Sam Prendergast has been recalled to the Ireland team for Saturday night's clash with Australia at the Aviva Stadium (KO 8.10, Live RTÉ2/TNT Sports) and Andy Farrell will give the out-half's former Ireland U-20s teammate Paddy McCarthy his first start.
Some fixtures just don't sound right. Maybe it's just about conceivable that, had things gone slightly differently in the 70s, Malcolm Allison or Terry Venables could have been leading their side behind the Iron Curtain for a crack at Valeriy Lobanovskyi's cybernauts, but Dynamo Kyiv against Crystal Palace is still a clash that provokes a double-take. It feels like a category error: how can those two clubs possibly be in the same competition?