Leinster and Ulster exits hit IRFU coffers

A weekend that promised to be a financial bonanza for Irish rugby ended in disappointment at the Stade Felix Mayol yesterday with Leinster’s defeat by Toulon following on Ulster’s elimination by Saracens at Ravenhill on Saturday.

Three Irish sides in the semi-finals carried the potential for bonus payments of €2.4m in prize money for the IRFU, along with another €600,000 in rental fees for a semi-final clash of Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium, along with considerable sponsorship and commercial deals.

However, Munster are left as this country’s only representatives in the last four from which they will earn €800,000, with two thirds snapped up by the union and about €260,000 accruing to the Munster Branch.

These are happy times for Munster who will also bank a large share of the approximate €800,000 paid at the gate by the 26,002 who packed out Thomond Park on Saturday and also with the prospect of a home semi-final in the RaboDirect Pro12. The Stade Velodrome in Marseille is the venue for the Toulon-Munster semi-final. It has a capacity of 41, 000 with both teams receiving an equal allocations of tickets. The sides last met in the 2010/11 Heineken Cup pool stages when Munster exited the competition after a 32-16 defeat at Stade Mayol.

Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal was in bullish mood following yesterday’s defeat of Leinster and is relishing facing another Irish side in their quest to secure back-to-back titles.

“We are hungry once again and we have just offered the French public the most amazing of games. I saw all the quarter-finals and I thought this was hands down the best. We are hungry for victories. We feared we would no longer be European champions after today but that is not the case. We are still in the race. There are high expectations here and we don’t expect to lose the Stade Velodrome game but we also need to look after the Top 14.

“We have to rise to new challenges every week and I can tell you that we won’t play Bordeaux with the same side as today. We have beaten the Irish national team and now we are about to face another one.”

And Toulon backs coach Pierre Mignoni didn’t disguise his delight at playing Munster in France. And he expressed surprise at the result from Thomond Park. He said: “I thought Toulouse would win the game, but it was very difficult. We’ll analyse Munster’s game at a later date, but we’re focused on Bordeaux now. I think it is of course easier to play them here, than at Thomond. We have played them here in Stade Felix Mayol in 2011 and we also travelled to Munster, which is a really tough place to go. It’s at the Velodrome, we hope the attendance will be on our side and that we’ll be better than we were today.”