Once upon a time, the Football League in England would schedule reverse fixtures at Christmas time.

Originally, these two games would be on Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day, until, in the 1960s it was decided not to schedule matches on Christmas Day.

These games were often high-scoring affairs and there was also a strange lack of form from one game to the next. Taking 1957 as a random example, Chelsea won 7-4 at home to Portsmouth on Christmas Day and lost 3-0 on the south coast the following day, Blackpool had a 5-1 victory over Leicester City before losing 2-1 to the Foxes and Nottingham Forest won 4-1 away to Newcastle only to then go down 3-2 at home.

There is a likelihood that the, shall we say, festivities of the season had a part to play – teams often travelled together on the train the night before the second game – but the lesson to be taken from this is that playing the same team twice in quick succession doesn’t necessarily yield the same result.

In European rugby, that’s even more true, given how much of a help home advantage is. To that end, Leinster and Ulster have the harder part of their back-to-back fixtures out of the way after away wins last weekend, while Munster and Connacht face trips to France that may not be foregone conclusions.

Relentless Leinster

Leinster came away from Bath’s Recreation Ground with a 17-10 win last Saturday in Pool 1, while group leaders Toulouse were victorious away to Wasps. Leinster, without Robbie Henshaw and Seán O’Brien were made to earn their four points.

We said here last week that it would be a challenge for the Ireland players who had experienced such highs in November to maintain their high levels and so it proved.

Jordan Larmour though took advantage of a place in the starting 15, showing that he had put a difficult day against Argentina behind him with a fine intercept try to put Leo Cullen’s side ahead for the first time.

Those results leave Toulouse and Leinster clear of the other pair, the French side two points ahead at the top of the table. Effectively, first and second places are now all that must be decided and to that end, a bonus-point win for Leinster this weekend is imperative if they are to stay in touch ahead of the pivotal home game against Toulouse in January.

Munster grind it out

Unfortunately for Munster, their own bonus point proved elusive against Castres at Thomond Park on Sunday afternoon, Johann van Graan’s side going over three times in a 30-5 win.

The attacking game just didn’t seem to flow for the men in red, with Conor Murray naturally a bit rusty after a long lay-off. However, they did at least secure the win, with JJ Hanrahan excelling as a late replacement for the injured Joey Carbery.

They remain three points ahead of Gloucester at the top after the English side won 27-19 against Exeter, also failing to secure a bonus.

Castres can’t really qualify at this stage but there was some needle throughout last weekend’s game and, on home turf on Saturday evening, will be keen to show Munster that the performance in Limerick wasn’t a true reflection of their capabilities.

Bonus point for Ulster

Ulster, at home to Scarlets on Friday night, will be fancied to pick up another win after a 25-24 victory in Wales last Friday. This one wasn’t as close as the scoreline would suggest, Marcell Coetzee’s try for Ulster on 64 minutes securing the bonus point and putting Ulster 25-17 ahead, before Dan Davis’ try at the death tightened up the scoreline.

Unfortunately for Ulster, Racing 92 also got a bonus point at home to Leicester Tigers and the French side are five points clear at the top of the table and looking rampant. While a win against the French side could see Ulster overhaul them, their most realistic hope of qualification is as one of the three best second-placed sides.

Like Leinster, they will be on the hunt for another bonus-point win to keep that dream alive. With Scarlets conceding an average of 28 points in their three games so far, it’s a strong likelihood that it will come to pass at Kingspan Stadium.

Connacht in contention

Connacht are also in action on Friday, going to France to take on Perpignan after a 22-10 win at the Sportsground in Galway. Like Ulster, they are probably playing for second place, with Sale Sharks having had bonus-point victories in all three of their outings so far well clear.

Connacht are six points ahead of Perpignan, but if they were to be beaten then the battle for second place would be back on and securing a quarter final spot as a best runner-up would be an uphill battle.

Four wins from four last weekend was an impressive showing for the provinces and a repeat of that would be an excellent way to leave things heading into Christmas and the final two rounds of pool games in January. It will of course be difficult for that to materialise but it’s not at all beyond the bounds of possibility.