Big two reject idea of playing home ties overseas
Neither Mick Dawson, chief executive of reigning champions Leinster, nor his Munster counterpart Garrett Fitzgerald ruled out the likelihood of undertaking such a venture, as suggested by the competition’s CEO Derek McGrath in the Irish Examiner on Friday.
Yet the current economic climate, loyalty to existing supporters and season ticket holders in the provinces as well as doubts about the financial viability of such an exercise have combined to at least put the idea on hold for the time being.
European Rugby Cup (ERC) chief executive McGrath had given the green light to Saracens’ since postponed plan for a ‘home’ game in round five in January against Biarritz in Cape Town, South Africa, seeing it as an opportunity for both the club and the competition to advance their brands into new territories. He had then suggested that Irish provinces would be pushing an open door if they were to follow suit and approach ERC to do the same.
The response in Ireland has been lukewarm, however, with Leinster head coach Joe Schmidt expressing doubts about such a plan.
“I think you’d have to say you’d never rule anything out but at the moment it wouldn’t be on our horizon,” Dawson said, almost exactly echoing Munster chief executive Fitzgerald’s response. “To broaden your brand I would think we might look at something maybe pre-season where you might play a match away but with 13,500 season-ticket holders [it would be difficult] to take a match outside of the province. You have to be careful how you handle them [season-ticket holders] because they’ve paid their money. And we’re very lucky that we’re in the capital city and we have the Aviva Stadium just down the road for when we need to go to a bigger ground. And we’ve 1.5 million people living in Dublin, two million in the province, so that’s more a natural hunting ground for us.
“We recognise that in the current climate there’s probably a huge, young Leinster population at the moment living in London, east coast of America, Australia, New Zealand and they proved at the World Cup that they’re fantastic supporters but it’s not on our horizon at the moment, nor is it off our horizon.
“In relation to our brand, it was only a couple of years ago when someone mentioned this to us and we said we’re trying to get to Navan and Naas, never mind Boston or Australia. So we want to build on what we have.”
The view in Munster was much the same and having been in Toulouse for the Castres game, where around 900 travelling supporters made their voices heard inside Stade Ernest Wallon, Fitzgerald said: “You never say never in business but in the present climate it isn't something that's on the agenda.”
“We're very well supported at home and we need to be conscious of the support we're getting locally and what is proposed by ERC could be a very expensive exercise and not something we'd be prepared to consider or underwrite at this time.
“People need to be aware that there would be substantial costs associated with such a venture including the additional costs of the opposing team as well.”
Dawson revealed that Leinster had raised objections to the ERC through its IRFU representatives on the ERC board to Saracens’ request to play in Cape Town during the height of the South African summer.
He said: “If the rest of us are slugging it out in the middle of January or December in rubbish weather and getting 9-9 and 10-3 results and they go and play in the sunshine in Cape Town it could just distort the group in terms of bonus points and tries for and against.”
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