Magners League - international class

The Leinster duo of Cian Healy and Sean O'Brien were joined by Connacht's Sean Cronin in making their Irish debuts, while Dragons back-row man Dan Lydiate became Wales' 1,071st capped player and the Scarlets prop Deacon Manu became a Fijian international.

And new Scottish coach Andy Robinson gave debuts to his former Edinburgh Rugby charges, Kyle Traynor and Alan MacDonald, and Glasgow's Richie Vernon.

All in all, no fewer than 85 players from the 10 Magners League teams played some part in the Autumn International Series around the world - 28 each from Ireland and Wales, 21 from Scotland, 3 from South Africa, two from Fiji and one from Samoa, Canada and Japan.

On top of that impressive array of talent, there were also seven referees from the three Magners League nations involved in major matches during November. Ireland's 2007 Rugby World Cup final referee Alain Rolland was in charge of Italy v South Africa and France v New Zealand, while Wales' Nigel Owens took control of England v Argentina and Ireland v South Africa.

Three other Irish officials, Alan Lewis (Scotland v Argentina), George Clancy (Wales v Argentina) and Peter Fitzgibbon (Wales v Samoa) also refereed major Tests, while Scotland's Peter Allan was in the middle for Ireland A v Argentina A and Wales' James Jones also got into the action by controlling Portugal v Tonga in other IRB sanctioned matches.

These figures underline the growing international significance of the Magners League - as well as the rising standard.