ROBBIE HENSHAW WAS named man of the match but it could have gone to several other Leinster players.

Only nine minutes into yesterday’s Champions Cup quarter-final in Sandy Park, the smart money was on an Exeter player walking away with the award for the best individual performance. 14-0 up, the defending champions had a massive early advantage.

But Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster’s Leinster steadied themselves rapidly after the poor start and they were soon wrestling momentum back onto their side, as Exeter boss Rob Baxter noted during his in-game interview on BT Sport.

The Premiership side did get on top again early in the second half but Leinster were in control for far longer periods of the quarter-final to deservedly advance into this evening’s semi-final draw, which will take place after the Clermont v Toulouse quarter-final.

Cullen and co. would love a home draw in Dublin for the weekend of 30 April/1/2 May but they did it on the road against Exeter yesterday, with a host of top-class performances helping them to success.

Henshaw continued his superb form in midfield, combining excellent defensive decision-making with sharp handling and his usual impact in the carry and tackle. A Lions Test jersey awaits if he keeps this up into the summer.

Leinster’s back row was very important, right from the moment Jack Conan’s huge carry from a free-kick gave them the impetus that led all the way to Hugo Keenan offloading for James Lowe’s try, the first Leinster score.

Openside flanker Josh van der Flier had another excellent game, delivering impact with his team-leading 22 tackles, earning two breaking turnovers, and also continuing his impactful ball-carrying form. The 27-year-old is timing his venomous runs onto the ball to perfection these days.

James Lowe and Hugo Keenan. Source: James Crombie/INPHO

As ever, Rhys Ruddock was a grizzly presence from the blindside as Leinster managed to limit the usually outstanding Sam Simmonds’ influence from Exeter’s number eight shirt.

In the front row, Rónan Kelleher was the standout for Leinster as he provided consistent dynamism in what were brutal collisions. His two breakdown turnovers were crucial, the second allowing Ross Byrne to kick three points off the tee, while Kelleher was part of a strong set-piece showing.

Replacement out-half Byrne excelled after coming on for captain Johnny Sexton, whose 28th-minute departure with a head injury had seemed like an obvious big blow for Leinster. Instead, Byrne was all composure.

His first touch was a superb pass that allowed Keenan to put Jordan Larmour away for his first try, then Byrne nailed his touchline conversion from wide on the right and soon added the aforementioned three points.

Even while shipping high tackles from Jonny Hill and Jannes Kirsten, Byrne looked unflappable in a performance that underlined how vital it is for Leinster to have a back-up out-half of his quality.

Byrne was aided by the leadership of scrum-half Luke McGrath, who is having a brilliant season in the number nine shirt and must be testing Andy Farrell’s thoughts on the Ireland pecking order. 

Larmour took his two tries very well, the second a particularly excellent finish in the right corner, while James Lowe bounced back to something much closer to his best after his recent disappointment with Ireland in the Six Nations.

Brock Lesnar entered the Money in the Bank ladder match in the closing moments and secured the MITB brief case. He apparently took Sami Zayn’s spot as the 8th competitor in the contest.

BEAST WITH THE BANK!!!! @BrockLesnar #MITB pic.twitter.com/4ldfNh1U1V
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) May 20, 2019

.@BrockLesnar IS MR. MONEY IN THE BANK!!!!! #MITB pic.twitter.com/33s6nEao8H
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) May 20, 2019

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#BrockInTheBank. #MITB @wwenetwork
A post shared by WWE (@wwe) on May 19, 2019 at 7:44pm PDT

THE BEAST.#MITB @BrockLesnar @HeymanHustle pic.twitter.com/DSp1mbgbLt
— WWE (@WWE) May 20, 2019

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LEINSTER’S SCOTT FARDY has announced that he will retire from professional rugby at the end of the current season.

The 36-year-old will hope to help the province to another Heineken Champions Cup success, as well as the Rainbow Cup, before hanging his boots up.

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Fardy joined Leinster in 2017 and set about making himself one of the best-ever foreign signings into Irish rugby with consistently excellent performances in the second row and at blindside flanker.

Fardy previously won 39 caps for the Wallabies and played a key role in their progress into the 2015 World Cup final.

Having spent three seasons playing Japanese club rugby with the Kamaishi Seawaves, he was a central figure for the Brumbies in Super Rugby from 2012 until 2017 when he signed for Leinster.

