Sunday game ‘not a problem’
The Leicester-Munster showdown has been slated for Sunday, April 13 with a 4 o'clock kick-off, completing the weekend's last eight programme.
It will be screened live by both RTÉ and BBC. For the moment, it is scheduled for the Tigers' Welford Road, but the Premiership club is considering a switch nearby to Leicester City's new 32,000-capacity Walkers Stadium.
Welford Road has a capacity of less than 17,000, of which 13,000 are season ticket holders.
"The day of the game doesn't matter a whole lot to us as a team," said Holland last night.
"However, 4pm on a Sunday afternoon may not be ideal from our supporters' point of view. The availability of tickets is another issue and we can only hope that as many as possible can be accommodated."
Tigers coach Dean Richards has an understandable preference for remaining where his team has such an envious record over the years but chief executive Peter Wheeler, the former England hooker, and his fellow directors are known to share a different perspective, fully aware that this repeat of last year's final would comfortably fill the football ground.
"Again, it's a matter entirely for Leicester and what they come up with is fine by us," said Jerry Holland. "Their record at Welford Road is second to none but the limited capacity mightn't leave a lot of space for our supporters.
"There's no doubt that a lot more will be able to see the game if they move to the soccer ground but the pitch could be a little on the narrow side and that wouldn't suit us. We expect to know more by about next Wednesday."
While Neil Back's infamous cheating "hand in the scrum" manoeuvre in last year's final is now history, the Munster fans would like nothing more than to gain revenge for a particularly unsavoury piece of knavery.
Interestingly, the quarter-finalists will all know the semi-final line-up as early as Monday next when the draw is made in London.
This is being done so that European Rugby Cup Ltd will have plenty of time to find stadiums capable of housing crowds of more than 20, 000.
Llanelli, semi-finalists last term, will launch proceedings at home to French club Perpignan on Friday, April 11, kick-off 7.30pm.
The following day, tournament favourites Toulouse entertain 2000 European champions Northampton, kick-off 1.45pm, with Matt Williams' Leinster hosting French champions Biarritz (3.30pm), probably at Lansdowne Road. All quarter-final venues will be announced in due course.
Meanwhile, Gloucester captain Phil Vickery yesterday insisted his Premiership leaders had taken collective responsibility for their Heineken Cup horror show in Limerick last weekend.
Individual players, including Henry Paul and Ludovic Mercier, were targeted for media criticism and by fans in a painful aftermath of the 33-6 defeat to Munster which ended Gloucester's European hopes.
Former rugby league star Paul looks certain to be on the bench today with South African Thinus Delport replacing him at full-back when Powergen Cup quarter-final opponents Saracens arrive in town.
But Vickery, without naming team-mates, has hit back at the singling-out process.
"We have all hurt this week none of us played well but I'm disappointed some reports singled out individual players," he said.
"For me, that's not fair. The team didn't perform and the team didn't help those players. If we had performed as a team, the pressure wouldn't have been so high on those players. We have a job collectively to take the loss on the chin and then pick ourselves up.
"We are all working hard to push this club forward and I hope all the supporters realise it, stick by us, help us recover and get back on track. This weekend is about us performing and getting things right on the field, which we didn't last week."
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