Today's other stories in brief

Ross makes impact

Eddie O'Sullivan's extended Ireland squad for the Six Nations Championship is due to be announced tomorrow and one player who deserves to be in contention is Harlequins' Cork-born tighthead prop, Mike Ross.

He has been a regular fixture in the front row all season for the London club and some of his recent performances have been caught by the television cameras.

He and Ceri Jones comfortably dominated the front-row battle when squaring up against the Leicester Tigers, Ross dominating the Argentinian Marcos Ayerza.

And on Friday night the Corkman managed to eclipse the Wales international and Cardiff loosehead Gethin Jenkins.

At the very least Ross should get a run for Ireland A against the England Saxons at Welford Road on Friday, February 1st.

Jones in demand

Eddie Jones is definitely the most sought-after coach in rugby. Having assisted head coach Jake White in helping the Springboks win the World Cup, the Australian was confirmed as the new Saracens coach when Alan Gaffney steps down at the end of the season.

Another South Africa side, The Bulls, have, however, managed to bring Jones on board on a part-time basis for the Super 14 tournament.

He will meet with the Bulls' coaching staff today and tomorrow in Pretoria, to provide a "strategic overview" of the team's plans and preparations for the season.

After his visit this week he will again team up with the Bulls' coaching staff before their departure to Australia and New Zealand in mid-March.

He will then meet the Bulls coach Frans Ludeke and his assistants for a third time after they return from Australasia in April.

Gaffney for Leinster?

Speaking of coaching and Alan Gaffney, it appears linking him with the backs coaching job with Ireland is a bit premature; he has yet to have any contact from the IRFU. What appears more likely is Gaffney could return to Leinster in that capacity if David Knox returns to Australia, as seems increasingly likely.

Gaffney is highly regarded by the Leinster players and would be in a position to link up with his old province - he assisted Matt Williams with Leinster before taking on the head coach's role at Munster - when he leaves Saracens.

Murphy awaits call

Johnny Murphy could be playing an away match at home if he's selected for the Ireland A team to take on the England Saxons on Friday night, February 1st.

The promising Naas wing-cum-fullback has made a big impact with the Leicester Tigers this season, so much so that he has amassed more on-field minutes (over 1,000) for the club than any other player.

Next in terms of Leicester game time is Tom Varndell, while another Irishman, scrumhalf Frank Murphy, makes the top 10.

The A international will take place at Welford Road and the unrelated namesakes Johnny and Frank could be joined in the Irish team by another Tiger, Ian Humphreys.

Humphreys is the leading scorer in the English Premiership and having recovered from injury has fought his way into Leicester's match 22 in recent weeks.

Changleng stands down

Malcolm Changleng has decided to stand down from full-time refereeing, ostensibly to return to his teaching job, but there has been speculation he was less than enamoured of being dropped for the current round of European matches.

Changleng (38) became a professional referee in 2002, the highlight taking charge of his first full Test match, between South Africa and Samoa, at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, last summer.

He refereed 16 Heineken European Cup matches and the Under-19 World Cup in Paris.

He was a touch judge at the recent World Cup in France, having been on the Six Nations Championship touch-judging panel since 2004. In total he has run the line at 25 Test matches.

His twin brother, David, is also a rugby referee.

Changleng said: "Having spent so much time travelling to all parts of the rugby world in the last six years I've decided the time is right to spend a bit more time at home with my young family and return to a career in teaching.

"I will continue to referee in Scotland for the rest of the season and review my involvement thereafter."

Coach speak . . .

"You can't get it so wrong defensively in the first half of a game against a side of Irish's quality and expect to win. We had an old-style team talk at half-time and the boys responded to that. At 34-24 down if we'd had scored again it might have been different.

"If you can't get a handle on players like Shane Geraghty and Peter Richards early on then you're always going to be in trouble."

- Dragons coach Paul Turner after his side failed to stop London Irish maintaining their grip on Pool One of the European Cup.