Tony Ward reviews Ireland's Heineken Cup campaign and touches on the continuing problems faced by Italian sides in The Irish Independent.

"It's the equivalent in Olympic currency of three golds and a silver for our provinces in Europe. "Munster, Leinster topped their pools and ensured home quarter-finals in the Heineken Cup, and Connacht did the same in the Amlin Challenge Cup. Ulster finished a close second in their Heineken Cup group and were desperately unlucky to miss out on the consolation of a place in the last eight of Europe's shadow competition. "It is said you reap what you sow but, in Ulster's case, I'm not so sure as, yet again, the pools with an Italian presence - Treviso and Viadana - provided the two best runners-up, in Northampton and the Ospreys. That is the one real weakness in the system. Draw an Italian team in the pool and straightaway you're in with a double-route chance of qualification for the knock-outs. "It re-emphasises the need to get the Italians' act together, to get the professional game there up to speed with the rest. We all want the Italian game to succeed but right now it is a huge albatross around the neck of the ERC."