After the Interpros dominated the Irish rugby landscape over Christmas and New Year's Day, it's now time for the Investec Champions Cup to take over as we turn towards the Six Nations.It's been a mixed showing from the Irish sides so far in Europe, with Leinster the only one of the four provinces to win both their opening games.Leo Cullen's side fell to a rare home defeat against Ulster on New Year's Day, but they will be expected to come out firing when they host Stade Francais at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening (5.30pm), which will see them take a big step towards a high seed in the knockout stages.Ulster's win against Leinster was a third in a row in all competitions, with that good run of form starting with their Champions Cup Round 2 victory over Racing 92.
Dan McFarland's side welcome another French giant to Belfast this week, with five-time champions Toulouse in town on Saturday night (8pm).Munster and Connacht are both desperately in need of a win.Two-time winners Munster can revive their knockout hopes if they can pull off a victory away to Toulon on Saturday (3.15pm), but the URC champions know that they will be in dire straights if they fall to a fourth defeat in a row in all competitions.Meanwhile, Connacht are also in France early on Saturday afternoon (1pm) when they face Top14 strugglers Lyon.
Pete Wilkins' side are still searching for their first win of the Champions Cup pools, but come in off the back of a morale-boosting victory over Munster. ONLINE We'll have live blogs, live scoring, reports and reaction across the weekend on www.rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. TV Leinster v Stade Francais is live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Saturday, with coverage getting under way at 4.45pm.