneysiders tuned in to watch the Wallabies get hammered by the All Blacks last month, while Super 14 averaged less than 100,000 viewers this season after having peaked at 185,000 for the Waratahs-Crusaders final last year.

Alarm bells should be ringing, with most Super 14 clashes out-rated by the NRL's under-20s Toyota Cup competition. But there was a glimmer of hope - in NSW at least."

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Richard Loe issues a warning to Auckland.

"As if the Blues didn't have enough to worry about, they are now faced with the possibility - however slim - that Tony Woodcock and Anthony Boric are coming off contract and could move on.

"This sort of talk looms as a bigger problem for the Blues than many other sides. It's because few players want to go to the franchise. They don't want to play for Auckland and/or the Blues because they are no longer winning teams; no longer an almost-guaranteed stroll into the All Blacks."

Weaknesses in the Guinness Premiership will give the Irish provinces a huge advantage in the race for the Cup according to Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times.

"This may appear perverse. My clear favourites for the Heineken Cup, which will burst out joyously all over Europe next weekend, from autumnal mists and mellow fruitfulness and through a thunderous rugby tournament, are Leinster and Munster, the two Irish provinces, in that order. Neither the Guinness Premiership nor the French Top 14 have a resoundingly convincing contender as yet to win it.

"But here’s the odd bit. Neither Leinster nor Munster would finish much above half-way in either league. They would have their tongues hanging out by November. In fact, it isn’t perverse. It’s true. The Irish teams, partly by default and partly by design, are set up for the Heineken Cup, not for any long-haul ordeal. The English and French clubs, entirely driven by imperatives, are essentially set up for success in their domestic events, however lofty their aspirations to European glory may be."

The Rugby Football Union's investigation into Bloodgate has reported its findings but not all is as it seems, according to Paul Ackford in the Sunday Telegraph.

"Yet serious questions remain. When players, coaches and medics were asked, Have you ever seen or participated in faking a blood injury for whatever reason to create an unfair advantage for your team in international matches in England or overseas, five per cent of the players and nine per cent of the coaches and medics said they had.

"The RFU admitted that they have not been able to verify details of England's away matches because they do not keep that information. Nor have they tried to identify and interview the England player who alleged in the internal Harlequins report that England had faked blood injuries, or investigate the circumstances behind that specific allegation.

"To come out and declare England clean, given those caveats and the fact that a significant minority of players and coaches corroborated the original speculation, is a mighty leap of faith."

Writing in The Scotsman, Richard Bath believes Glasgow's Dan Parks has rediscovered his kicking boots this season.

"There are some rugby players, usually great players, who define a team. Naas Botha did it in South Africa, when the Blue Bulls of Northern Transvaal were completely built around his kicking game. Lawrence Dallaglio did it with Wasps, his cussed nature allowing them to play a game built around pressure and aggression at the breakdown and in the tackle. Mid-1990s New Zealand were constructed almost entirely around the aim of unleashing Jonah Lomu.

Yet few teams have ever been more reliant on one player than Glasgow have been on Dan Parks since the little Aussie was lured to Hughenden from Eastern Suburbs, via a three-month trial with Leeds, by Kiwi Searancke back in 2003. Almost from day one, the Warriors have been the Dan Parks Show: when he plays well, the team plays well."

London Irish coach Toby Booth is proud of the exciting style of rugby played by his Exiles, writes Eddie Butler in The Observer.

"Booth never played in the Premiership, alternating instead between back row and hooker for Folkestone and Blackheath in Kent. He then swapped life as an electrician for studying biology at St Mary's College in Twickenham and entered the world of coaching, first with England Students, then the Under-21s, then the London Irish academy.

The role of the academy is seared on his soul. Players such as Steffon and Delon Armitage and Topsy Ojo passed through it. "Fifty per cent of the squad are home‑grown," Booth said. "I've grown them. I'm loyal to all the players, but especially them. They are why we are where we are."

Matured hooker Dylan Hartley has learned the error of his ways but he's still ready to rumble according to Hugh Godwin in the Independent on Sunday.

"There is the long-winded approach to defining what professional rugby is about – the 138 pages of the Rugby Football Union's Image of the Game report last week springs to mind – and then there is the infinitely more digestible version from Dylan Hartley. "I still like watching a game and seeing a bit of a scrap," said the Northampton captain and England hooker. "It's a contact sport. There's collisions and things aren't always going to be friendly. You need to play on the edge with aggression and sometimes things go over. It's just a part of the game."

