NEWS ROUND-UP:THE AVIVA Stadium remains in contention to host the 2011 Heineken Cup final, despite Uefa's Europa League final taking place at the stadium just three days beforehand, on Wednesday, May 18th.
Aviva Stadium director Martin Murphy has confirmed the stadium can be flipped and rebranded between sporting events within 24 hours.
Next season’s Heineken European Cup final is due to take place on Saturday, May 21st.
However, the ERC will not be making a decision on which venue will host the final until the week of this year’s decider, which takes place in Paris.
The 16th season of the tournament begins on the second weekend of October, and climaxes with the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup finals on the weekend of May 20th-22nd.
ERC announced yesterday that the pool stages will again be played in three blocks of back-to-back weekends in October, December and January. The Northampton Saints are the only club to have already guaranteed qualification to next season’s competition.
Meanwhile, the Celtic Rugby chief executive David Jordan has explained the reasons behind rejecting the Munster Branch request to switch the Good Friday meeting of Munster and Leinster at Thomond Park to Saturday, a decision that would have avoided any protest by the Limerick publicans.
“It was purely a rugby decision made at board level to play the match on a Friday evening,” said Jordan. “This was to give both teams more preparation time to prepare for their European quarter-finals. Leinster in particular, who are playing Clermont on the Friday.
“Celtic Rugby is keen to give our teams the best chance to advance in all competitions. Not just the Magners League. It was certainly made with a lot of consultation with several parties. Also, from a Magners League point of view, we wanted to make sure Leinster and Munster put out the best possible teams available to them.”
Argentina has moved a step closer to joining an expanded Tri-Nations in 2012 after the IRB announced they will provide €7.2 million funding package to support their entry.
The IRB will substantially underwrite the Puma entry into the Southern Hemisphere’s showcase international competition with an unprecedented investment of €1.8 million per year over the period 2012-2015 subject to SANZAR conditions being met.
SANZAR conditions include a guarantee that Argentina’s best players will be available for the competition, which may see a major switch of Argentine players from Europe to the expanded Super 15 competition.
In order to achieve this key condition, the UAR and the SANZAR Unions have formally requested the IRB to amend Regulation 9, which governs international player availability. The IRB Council will now consider amending the scope of the regulation at its May 12th meeting.
“This announcement represents another significant milestone in the process of Argentina’s integration into the Tri-Nations and is an extremely exciting development for the Unión Argentina de Rugby and Rugby fans around the world,” IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said.
