Aviva tie would be worth €650k to Leinster

MICK DAWSON, the Leinster CEO, will this weekend seek to persuade Joe Schmidt, of the merits in moving Leinster’s Heineken Cup home quarter-final to the Aviva Stadium rather than the RDS. At a conservative estimate, such a move would earn Leinster an additional €650,000 or more in gate receipts.

The €650,000-plus windfall (€910,000 as opposed to €260,000) is based on average ticket prices of around €35, and comparing the 18,500 capacity RDS to the 50,000 capacity Aviva, bearing in mind a deduction of 20 per cent for the costs of hosting the game and the ERC incentive to move a quarter-final to a bigger stadium (when the home side’s ‘take’ goes up from 50 to 65 per cent).

“I think at this stage we’re just delighted to get a quarter-final at home and home for us is Dublin,” said Schmidt. “I’m really happy with some of the things we created but we kind of made things difficult for ourselves when we got a bit loose or sloppy, but at the same time it’s not like you’re playing a team that’s going to give you anything easy anyway. We had to scramble back a little bit and we let them in for a try that we didn’t want to concede but I’m delighted with the way we put things together to get over the line five times.”

Schmidt confirmed that Cian Healy took a knock on the hip and was really struggling in the last 10 minutes of the first half, but thinks it is just bruising, while Richardt Strauss sustained a bang on the ribs. Meantime, it was “softly softly” with regard to Jamie Heaslip’s ankle injury, which is now in the care of the Irish medical staff.

Schmidt quipped that Seán O’Brien’s sensational form will hasten Heaslip’s desire to get playing again. “He wasn’t too bad again. One of the great advantages of Seán is that he can play any of the three loose forward positions. There’s a lot of players who play dynamically who have three or four impressive carries, but the number of quality involvements Seán has are ridiculous. I really hope he gets some opportunities in the upcoming weeks. If not he’ll be nice and fresh for us anyway.”

Meanwhile, former Leinster coach Michael Cheika has said he has no intention of raiding his old side after being linked with a move to bring outhalf Jonathan Sexton to Stade Francais.