Writing in The Independent, former Ireland and England coach Brian Ashton takes a look at the language surrounding the modern game, and he doesn't like what he hears.

"Drill" is a good example of what I would call negative or inhibiting language, because to my mind, there are a lot of players who are good at drills who can't actually play. But there are plenty of others – "going through the phases", "setting a target" and "ball-carrier" to name three – and if we allow them to become embedded in the mindset of our coaches, especially those working with youngsters, what kind of game will we produce?

"Let us unpack the phrase "going through the phases". It suggests that players are simply hanging on to possession and awaiting an error rather than seeking active ways of scoring by passing early, offloading out of the tackle or bamboozling an opponent with some fancy footwork. Of course, it is often argued that, by taking play through ruck after ruck, the opposition will eventually make the mistake that leads to a try. In answer to that, I would say that as it's generally easier to defend than it is to attack, the mistake is more likely to come from the team with the ball."

In an interview with David Hands in The Times, Ian McGeechan speaks about his attachment to the Lions and says that this summer's tour was the best he's been involved in.

"It is a love story, and you do not feel twee for saying so at a time when domestic rugby is examining so closely its core values. There is the love that McGeechan, a boy from rugby league territory in Leeds, has for rugby union in general and the Lions in particular, entwined with the support he has received from Judy, his wife. They met as teenagers at Allerton Grange School and this year celebrated their ruby wedding. “She has effectively put everything on the back-burner for me, all the way through,” McGeechan writes and if this book is a tribute to any individual, it is to her.

"He is an emotional man, more so than many might think. On October 19, the DVD of the 2009 tour, Living with the Pride, will go on sale and the closing sequences are as raw as sport gets. McGeechan, on his fifth tour as a Lions coach and his seventh when his two tours as a player are considered, is in tears after his final address to the players in the hotel before the third international against South Africa at Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg.

"How do his players respond? They splatter the world champions all over the ground that has so strong a pull on the Afrikaner, they win 28-9 and provide a focus for their successors of 2013 to follow. Strong men, Paul O’Connell, Phil Vickery, Martyn Williams, Simon Shaw, players who will not appear in a Lions jersey again, are gripped by the moment and play with equal emotion, knowing that it is their role to hand down a legacy."

The Irish Independent's Hugh Farrelly believes Declan Kidney is the big loser as Rob Kearney watches tonight's Irish derby from the bench.

"The thorny issue of provinces working against the national interest raised its head again yesterday when Lions and Ireland star Rob Kearney was left out of the Leinster team to face Munster at the RDS this evening (6.30).

"Kearney's performances for the Lions against South Africa last summer earned him worldwide acclaim, with Munster's Springbok centre Jean De Villiers this week describing the Louth man as "phenomenal". Yet he must make do with a place on the bench tonight as coach Michael Cheika goes with Fijian international Isa Nacewa at full-back.

"Nacewa has been in excellent form this season, proving conclusively that full-back is his most effective position, and Cheika cannot be blamed for making a form selection, with Kearney looking a little rusty on his return to action against Edinburgh last weekend.

"But it is bad news for Declan Kidney, a few weeks ahead of November international series, with the Ireland coach understandably anxious for his frontline players to have matches behind them after their enforced post-Lions break."

Donnchadh Boyle, writing in The Irish Independent, evaluates the challengers to Ronan O'Gara's Ireland No.10 jersey.

"What a difference a year makes. From paltry resources to relative health, Ireland's fortunes in the crucial out-half position have transformed dramatically in the last 12 months.

"Jonathan Sexton finally put his hand up as genuine opposition to Ronan O'Gara for the Irish 10 shirt after steering Leinster to Heineken Cup glory last May and the duo are set to go head-to-head in the RDS tomorrow night.

"O'Gara is still very much the man in possession, but, for the first time since David Humphreys retired after the 2006 Six Nations campaign, the Munster man has reason to look over his shoulder."

The winning/entertainment debate sparked by Saracens' unbeaten start to the Premiership season is tackled by Paul Rees in The Guardian.

"English club rugby has never been better supported but, as a new wave of spectators is attracted to it, so they have less regard for the nuances of a complex game. Saracens were last Sunday striving to make their best start to a Premiership campaign and go top of the table but, after they indulged in another bout of aimless kicking with Gloucester in the second half, a large section of the crowd booed.

