Munster and Leinster draw breath and get ready to go again

There wasn’t much time for Munster to savour that epic win over La Rochelle, with the small matter of a return trip to France for a Champions Cup quarter-final meeting with Bordeaux Bègles looming. “We said it in the dressing-room after the game, it’s all well and good and we could have a beer and enjoy it, but we have to back it up in seven days,” captain Tadhg Beirne tells Gerry Thornley.

The ‘Red Army’ will, then, be on the march again, Gerry saluting the noise and colour they brought to Stade Marcel Deflandre last Saturday, while their team “sure as hell saved the round of 16 weekend”, the other seven ties going the way of the home teams by an average of 25 points.

Owen Doyle doffs his cap too to Munster’s triumph, but he was less impressed by “unacceptable, needless sledging” from some of their players. He wasn’t enormously impressed either by referee Andrea Piardi “mistakenly allowing too much chat”, which is, he writes, “an all too common error” from officials these days.

Leinster are warming up for a quarter-final too, against Glasgow on Friday night, Johnny Watterson hearing from attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal who, somewhat understatedly, describes that 62-0 mauling of Harlequins as “a pleasing result”.

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Meanwhile, the Irish Times has signed a Gaelic games galactico: the Monaghan legend that is Conor McManus will be sharing his thoughts on the Championship right to its conclusion. After his trip to Ballybofey on Sunday, he starts with his view on Donegal’s prospects this summer. Impressed? Very. “Had they this sort of strength in depth last year,” he writes, “I’m pretty sure they’d be defending the All-Ireland.”

And in his column, Seán Moran reflects on the life and times of Mick O’Dwyer, recalling his oft-quoted declaration that he was “blessed to have come from Kerry”. “But that is a circular argument,” Seán writes. “Extraordinary personalities like Mick O’Dwyer are what have made the county what it is.”

In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey previews the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League meeting with Greece in Tallaght this evening, five days after they beat the same opponents 4-0 in Crete. They’ll be without the suspended Katie McCabe and injured Kyra Carusa this time, though. “Time for others to shine,” he writes.

In golf, Philip Reid is over at Augusta National ahead of the start of the Masters on Thursday, the lingering impact of Hurricane Helene, some seven months on, evident as he surveyed the course, more than 1,000 trees felled on that September night.

And in racing, Brian O’Connor brings news that Willie Mullins has a more than reasonable chance of success in Saturday’s Scottish Grand National - not least because he has 11 runners in the field. He’s sending 40 horses in all to the Ayr meeting, the chances of him defending the British champion trainer’s title sky high.

TV Watch: At 7.30, the Republic of Ireland kick off against Greece in Tallaght in the women’s Nations League (RTE 2), and half an hour later we have the first leg of two Champions League quarter-finals - Arsenal v Real Madrid (Premier Sports 1) and Bayern Munich v Inter Milan (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 1).