JAMES HARRINGTON
FRENCH COLUMN

No matter what Leinster thought about the situation when the news broke, European rugby officials took one of just two reasonable options open to them when they cancelled those unplayed Champions and Challenge Cup round two games from December and recorded them all as 0-0 draws.
The other would have been to cut the two-leg last-16 play-off stage to a winner-takes-all one-leg affair. The thinking behind the decision to sacrifice December games to the greater hope of more competitive, mean-something matches in mid- April, when the sun will be shining and ...