Jonny Holland: European week means big calls and tough conversations in store

The latest round of URC matches ended in continued frustration for Ulster, whereas the other provinces are bouncing into European action this weekend following their respective league wins.

The atmosphere will change within the camps this week. Everyone knows the difference between a European game and league games.

How do you know? Well, the coach has to select their current first-choice team. That puts everyone on edge.

During the other weekends in the league, there will be an element of sharing game time, squad rotation, internationals being rested by the IRFU protocols and the stakes aren’t as high, usually.

Obviously, when it comes to the business end of the year in the league you will get a similar feeling, but we saw with the recent interprovincial matches that the starting team wasn’t necessarily always the strongest team that was available to the coaches.

I’m always interested in other coaches and how they manage the team environment. How do they deal with the strong squads that they have and managing everyone’s game time? How do they keep everyone happy?

The last one is possibly a stupid question, you don’t keep everyone happy. That’s evident from the recent news of Ben Healy opting for pastures new. However, by all accounts there is a very amical relationship being left behind in Munster with the group, and particularly with Graham Rowntree.

You would like to be a fly on the wall in the conversations that occur in each of the provincial centres because every coach has a different way of managing the relationships.

If you’re Leo Cullen this week, Johnny Sexton is injured and you have two brothers vying for the same position. One is the predicted incumbent to not only the Leinster number 10 jersey, but for some experts