Fardy helped the province to a Pro14 and Champions Cup double in his first season, starting the European decider against Racing 92 at blindside. 

He also started the 2019 and 2021 Pro14 final successes for Leinster in the second row, coming off the bench in their 2020 victory.

This season will be his last in the professional game.

“I’ve loved every minute of this adventure, not only the last few years with Leinster but all of it and of course there is still a lot of rugby to be played this season,” said Fardy.

“We are still on a high after the weekend and we’ve a massive few weeks ahead and that is our focus right now.

“We’ve a week off at the moment and then we’ll begin our build up with a game against Munster Rugby and then the massive challenge of facing La Rochelle away in France.

“There will be time to sit back, reflect and to thank the clubs and the people that have played a part in my playing career when the season is done and maybe even in person.

“It’s been a hard year for everyone in society and playing without our fans has been difficult but hopefully off the back of Monday’s news, I might be able to say thank you and goodbye at the RDS in front of our supporters which would be special.

“Until then all my energy and focus is on finishing the season strongly with Leinster.”

Fardy joined Devin Toner and Michael Bent in lifting the Pro14 trophy for the province after their most recent title success.

He has played for the province 76 times so far. Leinster boss Leo Cullen paid tribute to Fardy.

Authorities still have not released official details on Ashley Massaro’s passing but they responded to a “rescue call” from Massaro’s home in Smithtown, NY on Thursday morning at 5:23am ET. She was then taken to a local hospital and passed away there. Police did not suspect foul play and they classified her death as non-criminal. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner confirmed that they received the body and were investigating. We will know more when they release the autopsy results.
Massaro, who was active with fans on Twitter and had just responded to a batch of fan mail on Wednesday, was planning a trip to Las Vegas this week, according to her friend and former WWE Diva Rochelle Loewen. Loewen took to Instagram to remember Massaro and said they just spoke about the “girls trip” to Vegas. Despite what Loewen wrote in her post, no official details on how Massaro passed have been announced by authorities.
Loewen wrote, “Dear Ashley, when you said you were in pain. Maybe I didn’t understand to which extent. You were supposed to be here in Vegas on this girls trip (which I’m on right now). We spoke yesterday. You said you were coming. Now. Now. Now, you’re gone. I’m at a loss. I don’t know how to prosess this quite yet. I miss you Ashely. I miss you already babe. We spoke no more than 24 hours ago. #imsorry #ididntunderstand #depression #suicide #careforyourfriends”

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Dear Ashley, when you said you were in pain. Maybe I didn’t understand to which extent. You were supposed to be here in Vegas on this girls trip (which I’m on right now). We spoke yesterday. You said you were coming. Now. Now. Now, you’re gone. I’m at a loss. I don’t know how to process this quite yet. I miss you Ashely. I miss you already babe. We spoke no more than 24 hours ago. #imsorry #ididntunderstand #depression #careforyourfriends
A post shared by Rochelle Loewen (@rochelleloewen.fit) on May 16, 2019 at 7:39pm PDT

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SATURDAY’S WOMEN’S SIX Nations meeting between Italy and Ireland has been moved to Dublin after Italy agreed to give up home advantage in order to allow the game to go ahead.

The sides were set to meet in the Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma this weekend in the third/fourth-place playoff, but Covid-19 quarantine requirements have seen it moved to Donnybrook’s Energia Park (kick-off 12 noon).

Under current Irish policy, Adam Griggs and his squad would have been required to go through mandatory hotel quarantine or an equivalent arrangement on their return from Italy.

However, Italy can be granted an elite athletes’ quarantine exemption from the Irish government to travel to Dublin for the fixture.

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“The change has been made as the Ireland team would not have been able to fulfil the current requirement to isolate for 14 days on their return from Italy,” the IRFU confirmed in a short statement.

In respect of world ranking calculations, the match will now be recorded as an Ireland home fixture.

“We wish to really thank the Italian Federation and the Italian Women’s team for accommodating this significant change to their plans by travelling to Ireland instead of playing at home,” Six Nations Rugby CEO Ben Morel.

“Both Italy and Ireland have played some fantastic rugby already in this competition. We’re looking forward to a great match and a brilliant start to Finals Day.”

