Cameron Hill

This is Rugby Daily on Off the Ball with Bank of Ireland, a proud sponsor of Irish rugby, never stop competing.

The IRFU has confirmed that it has expressed an interest in Irish clubs competing in Premiership women's rugby in the near future.

The English club competition recently opened an expression of interest process to any women's programmes in the UK and Ireland, hoping to join the competition in future seasons.

In a statement to Off the Ball, the IRFU Head of Women's Strategy Lynne Cantwell confirmed they had reached out to PWR, adding that it looks forward to exploring the opportunity further that could enable us to grow the game.

Aoife Wafer, Cliona Maloney-McDonald and Brittany Hogan

are among the nine Ireland players currently playing their trade with PWR sides.

The IRFU is also shaking up the format of the Energy All-Ireland League women's division from next season onwards, with two smaller six-team divisions, 1A and 1B, designed to increase the competitiveness of the domestic competition.

Let's move on to matters URC because there's a big InterPro derby tomorrow in the race for the top eight.

Munster make the trip to Galway to face Connacht at Dexcom Stadium.

The visitors are currently fifth and seven points ahead of the Westerners, who are three points outside the playoff spots right now.

Remember that if Ulster win the Challenge Cup, then only the top seven will make the cut for next season's Investec Champions Cup.

The men in red are without Jack Crowley this weekend.

He had been declared fit earlier this week but that leg injury he suffered in the warm up before their win over Ulster a couple of weeks ago has flared up again it seems.

So JJ Hanrahan starts at out half for the visitors who will also be without the likes of Tyke Byrne, John Klain, Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell and Oli Jaeger this weekend.

It's still very much a period of uncertainty for the province, with the Irish Independent reporting this morning that staff have been informed the club is seeking a number of compulsory redundancies among a pool of 90 to 100 members of staff.

According to the paper, their recent voluntary redundancy programme did not achieve its initial target.

And the fallout has continued over the controversial appointment of Roger Randall as their attack coach, a move that has since fallen through.

Head coach Clayton McMillan had previously defended the appointment, describing Randall as an outstanding human being.

That recruitment of Randall sparked controversy with reports of a historic rape allegation made against him in 1997 resurfacing when he was announced as the replacement for Mike Prendergast.

Randall has always denied the allegation and the charges were dropped against him.