PRO14 TAKING A MONDAY SLOT
THE Guinness PRO14 is to break new ground by staging a host of matches on Monday night in the new season.
In a radical departure from the norm, no fewer than 14 fixtures have been scheduled for Monday evening amid the opening eight rounds of games.
The first of them will see Cardiff Blues taking on Munster at Limerick’s Thomond Park in round three on October 26.
The following week, both the Blues and the Ospreys will be in action on a Monday evening.
The scheduling is aimed at preventing direct clashes with the extended international calendar.
With rearranged Six Nations matches and the Autumn Nations Cup taking place from October through to early December, the majority of PRO14 fixtures during this period will take place on Sundays and Mondays.
Where possible, Monday night fixtures have been set across two time slots of 6pm and 8.15pm.
With no crowds at matches due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the tournament organisers see it as a unique opportunity to try something different.
PRO14 Rugby chairman Dominic Mckay said: “Thanks to the buy-in and support from our teams and broadcasters, we believe we have delivered an innovative solution to the challenges posed to us by the international rugby calendar.
“Playing on Monday nights provides the Guinness PRO14 with a unique platform in the rugby market and enables us to make the most of playing through such a busy time for our sport.”
The new season will get under way on Friday, with Cardiff Blues involved in the opening fixture.
John Mulvihill’s men travel to Parma to take on Zebre, with the game kicking off at 6pm local time.
Later that night, the Dragons face a daunting start to their campaign, lining up against Leinster in Dublin, with an 8.15pm kick-off.
The following afternoon, the Scarlets host Munster, while the Ospreys are away to Edinburgh in the evening.
All PRO14 matches will again be shown live by Premier Sports, while S4C will also be broadcasting a game involving a Welsh team each weekend.
There will no South African teams in the first raft of confirmed games due to the travel restrictions surrounding the pandemic.
The plan is to bring two SA teams on board at some point in the new year – the Cheetahs and one other.
With the Southern Kings having withdrawn from the league and gone into voluntary liquidation, a replacement team is being sought from the country’s professional franchises.
The PRO14 will retain a conference structure, with seven teams in each section, including a South African side in each pool.
But only the teams from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy will play matches through until mid-january, with six fixtures each weekend. If South African teams do become involved in the new year, it remains to be seen whether their matches would count towards the league table.
They clearly wouldn’t be able to fit in the full 21 rounds of matches and it’s hard to see them playing every other team once.
So the South African matches might well not count towards league standings.
Discussions are ongoing about expanding the tournament to include more South African franchises from the 2021-22 season.
The plan is to have four sides from the land of the world champions on
board, making it the PRO16.
It would be up to SA Rugby to decide which four, but the expectation is that it would be the four Super Rugby sides – the Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Lions.
They will no longer be involved in Super Rugby from next year, so a move to a European league is very much on the cards.
PRO14 FIXTURES 202021 ROUND 1 FRIDAY, OCT 2:
Zebre v Cardiff Blues (6pm), Ulster v Benetton (8.15pm), Leinster v Dragons (8.15pm)
SATURDAY, OCT 3: Scarlets v Munster (3pm), Connacht v Glasgow (5pm), Edinburgh v Ospreys (7.40pm)
ROUND 2 FRI, OCT 9:
Dragons v Zebre (8.15pm)
SAT, OCT 10: Benetton v Leinster (5.15pm), Ospreys v Ulster (5.15pm), Glasgow v Scarlets (5.15pm), Munster v Edinburgh (7.35pm), Cardiff Blues v Connacht (7.35pm)
Connacht v Scarlets