Unfortunately, Ric Flair’s medical condition will not allow him to fly to Vegas this weekend. Of course, that means his Meet & Greets are canceled and we have begun the refund process with EventBrite. We expect all refunds to be submitted by the end of this week.
The Roast of Ric Flair will be postponed to a later date yet to be determined. As such we will also be refunding the Open Bar bracelets for the Roast that were purchased.
Ric also had Meet & Greets with the Horsemen. These will be refunded as well but we will have an alternative option available during that same time: put on a real Ric Flair robe, hold the original Big Gold Belt, and have your picture made with the Horsemen against what looks like the old WTBS set. To be clear, the current Meet & Greet with the Horsemen will be refunded. But this new experience will be made available for purchase tonight at 8 PM Eastern and offered at a greatly reduced price from the original Horsemen Meet & Greet.
Steamboat will also have an option to get your photo with him against that same WTBS backdrop, with the Big Gold Belt, and you wearing a Ric Flair robe. Again the original Flair/Steamboat meet and greet will be refunded. But this new experience will also be available for purchase tonight at 8 PM Eastern.
Of course, there is no replacing the Nature Boy but we believe these are truly unique experiences we hope you will enjoy.
We can’t thank you enough for your continued support!
-Starrcast
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LEINSTER’S ROWAN OSBORNE will be a Munster player next season.

Osborne’s switch, which was first reported by The42 last month, has been confirmed this afternoon.

The 24-year-old scrum-half will leave his home province this summer to link up with Johann van Graan’s squad on a one-year contract.

“I am delighted to be joining Munster next season, one of the biggest clubs in Europe with a great fanbase and history,” Osborne said.

“I am hugely looking forward to working with and learning from a really talented group of players and a great coaching ticket and working hard to help bring success to the club.”

With Nick McCarthy moving in the opposite direction by returning to Leinster for the 2021-22 campaign, Osborne will join Conor Murray, Craig Casey and Neil Cronin as an option for the southern province’s number nine shirt.

Osborne, who attended Clongowes Wood College, represented the Ireland Schools team in 2014 but did not advance to the Leinster academy.

After becoming a key player for Trinity in the All-Ireland League, he first linked up with Leinster during the summer of 2019 and impressed while on trial. He made his professional debut that October against the Ospreys, before scoring a try a week later off the bench against Edinburgh.

.@WWENXT brings the war to Chicago #SurvivorSeries weekend…#NXTTakeOver: WarGames is LIVE Saturday, November 23rd from the @AllstateArena.
Tickets go on sale Friday at 10am CT at https://t.co/RDX9iI3fat.#WeAreNXT pic.twitter.com/2zKqjg4f0v
— Triple H (@TripleH) May 20, 2019

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IT WAS THE summer of ’18. Ross Byrne took his seat in the middle aisle at Sydney for the long trip home.

Up there in the processed air of the thrumming tube, Byrne had time to think. They’d stop off in Abu Dhabi for a couple of hours before taking the last leg of the journey back to Dublin; 21 hours of flight-time, more than enough for someone to figure out what they’re going to do next.

Around him Ireland’s internationals were in end-of-season party mood. Thirty-two of them boarded that flight, 31 of them able to reflect on their contribution to a successful Australian tour. The odd one out was the man in the middle aisle, the only member of the travelling squad not to get a minute’s action.

In life, everyone has a choice. Good guys can become bad guys; reality TV stars can get a proper job; unused subs can become sour. Alternatively, they can step off an aeroplane on a sunny Monday morning in Dublin Airport and decide they want to become Johnny Sexton. You just have to believe in your own storyline.

The Ross Byrne story begins a little earlier. It’s the second week of December, 2016. Sexton has gone down injured, so too Cathal Marsh. Leo Cullen checks his spreadsheet and remembers he has only one fit out-half registered with the EPCR. He turns to his fourth-choice ten, scribbles his name on a form and sends it away to the offices in Geneva.

In all the previews to Leinster’s game against Northampton that week, Ross Byrne is barely a footnote, filed away under the section: in other news. Sixteen minutes in, Joey Carbery goes off with an ankle injury, and the player whose name was prefixed ‘medical swap’ is introduced for his European debut. Almost straight away, he fires a crossfield kick for Rory O’Loughlin to score. Leinster win 37-18 in Franklin’s Gardens.

