Stuart Barnes breaks down the weekend’s talking points including Connacht’s maiden league double over Munster, and looks ahead to the Champions Cup semi-finals...
The column is a little bit Janus-headed this week as we look backwards to the action of the last weekend and forward to the European semi-finals this forthcoming one.
1. First we head back to the immediate past and Galway; what a monumental effort by Pat Lam and his team, not just victory but a hammering of Munster.
Five years ago this was beyond dreaming, now it is a reality. They play a bold brand of ball-handling rugby. Their skipper John Muldoon doesn't know if it is too unpragmatic to win a trophy but he knows it's entertaining to watch and enjoyable to play, as he told Graham Simmons post-match, before the party started.
European Champions Cup rugby is going to be all the better for making the long journey to the west of Ireland although there is not a team who will be anything but wary.
2. In a little under three weeks, the Guinness PRO12 Champions, Glasgow, will visit Galway with a home semi-final the reward for the winners.
Gregor Townsend's team are in terrific form, they are timing their run to perfection. If Connacht can repel them and secure a home semi-final anything is possible. If Glasgow win they have a semi-final in Glasgow and a final in Edinburgh. Victory in Galway makes them strong favourites - if they are not already.
The Scarlets may have entered round 20's game with the remnants of a tummy bug but Glasgow's form must be making the other contenders feel a little queasy.
3. On the other side of the Severn, Exeter failed to bounce back from the heartbreak of their last-kick loss to Wasps in the European quarter-finals. Defeat against an out-of-form Gloucester team relegated them to third place in the Premiership. Psychological blows can do more damage than their physical equivalent.
4. Maxwell Keys, the man in the middle at Gloucester, didn't help Exeter's cause with the second-half yellow carding of Jack Nowell. No one wants to bash a referee but we need to talk about those words, 'intent' and 'outcome'.
Exeter's England ace, Nowell, had no more intent to do harm than Manu Tuilagi the next day for Leicester. Both men were penalised for 'taking the player's legs beyond the horizontal'. Because the Saint fought the tackle and landed on his back, compared to the Gloucester lad, almost spearing himself into the ground to present perfect ball, the one tackler was sin-binned the other was not when the offence was identical.
Now, I know that the law has mulish tendencies but where is the justice when outcome trumps intent? World Rugby needs to revise the refereeing phrasebook in a hurry.
5. Elsewhere in England, Sale's predictable win against beleaguered Bath saw them jostling into European contention. It looks like the sixth English place will be two of three from Sale, Northampton and Harlequins. Of the three teams, it is Sale who have the momentum and a season that some will regard as one of happy over-achievement. Steve Diamond is doing a good job.
6. To the sevens variant. I read that 45,000 spectators watched Kenya beat Fiji in the Singapore sevens. What an excellent effort from Kenya. It was their first triumph and Fiji the victims; fabulous stuff. The last time I caught a glimpse of Singapore's stadium being used for rugby there seemed barely 450 people watching the Sunwolves play Super Rugby. I guess one man's goose is another's gander.
7. Now to the future and this coming weekend. Let's start with the game of the weekend, Saracens versus Wasps.
Saracens have the recent European experience, the lineout, the kicking game, the defence and two back three men in peak form in the shape of Alex Goode and Chris Ashton ,who has scored five tries since returning three games ago from suspension.
Wasps have Christian Wade who equalled Ryan Constable's record of six tries in a Premiership game on Saturday. After the match the winger said his team had felt flat during the game. Saracens will want to keep them from bubbling.
If Saracens can control the lineout, they control the kick/chase game and with it the territory. Control the territory and they win the game nine times out of 10. But there's one team with the firepower to frighten them from the deepest parts of their own 22... you've got it, Wasps. Wasps will also look to win the breakdown battle, an area of strength this season. Saracens are expected to win - by the bookmakers as well as yours truly - but Wasps have stings aplenty in their tail.
8. Forward 24 hours to Nottingham and Leicester meet Racing 92. Dear old Scott Quinnell goes puce at the mention of Nottingham as memories of Tim Stimpson bouncing a long-range penalty off the crossbar to beat them come rushing back. This one could be as tight.
The Tigers eased past the poorer of the Parisian sides in the quarter-final but this is another matter altogether. It was an ugly affair in the suburbs of Paris but beating the triple champions, Toulon, will have done plenty for Racing's self belief. Their scrum was surprisingly poor but their lineout superb. Defensively they are well drilled and if Dan Carter is fit - in New Zealand he would already have been ruled out but he's no longer in the pay of the NZRFU and this is the type of game for which he was bought - they have someone to steer them through the nervous moments.
As for Leicester, they have been brilliant this season. They are playing an adventurous style of rugby that leaves them looking exposed now and again but the Tigers are committed to an expansive game to take them back to the top. If they tighten up, Racing might prove too powerful. Keep playing, Leicester.
9. Harlequins would love a trophy to highlight the last year of Conor O'Shea's command. They have a home Challenge Cup semi-final against a middling French team in Grenoble. The final should beckon although Grenoble have nothing to worry about after a decent year that has seen them safely clear of the dreaded relegation scrap. Even so, anything but a Harlequins win would be a shock.
10. Montpellier are second in the French league but fielding strong teams in the Challenge Cup. The re-emergence of French club rugby in the second tier European tournament is a welcome one, except maybe for the Newport Gwent Dragons who would prefer them to focus on domestic glory.
To win against Jake White's team in the south of France would be the greatest performance of the Dragons history and a boost for rugby in that old hotbed of Welsh forward play in Gwent.
Let the action commence.....