Mixed fortunes in the Magners League

Last week may have heralded a new dawn in Irish rugby with the resignation of Eddie O’Sullivan, but for Ulster and Connacht, the familiarity of another painful defeat leaves them propping up the table again.

Two codes of rugby gradually becoming one

In 1895, a dispute over player payments led to the creation of two codes of rugby. For the first time in those 123 years, the two vaguely similar games have never appeared so close. Are the Experimental Law Variations to blame?