Byrne’s crossfield kick against Saints in ’16. Source: Inpho/Billy Stickland

Five years on, it’s a bigger European game Byrne is preparing for this weekend, his 100^th in a Leinster shirt, his 11^th Champions Cup start for the four-time winners. Leinster, by the way, won the previous 10.

Some commentators are saying this represents a changing of the guard. The king is dead. Long live the king. But it is not quite that simple and not just because Sexton is the type of character who could reappear out of the coffin to kick a winning penalty. “Anyone who writes Johnno off is crazy,” said Darragh Fanning, the former Leinster winger. “He’s plenty of rugby left in him.”

But there’s another truth. Cullen has been changing the guard back-and-forth for four years; Byrne playing almost 30 more hours rugby than Sexton for Leinster in that timeframe. This year alone, Sexton has started only five games for his province, going off injured in four.

It all means that the guy who many observers believe isn’t even the best out-half in his family has done a lot more than just serve an apprenticeship. He has become the unlikeliest and most unheralded star in recent Leinster history. “Ross is about to play his 100^th game for Leinster,” Fanning says, “and let’s be blunt here, you can’t be lucky 100 times. He’s vastly underrated.”

There’s evidence to back up that assertion. It is two years now since Leinster lost a game with Byrne as their starting 10, a run that includes two successive Pro14 finals. If he had a different personality, he’d shout loudly about that. But he doesn’t court publicity according to colleagues of his within the Leinster camp and has been known to turn down endorsement opportunities.

Byrne and Sexton celebrate the Pro14. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

This opportunity is different, though. This is a Champions Cup semi-final, Leinster’s biggest game in two years and a match that could propel Byrne’s career onto a different level.

“What I see in him is the unspectacular; what I mean by that is that he does not do anything outrageous for the sake of it, a bit like Ollie Campbell back in the day,” says Eddie O’Sullivan, the former Ireland coach. “That’s something you look for as a coach because a No10 in modern day rugby is a bit like a quarterback in the NFL. The load has got heavier because they have so many decisions to make.

“I’ve been through this. I had Rog and Humps (Ronan O’Gara and David Humphreys) when I was Ireland coach, so I was lucky. In other jobs, I wasn’t so fortunate with my outhalves and trust me playing without a proper 10 in the modern game in rugby is an absolute nightmare. If you said to me, what is the first name on your list, I’d go 10. Without a 10, you aren’t going anywhere.”

Three weeks ago, in Sandy Park against the defending European champions, Exeter, Leinster were without a 10. Worse again, when Sexton went off, they were 14-7 down. It was their No22, Ross Byrne, who helped turn it around.

“Again, I go back to the Ollie Campbell comparison because Ross Byrne is that type of player,” says O’Sullivan.

Ollie Campbell in 1982. Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO

 “Every time he goes out, he has done a good job. He’s assured, he kicks well. The transition is seamless to the extent that no one is saying Leinster won’t win in La Rochelle because Johnny Sexton is not playing. Instead they are saying; Leinster could win this because, with Ross Byrne, you have someone who is not going to cause a blip.

“At the end of the trail here, he has huge potential, to the extent that he could become the de-facto Ireland No10 once Sexton goes. And that’s putting Joey Carbery into the loop as well. He has come to the No10 position with Leinster and Ireland, and has come to it in a funny way, in the sense that he has been the bridesmaid in Leinster effectively.

“So he has had to set out his stall as a bridesmaid to Sexton – and no would argue that it should be otherwise – but despite living under that shadow, he has managed to get capped for Ireland which is a hell of an achievement because if you go back through Irish rugby history, when has this sort of thing happened before, where a back-up out-half at provincial level gets capped for their country?

“Byrne has come through the Leinster crucible, a club where it is very hard to get a gig at. Worse again, every time he got a Leinster jersey and went on the field, he was compared to Johnny.

“People might say that there’s less pressure on you when you are a back-up – but I’d say the opposite because you are judged against this guy every time you touch the ball.”

It was all well and good when Sexton was the only person Byrne was being compared with. But then Harry – his younger brother – came along. Harry has a step. Harry has the X-Factor. Harry has Brian O’Driscoll singing his praises. Harry could get a gig modelling Peter Mark’s hair products if he wanted one.