Glasgow and Edinburgh are set to renew their rivalry in streamlined Rainbow Cup
Two more derby matches have been scheduled between Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors, which will take to six the number of times the sides have met in under nine months.
The latest games are part of the new Rainbow Cup tournament which brings together the 12 teams from this season’s Guinness Pro14 and the four South African Super Rugby franchises.
The competition has had to be streamlined due to Covid travel restrictions and it looks as if each Pro14 team will have just one match against a South African side, not including the final.
The format is more local and with fewer games than originally intended. There will be just six rounds of fixtures and all teams will be ranked in a single league table, not two conferences as first proposed.
The top two will then play each other in the final on June 19.
The first round of fixtures will take place on the weekend of April 24-25, with the two Scottish sides taking on Italy’s Pro14 representatives. Edinburgh are at home to Zebre while Glasgow will face Benetton away.
Round two on May 8-9 sees the first of the two Scottish derbies, with Glasgow hosting Edinburgh. The teams will meet again on the following weekend at BT Murrayfield.
Rounds four to six sees the
four South African franchises play their away games in Europe. Those fixtures will be confirmed once travel approvalshavebeenconfirmedbythe relevant authorities.
This format means that no teams from Europe will travel to South Africa.
Edinburgh and Glasgow met twice in August in matches which were part of the delayed 2019-20 season. Honours
were even with one win apiece. They then met twice in January as part of this season’s Pro14 which also doubled up as the 1872 Cup. Edinburgh won the first game and Glasgow the second.
There is no information yet about how the 1872 Cup will be decided. The inter-city competition is usually a three-game series and Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill joked: “I
think what we’re trying to do is play the third game and if we lose it, we’ll take it to a fourth!”
His Glasgow counterpart Danny Wilson is glad that he can now plan the remainder of his campaign. “At least we’ve got some clarity,” he said. “It’s a safety-first approach with the local games first against Treviso and Edinburgh. The question mark was always around the South African teams and when and where we could play them. It sounds like we’ll just have one game against a South African team. But we’ll see.”
The Rainbow Cup begins the assimilation of the South African sides into the European game, with the Vodacom Bulls, the Emirates Lions, Cell C Sharks and DHL Stormers expected to join an expanded Pro14 set-up next season.
David Jordan, Pro14 Rugby’s
tournament director, said: “Planning for a cross-hemisphere competition where the situation has been so fluid has provided many challenges, but we believe we have found a solution that is practical and safe to deliver a unique competition that supporters can get excited about.”
All 49 matches will be screened live on Premier Sports.