"Saracens went on to win but the unhappy supporters were looking to see the ball in hand and therein lies the problem. The first month of the Premiership campaign has been played in largely dry and sunny conditions but few games have flowed and tries have been at a premium. Only two sides, London Irish and Northampton, have recorded try bonus points, with the bottom club, Leeds, twice the victims. Five of the 12 sides in the table are averaging less than a try a game, with only Irish, Northampton and Wasps, who were unusually try-shy last season, returning more than two tries a match.

"Whereas the 2007-08 Premiership campaign was notable for a greater sense of adventure than was traditionally associated with the English game, the start of last season was blighted by a combination of the experimental law variations and a refereeing crackdown at the breakdown that left sides reluctant to move the ball in their own half for fear of being caught in possession and penalised."

Writing in The Guardian, Robert Kitson evaluates some of the points emanating from the 'Image of the Game' task-group's recommendations.

"It began in a joke shop in Clapham Junction and ended in shaggy dog style yesterday in the Spirit of Rugby room at Twickenham. According to the Rugby Football Union's specially commissioned rottweilers, their sport is not systematically rotten and there is no urgent need, among other things, to find a new name for their flagship suite. For the game's guardians, this was theoretically the best afternoon since the first spurts of fake blood started to cascade down Tom Williams's chin last March.

"The 138 pages of report, statistical analysis and appendices, though, are by no means covered in whitewash. Contained in the document are a number of issues which should arouse significant concern once everyone has waded through the fine detail of the juiciest rugby survey ever commissioned. Feigning injury to pave the way for uncontested scrums, for example, was something either seen or participated in by 53% of players at senior level. A staggering 27% of coaches, medical and physios admitted to having been involved in such incidents. Thirty-two per cent admitted their club had illegally spied on opponents at least once. It is not only Harlequins who like to pull the occasional fast one.

"Ultimately, the rather pompously named Image of the Game Task Group may also reshape the entire game from The Stoop to Saskatchewan. There is widespread recognition that the root cause of the Bloodgate debacle was the unsatisfactory laws relating to substitutions. Rolling replacements is one possible consequence, a development which would change aspects of the game appreciably. Jonny Wilkinson will probably still be playing for England at the age of 50 if specialist kickers on the bench are allowed to come and go freely. Front-row forwards will simply be rotated when they start to blow, denying their opposite numbers the advantage of playing against a weary pack. For many, a central tenet of union would disappear overnight."

The increasing amount of evening games scheduled for TV forms the basis of Stephen Jones' latest Rolling Maul blog for The Times.

"There are increasing signs that the paying spectator in rugby is being forgotten. Shoving the fans down the pecking order has been a feature of the game since the arrival of professionalism. It is only a matter of time until some television producer decides that he wants rugby matches to kick off at 3am.

"Rather quietly, perhaps hoping that no one would notice, Sky are moving the Saturday afternoon game back to the evening. Games appear to be starting now after 6pm, and with all the injury time and attendant mucking around these days they are lasting well over two hours. The upshot is that fans have to wait all day for their rugby and once they have extricated themselves from the car park it is almost time for bed. Saturday night's festivities have been curtailed or throttled completely.

"So no-one can accuse us of picking on Sky, the big Magners match in Wales on Saturdays is also edging towards evening kick-offs The concept of any rugby being played in daylight hours anywhere in the world is becoming a thing of the past. The Welsh language channel, S4C, is responsible for the latest ghastly infringement of the liberties of paying spectators, although it would be pushing it an awful lot, given the tiny viewership of the channel, to say that millions are thrilled at the new move."

Ruper Guinness meets Australia scrum-half Luke Burgess, one of four options in a tense selection week for coach Robbie Deans, for rugbyheaven.

"With four halfbacks vying for a possible three berths on the Wallabies' grand slam tour, Luke Burgess has promised to ''rip in'' at simulated match sessions during next week's training camp in a bid to make sure he has a seat on the plane.

"With the proposed Probables versus Possibles clash scrapped, coach Robbie Deans will instead hold periods of opposed play under a referee's control in the camp that starts on Monday.

"Asked about the prospect, Burgess yesterday said: ''I'll rip in, don't worry about that.'' He also realises such sessions will offer nowhere to hide, saying: ''You just get the opportunity to try and put everything together and assess more accurately how you are playing. You get a better indication of how your form is.''