Rugby:Defending champions Munster will host the Newport Gwent Dragons at Musgrave Park (7.45) on Saturday, September 3rd, the opening weekend of the newly branded RaboDirect Pro12 League.
The honour of beginning the new campaign will be shared by the Ospreys and Leinster who meet at the Liberty stadium (7.05) and Ulster’s game against Glasgow at Ravenhill (7.05). Both matches take place the previous night, September 2nd.
The Ulster match will be shown live on BBC Northern Ireland while Munster’s game will be broadcast by TG4. Connacht will travel to Stadio Communale di Monigo where they will face Benetton Treviso in their opening fixture on the Saturday.
Provinces will be playing on days in which Ireland fulfil Rugby World Cup fixtures in New Zealand. There will be no clash television or otherwise because of the time difference: the national team’s games will be screened in the morning Irish time.
The first clash of the Irish provinces sees Leinster host Connacht at the RDS on Saturday, October 8th (5.0), a game that will be shown by TG4. Leinster will entertain Munster at the Aviva Stadium on Friday, November 4th (8.0, TG4) while the following night Connacht make the journey to Belfast to take on Ulster (5.35, BBC NI).
The Irish sides will be reunited over the Christmas and New Year period in successive rounds of matches.
