Leinster winger Gordon D'Arcy, who was controversially injured in a late tackle by David Bory after scoring a try against French side Montferrand in the Heineken Cup last Saturday week, appears to be recovering well and is expected to take part in the province's warm-up match against Connacht on January 3rd.
Leinster meet Swansea in the European Cup seven days later and management expect the utility player will be available for selection. D'Arcy is one of 14 Leinster players in Lanzarote with the Irish squad for warm weather training.
Leinster and Blackrock outhalf Emmet Farrell also seems to have avoided a stretch on the bench when he popped a rib yesterday in a training session. But he should be fit to line out against Terenure in their AIB League match at Stradbrook on December 28th.
All refunds on the tickets for the European Cup match between Leinster and Montferrand ceased at noon yesterday. Leinster Rugby will, however, be making a donation to the IRFU Charitable Trust for Injured Players as a goodwill gesture. An unknown number of supporters paid an additional €5 to gain entrance to the game and did not reclaim their refund.
Bryan Hyland (UCC) will coach the Munster under-21s next season with Phillip Danagher (Garryowen) as his assistant and Niall O'Shea (Shannon) continuing as team manager.
Hyland takes over from Pat Cross who is taking a break from representative coaching although he intends staying involved at other levels. Cross was coach to the Munster squad for the past four seasons and for three of those he also coached the national under-21s.
Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald said: "Pat Cross did a superb job for Munster at what is a very important level and on behalf of Munster rugby I would like to thank him for his hard work and commitment to the under-21 squad."
Hyland assumes overall charge of the squad having spent two seasons as assistant to Cross while Danagher steps up to be assistant coach after working last season with the Munster under-21 management in an advisory capacity - along with Tom Murphy (Cork Con). Murphy continues in that role with Mick Lynch (Bruff) taking over from Danagher.
The New Zealand Rugby Union and Adidas yesterday signed a nine-year extension to their commercial partnership. In 1998 Adidas and the NZRU penned a deal from 1999 to 2004 and the two parties have signed an agreement that will extend to 2011.
England's women's side will make history next year when they play at Twickenham for the first time. The English Rugby Football Union have invited their women's counterparts to feature on the same bill as England's Six Nations fixtures against France on February 15th or Italy on March 9th.
