Provinces focus turns to Europe after weekend off

The Irish provinces return to action in Europe after a rare New Year's weekend off.

For Leinster the show rolls on, Leo Cullen’s side are a perfect 11 from 11 across all competitions this season.

They top the URC table and have only missed out on bonus points in three of their domestic and European matches so far.

Off the back of Champions Cup victories over Bristol and Clermont, they take on old foes La Rochelle in Stade Marcel-Deflandre on Sunday (3.15pm) before hosting Bath at Aviva Stadium in round four of Pool 2.

"We have an unbelievable challenge in the Champions Cup then going up against La Rochelle away, which will be a great test for us," Cullen said as attention turns to the sides’ sixth meeting since 2021.

"We’ll go over there and try and give a good account of ourselves."

Ronan O’Gara’s team have also won their two group games so far, against Bath and Bristol. They are up to fifth in the Top 14 after Saturday's 22-19 win over a youthful Toulouse side.

Leinster won both a pool game away and a home knockout fixture against the 2022 and 2023 champions last season.

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Ulster, somewhat surprisingly, are second best of Irish provinces according to the league standings.

They moved to eighth following victory over Connacht but dropped down a place when Scarlets beat Dragons.

After two heavy defeats in Europe, Richie Murphy’s focus will be on consolidating their domestic progress but they must also show improvement from the losses to Toulouse (61-21) and Bordeaux (40-19).

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