Compiled by Johnny Watterson

Clubs seriously worried over IRFU decree on shoolboy players

THE IRFU directive to the four branches regarding schoolboy rugby is causing something of a stir, especially in North Munster.

According to one official in the area, the decision not to allow 15-year-olds to play for their clubs has caused headaches around Limerick, where the clubs nurture and train their young charges from an early age.

Club officials in the province now fear that the flow of players into clubs four or five years down the line will be diminished as the years from 15 to 18, when they leave school, will have broken the relationship between club and player.

According to worried clubmen, it has always been understood that the players would play under-15 leagues for the clubs, which would give them more rugby in a season, especially if a team went out in first round of the schools cup.

The schools have already sent panels into the branches to list the players who are forbidden from playing. Go figure.

Odd symmetry with Northampton

NEIL BEST is keeping interesting company. Late tries enabled Saracens to grind out a victory against the Irish flanker's newly-promoted Northampton over the weekend.

But Northampton's cause was hardly aided by the sinbinning of Ben Foden and Dylan Hartley.

Northampton had decided that it was "not appropriate" to play Best ahead of his hearing. He is cited for "illegally making contact with the eye or eye area" of Wasps' James Haskell, last weekend.

Best's binned team-mate, the English squad hooker Hartley, was the very player banned for six months last year for two counts of eye gouging, against the same team, Wasps, and against the player Best has been accused of fouling, James Haskell. Connacht defeat 'unacceptable' 

CARDIFF BLUES may have broken their own Magners League record score against Connacht, when they beat the Irish province 58-0 on Friday night in Wales. The Blues' previous best result was a 48-0 thrashing of Edinburgh last season.

But perhaps the most impressive statistic to come out of Connacht's crash-and-burn was the fact that the Blues, devastatingly, ran in five tries in an 11-minute phase at the end of the first half - a try every two minutes and 12 seconds.

Oh to be a fly on the wall during that video-analysis session.

Bradley said yesterday that the record defeat was "unacceptable" and he wants the team to hit back next week against Leinster.

"As management and players that is unacceptable. The system broke down and Cardiff ran right through us. In a professional sport that cannot be accepted.

"What happened in the run-up to half-time cannot be allowed again."

Rog the cog

RONAN O'GARA once again demonstrated last night in the RDS he is one of the most vital players in European rugby.

The Munster outhalf will be playing in his 76th Heineken Cup match in a few weeks' time and he has scored points in all but three of the previous 75 matches.

In an unbroken run, O'Gara has also scored in his last 58 tournament appearances in the competition.

Juggling with Cup numbers

THE NUMBER of players registered for this year's Heineken Cup is 38 per team and the deadline passed on September 19th. At least 10 of that 38 must be frontrow players. But clubs will be given the option of including an additional player during the pool stages.

This additional player must replace one of the team's existing players, who will then be deregistered with the club.

Teams that qualify for the knock-out stages will again be allowed to register a further three players, one of whom must be qualified to play in the frontrow.

Barnhall best in development blitz

OVER 250 players from Dublin and the surrounding counties collected last weekend for an inaugural Development Blitz.

Seven clubs were invited to the tournament, Greystones, Ratoath, Barnhall, Suttonians, Tallaght and Terenure taking part, not all of them the traditional clubs from which young Leinster rugby players usually emerge. The venue was Ballymun and the blitz was organised by the Unidare-Finglas club. No, rugby isn't standing still in Dublin 4.

An interesting aside was that the Terenure team contained seven different nationalities.

For the record, Barnhall won both the under-18 and under-16 Liam Mellows Perpetual Cups.