Leinster & Ulster At Home, Munster Away In Heineken Cup Opening Round

While Munster must take to the road in the opening round of this year’s Heineken Cup, Leinster and Ulster will have the comforts of home when they entertain Leicester Tigers and Gloucester respectively.

Ulster have a familiar Friday night slot for their joust with Gloucester (8pm) while Leinster open the following day with a 1.30pm start against Leicester Tigers.

With Bourgoin, arguably the weakest French side to follow for Ulster they should be happy enough with the schedule and while Leinster should be happy to get Tigers early on, they cannot be at all happy with the 9pm kick off time for their second round tie away to Toulouse. That game is on a Sunday evening and while an extra night in France might not discommode their affluent supporters, it is certain to rightly infuriate Leinster players and management.

Never mind the difficulties associated with preparing an away side for a game with such a late kick-off it means with Monday used up getting the Leinster squad back home, they will only have two, possibly three days at home to prepare, before they head for the airport again for the trip to Swansea and the Magners League tie against Ospreys.

If ERC use the, ‘TV dictates’ excuse, as they are wont to do, it is hard to understand how the Bristol versus Stade Francais game gets a prime time 3pm kick-off  ahead of the three times winners Toulouse versus last year’s quarter-finalists Leinster.