Rabo opening rounds fixtures.

Round 1:

Connacht vs Zebre
Dragons vs Ulster
Glasgow Warriors vs Cardiff Blues
Munster vs Edinburgh
Scarlets vs Leinster
Treviso vs Ospreys

Round 2:

Cardiff Blues vs Connacht
Edinburgh vs Dragons
Leinster vs Ospreys
Scarlets vs Treviso
Ulster vs Glasgow Warriors
Zebre vs Munster

Some tasty matches in there.  Scarlets vs Leinster, Leinster vs Ospreys and Ulster vs Glasgow Warriors look the pick of them.

Round 1:

Connacht vs Zebre
Dragons vs Ulster
Glasgow Warriors vs Cardiff Blues
Munster vs Edinburgh
Scarlets vs Leinster
Treviso vs Ospreys

Round 2:

Cardiff Blues vs Connacht
Edinburgh vs Dragons
Leinster vs Ospreys
Scarlets vs Treviso
Ulster vs Glasgow Warriors
Zebre vs Munster

The teams in bold are my picks for winners if anyone cares  

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/teams/leinster/fixtures.php

Here is the link for th whole season. Type in your team name ontop of the word Leinster to see that team, or see the lot together here

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/fixtures_list.php

Leinster will never win their first 2. Missing probably 20 players between Lions and the 2 different Ireland squads. New coach, and the fact that they NEVER win their first game or 2.

Obviously I hope I am wrong there.  

I could see Leinster winning one of the first 5. (Cardiff at home)

Good that we have our Boxing Day (ish) game at home to the Blouse back. Weird that we play them twice in a matter of days. Are everybody's like that?

Would've hoped for an easier start than Ulster, but a chance to see how our defence has tightened up from last year, I suppose.

Just seen that they all are (bar the Irish teams change opponents). I guess it's because of the Millennium double header for the Welsh teams (I know Scotland do it all the time for the 1872? Cup)

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:Leinster will never win their first 2. Missing probably 20 players between Lions and the 2 different Ireland squads. New coach, and the fact that they NEVER win their first game or 2.

Obviously I hope I am wrong there.  

Surely all of those guys will be ready to go with two and half weeks until the start of the season?

Artful_Dodger wrote:

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:Leinster will never win their first 2. Missing probably 20 players between Lions and the 2 different Ireland squads. New coach, and the fact that they NEVER win their first game or 2.

Obviously I hope I am wrong there.  

Surely all of those guys will be ready to go with two and half weeks until the start of the season?

They will trickle back over the first 5 games. Like every year. Lions test players likely not to be seen until game 5.

The Squads start preseason on the 1st of July. The players from the Emerging Ireland squad, The Ireland squad and the Lions could all be on different preseasons to each other.

That is 4 preseasons going at the same time on different schedules.

Lions players would not even have been finished playing when the 1st pre season started. They would then get a holiday and then start pre season.

It's been the norm now for a while, but why is it that Cardiff Blues/Scarlets confrontations in the Rabo are saved for the end of the season?

Ulster players from Emerging Ireland and the Ireland senior tour started pre-season on Monday. Hope they are available from Round 1.

Waaay haay!

That IS good news.

2 weeks behind. That should mean that some of them WILL be available for round 1. And more for round 2.

The guys who started on the 1st of July will be playing on the 23rd. So the guys who started o the 15th should be ok for the 6th.

We have 5 lions. sexylad gone :-(

so they should be back rounds 4 and 5. Injuries permitting.

Ulster pictured training with Ireland tourists like Tom Court, Paddy Jackson, Andrew Trimble, Stuart Olding, Paul Marshall, Iain Henderson, Dan Tuohy, Chris Henry... Also been pictured key NIQ guys like Nick Williams, Johann Muller and guys rested for the Summer tour like Luke Marshall and Craig Gilroy. Jared Payne I know is training, John Afoa is doing pre-season in Nz and is due back in August...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.503005253111912.1073741859.126216190790822&type=1

The three big early-season absentees are going to be Rory Best, Tommy Bowe and Ruan Pienaar. But if everyone currently in pre-season is available for Round 1 its a very strong team.

