European cup: Munster will kick off their quarter-final against Perpignan at Lansdowne Road shortly after the finish of the Toulouse-Leinster tie in the European Cup after the dates and kick-off times placed the Irish provinces on the second and third legs of an April 1st triple-header.
Leicester and Bath will be the first quarter-final to be staged that weekend when they kick off at 12.30 that Saturday, followed by the Toulouse-Leinster encounter at 4pm local time (3pm Irish) at Le Stadium, and the Munster-Perpignan tie will complete the April 1st feast at 5.30pm. The quarter-finals will be concluded on Sunday, April 2nd, when Biarritz host Sale Sharks.
Munster and Toulouse, the former with a little advance arm-pulling by the IRFU, have nominated Lansdowne Road and Le Stadium as their choices of home venue. In doing so, Munster have increased their capacity from 14,000 to 48,500, and with the increased share of gate receipts (65 per cent as opposed to 50 per cent) will probably accrue at least €650,000 more while also facilitating their Red Army.
Perpignan would be entitled to 25 per cent of the ticket allocation but are unlikely to have more than 2,000 travelling supporters, considering their attendance at Lansdowne Road for the 2003 semi-final (when they beat Leinster) and final.
With Toulouse's capacity in Le Stadium at 37,000, in theory Leinster would be entitled to claim around 9,000 tickets.
Leinster's support for games such as the treks to Bath wouldn't have exceeded 2,000, but, unlike Munster (whose Red Army was effectively launched with their 2000 semi-final in Bordeaux), they've never had such an enticing opportunity as this.
Thus far, Leinster's only away knockout tie in the competition was in Leicester's Welford Road four seasons ago. Direct flights in and out of Toulouse that weekend have apparently already been booked out (some started doing so during the course of Leinster's 35-23 win over Bath), but alternate routes and charters are sure to provide other options. Could this be the launch of The Blue Brigade?
The home quarter-finalists have until February 20th to submit their choice of venue, and Biarritz and Leicester have yet to confirm theirs.
However, Biarritz have strongly intimated that they, as they did when hosting Munster at this stage last season, would like to play Sale Sharks in the Anoeta Stadium, home of the Primera Liga's Real Sociedad, in San Sebastien.
Real Sociedad are scheduled to play Malaga at home on Sunday, April 2nd, but a similar clash occurred last year when Real Sociedad brought their La Liga fixture forward to the Saturday to facilitate Biarritz. In the event of the tie being moved to San Sebastien, it would have to take place after the football match rather than before.
Leicester, too, are mulling over their choice of venue. Ideally they would prefer to keep the tie in Welford Road (capacity 16,000), but will be encouraged by the ERC - not least by the increase in gate receipts to 65 per cent - to switch the tie to Leicester City's Walkers Stadium (capacity 31,883).
With regard to the choice of venues for the semi-finals, that is not entirely at the discretion of the "home" team, but is a decision to be made by the ERC in conjunction with the home union. Thus, were Toulouse to beat Leinster, they would probably express a preference for Le Stadium, the 37,000 capacity home to the city's football club, where they also hosted Munster in the semi-finals three seasons ago.
However, the tournament organisers may insist on another venue, such as Bordeaux, where the two sides' memorably met six seasons ago, or even Parc des Princes in Paris, Marseilles or another venue which might better facilitate the travelling support.
Ironically, even in France, Munster would probably bring more than Perpignan.
