Rabo Fixtures

Round 1: (31 August/1/2 September)
Benetton Treviso v Ospreys
Connacht v Cardiff Blues
Edinburgh Rugby v Munster
Newport Gwent Dragons v Zebre
Scarlets v Leinster
Ulster v Glasgow Warriors

Round 2: (7/8/9 September)
Cardiff Blues v Edinburgh Rugby
Glasgow Warriors v Scarlets
Leinster v Newport Gwent Dragons
Munster v Benetton Treviso
Ospreys v Ulster
Zebre v Connacht

Looks like the Zebres were given the best possible start to look ok but maybe they would preffer to have these games near the end when they are better.
As champions Os haven't got the best start at all.

19Apr

Treviso v Edinburgh Stadio di Monigo
Blues v Scarlets Cardiff Arms Park
Connacht v Ulster Sportsground
Warriors v Ospreys Scotstoun
Dragons v Munster Rodney Parade
Zebre v Leinster Stadio XXV Aprile

3/4/5 May

Connacht v Warriors Sportsground
Edinburgh v Dragons Murrayfield
Leinster v Ospreys Royal Dublin Society
Scarlets v Treviso Parc y Scarlets
Ulster v Blues Ravenhill
Zebre v Munster Stadio XXV Aprile

What do ye think

Round 1: (31 August/1/2 September)
Benetton Treviso v Ospreys - Ospreys win
Connacht v Cardiff Blues - Connacht win
Edinburgh Rugby v Munster - Draw
Newport Gwent Dragons v Zebre - Dragons win
Scarlets v Leinster - Leinster win
Ulster v Glasgow Warriors - Ulster win

Round 2: (7/8/9 September)
Cardiff Blues v Edinburgh Rugby - Edinburgh win
Glasgow Warriors v Scarlets - Glasgow win
Leinster v Newport Gwent Dragons - Leinster win
Munster v Benetton Treviso - Munster win
Ospreys v Ulster - Ospreys win
Zebre v Connacht - Connacht win

Not sure I'd agree with Os on the first week but think it will be close and not sure on the Blues one either.

the hard call is that all the teams have streghtened bar Leinster(don't need to), Blues, Dragons and Zebre are worse.

So maybe Blues will lose after all.

Expect the table to be much tighter this year and the last 2 palyoff places going down to the last day

Munster also have a handy run in

you've gotta play them all sometime, if the Scarlets recruit the forwards they are looking to then I fancy them to go unbeaten in those fixtures.

Dragons will be top of the table after week one. Then it'll all go down the crapper.

LordDowlais wrote:you've gotta play them all sometime, if the Scarlets recruit the forwards they are looking to then I fancy them to go unbeaten in those fixtures.

I wish I was as confident as you. Scarlets have Leinster (H), Glasgow (A), Connacht (A), and Ospreys (H) as their first four matches of the season. think it will either see the Scarlets written off as in the dog fight to qualify for the HEC or being talked up by the journos as play-off contenders.

Looks like there will be some big clashes for the play-off spots in the final weekends too!

Ulster v Glasgow in the first week.

Tough start for both teams.

It is tough for the Scarlets, though I think we can beat the Blues at the CAP and Glasgow and Ospreys will both be tough, but could go either way (as long as we sort ourselves out, get a good TH and lock and cut out the sloppy mistakes of last season).

We have a tough middle of the season (Munster, Ulster, Blues, Ospreys, Ulster, Connacht, Munster, Leinster), but a good run in though from March - Edinburgh, Zebre, Dragons, Warriors, Blues, Treviso.

The first round has some nice games to start on which is great to see, some of them will be hard to call and may just get shaded by the home team. I'm not sure how munster will do but feel it will say alot about them going up to scotland if they get a result esp. with the people that have been added by Edinburgh

The Ospreys seem to have similar fixtures to last year we had all the Irish provinces home early on, and then at the end Leinster away then had to go up there again for the final a few weeks later.

I would of preferred Zebres and Treviso home to start with to get us off to a good start.

I know this suggestion gets a mixed bag but I would still love to have a double header derby day season opener.

That would work well for me. Welsh sides, Irish sides and Scotland Italy double headers would be a great start to the season. Scotland Italy could obviously rotate grounds, others at MS, Aviva would really get the interest going early on.

anyone got any idea if any of this is going to be on the dreaded television

I don't think there is any change, should be on the BBC or S4C as per usual?

Why dreaded?

Pretty sure, watching the movements between clubs that the league will be all the stronger for it.

dreaded because it robs clubs of fans who might otherwise turn up.

i'll be going to the cap. probably watch more games this season than i did the whole time we were in the schitty schtadium

So is that the tvs fault then dog??????

I agree though, a lot of the kick off times are dictated by the tv schedules.

Dog - personally I am really thankful that the matches are on free-to-air tv. I attend all of my regions home games, however it is nice to be able to watch the other regions playing too. See who is playing well etc. No chance would I travel to Newport to watch the Dragons play but on the TV I will probably watch 90% of the Dragons matches that are shown. Although in an ideal world they should only show away matches not home matches.

My solution would be for BBC Wales and S4C to show all the regions' matches - but none of them live. That way, we'd get to see how the other regions are getting on (as Spiderman suggests) and the away games we can't get to, but the armchair fan would have to get down to the ground if he wanted to watch live rugby.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:My solution would be for BBC Wales and S4C to show all the regions' matches - but none of them live. That way, we'd get to see how the other regions are getting on (as Spiderman suggests) and the away games we can't get to, but the armchair fan would have to get down to the ground if he wanted to watch live rugby.

Love this.

I still don't see why they can't force the tv companies to show higlights from all games and make it more of a league. Often I would flick between Irish, Scotish and welsh channels to see all the games at once.

The hightlights are often things you've already seen.

Showing all the games might help raise the attendances for non national games as people get favourite team (i like the dragons and always want to know how they did as the underdog)

I know one of the reson for it being on Free to view is to raise the profile but more has to be done to raise the league not just the national interest.