Declan Fitzpatrick is looking pretty shagged doing pre-season in this heatwave...

Spoiler:

That's as fit as Fitz has looked in four years!

Notch wrote:Ulster pictured training with Ireland tourists like Tom Court, Paddy Jackson, Andrew Trimble, Stuart Olding, Paul Marshall, Iain Henderson, Dan Tuohy, Chris Henry... Also been pictured key NIQ guys like Nick Williams, Johann Muller and guys rested for the Summer tour like Luke Marshall and Craig Gilroy. Jared Payne I know is training, John Afoa is doing pre-season in Nz and is due back in August...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.503005253111912.1073741859.126216190790822&type=1

The three big early-season absentees are going to be Rory Best, Tommy Bowe and Ruan Pienaar. But if everyone currently in pre-season is available for Round 1 its a very strong team.

Not good enough for round one though, I fear   

Risca Rev wrote:

Notch wrote:Ulster pictured training with Ireland tourists like Tom Court, Paddy Jackson, Andrew Trimble, Stuart Olding, Paul Marshall, Iain Henderson, Dan Tuohy, Chris Henry... Also been pictured key NIQ guys like Nick Williams, Johann Muller and guys rested for the Summer tour like Luke Marshall and Craig Gilroy. Jared Payne I know is training, John Afoa is doing pre-season in Nz and is due back in August...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.503005253111912.1073741859.126216190790822&type=1

The three big early-season absentees are going to be Rory Best, Tommy Bowe and Ruan Pienaar. But if everyone currently in pre-season is available for Round 1 its a very strong team.

Not good enough for round one though, I fear   

 

Rodney Parade is kind of a fixture you want a few games under your belt before you go there though. Banana skin fixture for sure. Would rather be at home!

Yep, being away in Wales is never what you want for a first fixture even if it is the Dragons.  Away to Dragons then home to Glasgow is tough enough.

You don't want to be disrespectful to any team you face, but when you set high standards you have to be looking at this game and saying you need 5 points- if we genuinely want to finish 1st in the league two years running we need a quick start. Glasgow, Leinster and ourselves all bagged the bonus point at Rodney Parade last year.

But this is a new season, a new start, and I think it will be very hard for us to rack up the kind of scoreline ourselves and Glasgow did there on the way to the playoffs especially with little preparation time. Of course the Dragons will be better this year- the only way is up. So 5 points is a big ask for our first game. Tough opening draw in my book. It'll be very tough for us to gel in time and get the tries and with a slow start it'll be sticky winning too.

Interested to see how connacht go in the game v the blues could tell alot about both teams. With the blues resting their lions it is the time to play them.

Anyone reckon Treviso can beat the Os two years in a row on the first week.

I think we've got a great opening fixture. Ulster are a quality outfit - that Olding fella looks class and this could be a big season for him - but it's been a really positive off-season for us as far as signings (players and coaches) are concerned and there'll be a lot of optimism around, albeit cautious optimism. Now, a tonking would obviously be a real dent to that confidence, but Lyn Jones will have the players seeing it as a real opportunity to show our intent for the season. If we can really get stuck into Ulster, cause them problems and make sure that if they win, they've really had to earn it, that wouldn't be a bad return after last season. If we can get a win, that would be huge.

All I want is to really give them some hammer aye. I and most would expect to probably lose, but if we at least find our character in games like this again, then it's a step in the right direction.

What/how many friendlies are Ulster playing? I know we are only playing two to avoid injuries (hopefully) like we picked up last year. With it being right at the start, it's a good time to play them before they get up a head of steam again, so that's positive. Obviously the second game is the one we want though, given that Edinburgh are around our level.

I don't actually know, apart from the games against Leinster and Leicester. Maybe thats it.