Fixtures for 2012-2013

31 Aug, 1/2 Sep	Connacht v Blues	Sportsground
7/8/9 Sep	Zebre v Connacht	Stadio XXV Aprile
14/15/16 Sep	Connacht v Scarlets	Sportsground
21/22/23 Sep	Warriors v Connacht	Scotstoun
28/29/30 Sep	Connacht v Leinster	Sportsground
5/6/7 Oct	Ulster v Connacht	Ravenhill
26/27/28 Oct	Ospreys v Connacht	Liberty Stadium
2/3/4 Nov	Connacht v Treviso	Sportsground
23/24/25 Nov	Dragons v Connacht	Rodney Parade
30 Nov, 1/2 Dec	Connacht v Edinburgh	Sportsground
21/22/23 Dec	Connacht v Munster	Sportsground
28/29/30 Dec	Leinster v Connacht	Royal Dublin Society
4/5/6 Jan	Connacht v Dragons	Sportsground
8/9/10 Feb	Scarlets v Connacht	Parc y Scarlets
15/16/17 Feb	Connacht v Ospreys	Sportsground
22/23/24 Feb	Blues v Connacht	Cardiff Arms Park
1/2/3 Mar	Connacht v Zebre	Sportsground
22/23/24 Mar	Munster v Connacht	TBA
29/30/31 Mar	Treviso v Connacht	Stadio di Monigo
12/13/14 Apr	Edinburgh v Connacht	Murrayfield
19/20/21 Apr	Connacht v Ulster	Sportsground
3/4/5 May	Connacht v Warriors	Sportsground

Blues first up could be a very good time to play them, they lost a lot of talented players at the end of the season. And Henson. Getting them while they're still getting to know each other should be the best time.

Zebre second up. Vitally important that we stamp out authority on them early ahead of the HEC matches.

From a home game POV, it's going to be a slightly more front loaded season (inlcuding HEC games here as each set of 2 has one home one away):

Sep 3 home games (2 last year)
Oct 1 (1)
Nov 1 (2)
Dec 3 (2)
Jan 2 (2)
Feb 1 (2)
Mar 1 (1)
Apr 1 (2)
May 1 (0)

Away on both All-Ireland w/ends which is good. And home first and last day of the season.

im fairly happy with that.home win to start of with and then zebre. we cant give zebre any hope as there games in the heineken cup are very important.

we have between 28/29/30 sep- 2/3/4 november (5weeks) no home games and
1/2/3 march - 19/20/21 april (8weeks) no games at home.

during the 6 nations 2febuary - 16 march we play
scarlets away
ospreys home
blues away
zebre home

Xavier Rush has just announced his retirement, one less talented Blues player to worry about.

That looks good. Nice to get a home game to start and two home games to finish.

October looks a tough month with trips to Ulster and Ospreys sandwiched between our opening two HC games (& B&I Cup probably) which will stretch our squad. Also 3 away games in a row in March / April but still plenty to look forward to.

Hopefully they don't mess around too much with getting dates and times sorted and give supporters time to plan to get to fixtures.

swift4prez wrote: we have between 28/29/30 sep- 2/3/4 november (5weeks) no home games and
1/2/3 march - 19/20/21 april (8weeks) no games at home.

Connacht will have a home HEC game in Oct so that will break the 5 week period up, but certainly the period in March & April will be testing to both team (Munster, Treviso & Edinburgh away) and fans (falling out of the habit of going to the Sportsground). Hopefully the team will still be competitive through that stretch otherwise it might be tough to get the bodies in the stands for the last two games.

If you look at all of Munsters fixtures, all home matches are currently listed as TBA. We should be ok.

www.rabodirectpro12.com/teams/munster/fixtures.php

Connacht Eagles British & Irish Cup Fixtures 2012/13

w/e 12/14th Oct Newport v Connacht

w/e 19/21st Oct Connacht v Newcastle

w/e 7/9th Dec Cross Keys v Connacht

w/e 14/16 Dec Connacht v Cross Keys

w/e 11/13 Jan Newcastle v Connacht

Sat 19th Jan Connacht v Newport

swift4prez wrote: Connacht Eagles British & Irish Cup Fixtures 2012/13

w/e 12/14th Oct Newport v Connacht

w/e 19/21st Oct Connacht v Newcastle

w/e 7/9th Dec Cross Keys v Connacht

w/e 14/16 Dec Connacht v Cross Keys

w/e 11/13 Jan Newcastle v Connacht

Sat 19th Jan Connacht v Newport

I wonder can we take from this that our first HC game will be at home, 2nd away etc., heard it would be announced next week so be good to get the full lowdown of the season.

Borders no.2 wrote:

swift4prez wrote: Connacht Eagles British & Irish Cup Fixtures 2012/13

w/e 12/14th Oct Newport v Connacht

w/e 19/21st Oct Connacht v Newcastle

w/e 7/9th Dec Cross Keys v Connacht

w/e 14/16 Dec Connacht v Cross Keys

w/e 11/13 Jan Newcastle v Connacht

Sat 19th Jan Connacht v Newport

I wonder can we take from this that our first HC game will be at home, 2nd away etc., heard it would be announced next week so be good to get the full lowdown of the season.

Id say thats a good call Borders, it would make perfect sense anyway as it wouldnt be practical any other way.

Slightly off subject but probably not worth a thread on its own but i was watching the highlights of the JP Morgan 7s from the stoop antd thought it would be a wonderful yearly season starter in the sportsground to have an interpro 7s tournament. Some of the Main sponsors and Tg4 would no doubt love to be on board and it would be a great 3 or so hours entertainment while giving connacht rugby even greater exposure during the Holiday season.
It would fit in lovely at the end of July just before the pre season friendlies kick in. I dont know how the board would feel about it but perhaps the Clan commitee could suggest it at their next meeting with them for next preseason?

Watched that live last Friday. Pissing wet night but they still got 7000 through the gates and it looked good on tv. We should definitely be looking at this.

Slightly off subject but probably not worth a thread on its own but i was watching the highlights of the JP Morgan 7s from the stoop antd thought it would be a wonderful yearly season starter in the sportsground to have an interpro 7s tournament. Some of the Main sponsors and Tg4 would no doubt love to be on board and it would be a great 3 or so hours entertainment while giving connacht rugby even greater exposure during the Holiday season.
It would fit in lovely at the end of July just before the pre season friendlies kick in. I dont know how the board would feel about it but perhaps the Clan commitee could suggest it at their next meeting with them for next preseason?

+1

Borders no.2 wrote:

swift4prez wrote: Connacht Eagles British & Irish Cup Fixtures 2012/13

w/e 12/14th Oct Newport v Connacht

w/e 19/21st Oct Connacht v Newcastle

w/e 7/9th Dec Cross Keys v Connacht

w/e 14/16 Dec Connacht v Cross Keys

w/e 11/13 Jan Newcastle v Connacht

Sat 19th Jan Connacht v Newport

I wonder can we take from this that our first HC game will be at home, 2nd away etc., heard it would be announced next week so be good to get the full lowdown of the season.

I doubt it works like that to be honest. It's probably not possible to ensure all A teams that are playing at the same time would be at home when the seniors are away, there are so many different things at play.

The ERC decision takes a while, lots of TV schedule horse trading to be done.