Ireland v England a pre-cursor to Heineken Cup quarter-final clashes

Ahead of the quarter-final, the respective half-backs will go head-to-head in green and white - Leinster's Eoin Reddan and Jonathan Sexton against the Tigers' duo of Ben Youngs and Toby Flood.

Leinster, who have nine players involved in the Ireland 22 for tomorrow's clash with England, qualified in second place for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals to earn themselves a home tie with theTigers. The winners of that game will then have home country advantage in the semi-finals against the winners of the Biarritz Olympique-Toulouse quarter-final.

Tigers forwards Dan Cole, Louis Deacon and Tom Croft will be able to test the power of the five Leinster forwards in the Irish squad, including former Leicester player Leo Cullen. The game will also see Cian Healy and Cole going up against one another in the front row three weeks ahead of their club re-match.

There will also be a few points to be made by the Ulster quartet of Andrew Trimble, Rory Best, Tom Court and Paddy Wallace in advance of their quarter-final game against No 1 seeds Northampton Saints in Milton Keynes on Sunday, 10 April. Chris Ashton has warmed-up for the Saints' onslaught on Europe by scoring a record equalling six tries in this season's Championship and along with clubmates, Ben Foden and Dylan Hartley, the wing has played in every game to date during England's tilt at a 13th Grand Slam.

Munster, meanwhile, may have missed out on the Heineken Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1998, but they are determined to atone by following Cardiff Blues as winners of the Amlin Challenge Cup.

Munster travel to Brive in the quarter-finals and will have home advantage in the semi-finals against either Harlequins or London Wasps if they win in France. Nick Easter and Danny Care will be hoping to guide Quins to victory over their Aviva Premiership rivals on Friday, 8 April, while their England squad colleagues Simon Shaw and Joe Worsley are bound to have other ideas.