new season fixtures

[stevekaney]

anybody know when new fixtures announce? rabo direct & hc pool games?

[stef.s]

Home to Munster on the opening weekend.

Away to Cardiff for the 2nd

[frillage]

Home to Munster on the opening weekend.

Away to Cardiff for the 2nd

Anyone keep up with required rest periods for Irish players? Will they all be back for munster or unable to play by order of irfu?

[dropkick]

Home to Munster on the opening weekend.

Away to Cardiff for the 2nd

Anyone keep up with required rest periods for Irish players? Will they all be back for munster or unable to play by order of irfu?

The players who went on the summer tour might miss the first few games. Munster have also injuries and a new coach who wants to change things around.

The Munster team could be something like:
Du Preez, Varley, Botha
Nagle, Foley
Stander, O'Donnell, Coughlan

Stringer, Keatley
O'Dea, Lualala, Downey, Howlett
Johne Murphy

[Rico]

I reckon the fixture list this year will work in our favour since, if I'm reading it right, it looks like we will be playing teams who will lose about as many internationalists as we will during the Autumn Internationals and Six Nations (Ospreys during both periods and Munster, Cardiff, Scarlets and Ulster during the Six Nations) rather than the likes of Connacht, Newport etc who can more or less play full strength teams during these periods. Hopefully this, together with the greater depth we now have, means that we might have a chance of sneaking some points during these periods rather than just riding it out as best we can until the internationalists return, like in previous seasons.

Plus it if means we can pummel Newport and Connacht this time around as payback for their victories over us last season, so much the better ....!

[Dalkiethladdie]

Heineken Fixtures out Thursday.

[Rico]

Will be interesting to see the date for our away game at Saracens since there's talk about them potentially playing some of their games "further afield" this season until their new stadium is ready.

If they want to make use of Murrayfield for this fixture, I sure we could oblige ....

[Rico]

Will be interesting to see the date for our away game at Saracens since there's talk about them potentially playing some of their games "further afield" this season until their new stadium is ready.

If they want to make use of Murrayfield for this fixture, I sure we could oblige ....

Have they said when they're likely to be playing games further afield?

Have done a bit more digging on this and found the following:

http://www.saracens.com/news/view.php?Id=7061
http://www.rugbynetwork.net/main/s104/st178358.htm

Looks like our game against them may well be one of the "further afield" games although I won't book my plane ticket and hotel for Cape Town, New York or Dubai just yet (the latter two sound like pie in the sky although Cape Town may not be since Saracens have tried to play a HEC game there before but ended up having to cancel)

Raises a couple of interesting, albeit theoretical and highly speculative, thoughts though. A game overseas could be great for boosting our profile and potentially be a nice little money spinner although it would of course depend on where it was and what the terms and conditions were. Presumably Saracens would need both Edinburgh and ERC's agreement for playing the game outside of England though ?

[Edinburgh Shark]

Will be interesting to see the date for our away game at Saracens since there's talk about them potentially playing some of their games "further afield" this season until their new stadium is ready.

If they want to make use of Murrayfield for this fixture, I sure we could oblige ....

Have they said when they're likely to be playing games further afield?

Have done a bit more digging on this and found the following:

http://www.saracens.com/news/view.php?Id=7061
http://www.rugbynetwork.net/main/s104/st178358.htm

Looks like our game against them may well be one of the "further afield" games although I won't book my plane ticket and hotel for Cape Town, New York or Dubai just yet (the latter two sound like pie in the sky although Cape Town may not be since Saracens have tried to play a HEC game there before but ended up having to cancel)

Raises a couple of interesting, albeit theoretical and highly speculative, thoughts though. A game overseas could be great for boosting our profile and potentially be a nice little money spinner although it would of course depend on where it was and what the terms and conditions were. Presumably Saracens would need both Edinburgh and ERC's agreement for playing the game outside of England though ?

I'm trying to understand the logic behind why South African Rugby would allow games there (and why Twickenham hosted a Super 15 game last year). I understand NFL / NBA games over here as there's not a like for like replacement. It's like we're treating SH and NH rugby as two different products.

Maybe I need to think less about commonsense and more about the money.......

[GaryIPA]

I think the S15 game was partly held here due to the nonavailability on the Crusader's stadium, sure they got a big enough crowd for it

[Rico]

Here's an article about the aborted Saracens v Biarritz game in Cape Town last year which explains Saracens' enthusiam for this (Saffy owners) and why SARU/South Africa as a whole might be keen to host such a game (good publicity, tourism revenue etc):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/no ... th-africa1

[Rico]

Saracens at home up first on 13 October, followed by Munster and Racing away:

http://www.edinburghrugby.org/news/edin ... m-home-tie

Great news that we start off with a home tie !

The location of our away game to Saracens remains, however, a mystery although Saracens will be playing Racing in Brussels so perhaps we can expect somewhere similar .....?

[Arlene]

SATURDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2012
Pool 1 Edinburgh Rugby v Saracens, Murrayfield 13.35 Sky Sports

SUNDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2012
Pool 1 Munster Rugby v Edinburgh Rugby, Thomond Park 12.45 Sky Sports

SATURDAY, 8 DECEMBER 2012
Pool 1 Racing Metro 92 v Edinburgh Rugby, Stade Yves du Manoir 19.00 Canal+/Sky Sports

FRIDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2012
Pool 1 Edinburgh Rugby v Racing Metro 92, Murrayfield 20.00 Sky Sports/Canal+Sport

11/12/13 JANUARY 2013
Pool 1 Edinburgh Rugby v Munster Rugby

18/19/20 JANUARY 2013
Pool 1 Saracens v Edinburgh Rugby

[Rico]

Full fixture list available here:

http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/news/18512.php

Tie of the 1st round clearly us against Saracens although Toulouse v Leicester could be a bit tasty also.