Munster may grace Wembley

Munster fans are readying themselves for the mouth-watering prospect of seeing their team in action in the hallowed surroundings of Wembley Stadium nine days before Christmas.

Saracens have deferred nominating the venue for Munster’s Heineken Cup visit on December 16, instead revealing the game will take place in London. But the speculation is they will bring the game either to Wembley or Twickenham stadia to cater for a crowd in excess of 80,000 spectators.

Saracens recently completed an £8m (€10.2m) deal with Allianz for the naming rights to their new stadium at Barnet but that won’t be ready until next February and in any case will cater for no more than 10,000 fans.

In the meantime, they intend to stage their fixtures at Wembley, Twickenham, MK Dons and Vicarage Road, Watford, which has been their regular home for several years.

Saracens almost tempted Biarritz to play a Heineken Cup game in Johannesburg last season and announced they are staging their fixture against Racing Metro at the 50,000-capacity King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels on October 20, thus making Belgium the 10th country to host a match in the competition.

Wembley, however, remains the clear favourite for the visit of Munster who are also looking forward to playing their opening fixture on Saturday, October 13, against Racing Metro at the Stade de Franc. Their other games involve a lunch-time kick-off against Edinburgh at Thomond Park on Sunday, October 21, and Saracens, also at the Limerick venue, on December 8.

Leinster start their campaign against new arrivals Exeter Chiefs at the RDS. They will fill the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, January 15, for the visit of French rivals Clermont Auvergne.

Ravenhill on a Friday night has always been the perfect scene for last season’s beaten finalists, Ulster, and they will relish a visit from Castres on October 12 while Connacht’s first game will be against the newly formed Italian side, Zebre, the following day.