Many of this Saturday's opening round matches in the European Cup have been postponed until Sunday as a mark of respect to Diana, Princess of Wales, although the Leinster-Toulouse European Cup tie at Donnybrook will go ahead as scheduled.
The European Cup organisers decided yesterday that no games involving British sides should go ahead on or before Saturday's funeral at Westminster Abbey. The unaffected matches are Leinster versus Toulouse and Benetton-Treviso versus Pau.
The Harlequins versus Munster game in Pool D will now be played on Sunday but there is a doubt surrounding the timing of the Pool B fixture between Ulster and Glasgow at Ravenhill, as well as the European Conference tie between Connacht and Northampton.
Ulster, traditionally, do not play on Sundays and so the Ulster Branch have sought clarification from the European Cup organisers with a view to holding their game on Friday evening as originally scheduled. Northampton, due to their close proximity to the Spencer home, declined to play at all this weekend and so their Conference trip to Connacht has been postponed until next Tuesday.
The Conference tie involving London Irish and Stade Francais will now be played on Sunday.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) chairman Rob Fisher has said that he is planning to put a proposal to the International Rugby Football Board's for a pan-Pacific rugby competition.
Fisher, vice-chairman of the IRB and a director of the 1999 World Cup, will table the proposal, drawn up with Pacific island representatives, at next Monday's meeting of the board of the Rugby World Cup Ltd in Dublin.
Rod Macqueen heads a short-list of three official contenders released by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) as they seek to replace national coach Greg Smith.
The ARU originally announced a four-man short-list, but the number of contenders was trimmed to three when Australian under-21 coach Ian Kennedy declared himself a nonstarter. Included in the short list are Queensland coach John Connolly and Cardiff's Australian coach Alec Evans.
Yesterday's short-list ended speculation that former two Wallaby coaches, Bob Dwyer and Alan Jones, would be sought for the job, which was vacated by Smith last week after the Wallabies returned from a record 61-22 humiliation by South Africa in Pretoria.
