Saturday schedule for Irish sides

European Cup news: Leinster have joined Munster in being allotted Saturday afternoon slots for their home games in Sky TV's scheduling for this season's Heineken European Cup. All four pool games hosted by the two provinces this side of Christmas will kick-off at 5.15 in what is seemingly the Irish slot for Sky's Saturday coverage.

Ulster retain their traditional Friday night niche for their opening match against Cardiff Blues on October 22nd, with Munster at home to Harlequins the following day while Leinster, in Declan Kidney's first Euro outing as their coach, will play Benetton Treviso away the same afternoon (3.0 Irish time).

Ulster will be disappointed to have their second home game in round four, against the French champions Stade Francais, moved to Saturday, December 11th at 1.0, although it does revive memories of their quarter-final win against the same opponents en route to the 1999 trophy.

Of more concern to the Irish provinces will be their away fixtures, especially Munster's trip to the Neath/Swansea Ospreys in round two, which will take place on Sunday, October 31st, while in rounds three and four, Munster and Leinster's away games against Castres and Bourgoin respectively will be held on Friday nights. It hardly seems designed to make the most of Munster's travelling Red Army.

"Playing away from home on a Sunday in Neath is totally unsatisfactory from our supporters' point of view," said the Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald yesterday.

"It makes it virtually impossible to return home for work on a Monday. It is an unsatisfactory time for everyone."

However he admitted: "Having our home games kick off at 5.15 doesn't greatly inconvenience us. The 2.0 to 3.0 slot is ideal but one of our pool games (against Gloucester) and our quarter-final (against Stade Francais) last year were at 5.0.

"We would have expressed a preference for Saturday afternoons although ultimately it is entirely TV's decision.

"We have a large number of supporters who travel to Thomond Park from around the province, so Saturday would be our preferred choice."

Donnybrook having given way to Lansdowne Road last season as Leinster's home venue even for the pool stages, it seems Friday nights are a thing of the past for their supporters also.

However, their chief executive Mick Dawson put a positive spin on this. "Friday nights in Donnybrook were great but they tended to reach out to a specific audience of people coming home from work or single people going out for the night.

"We've found that more families tend to go to our games on Saturday afternoons, and we can also do deals with schools and clubs such as laying on buses.

"And with international match tickets so hard to get," added Dawson, "we would be hopeful that the type of team we have would attract people to Lansdowne Road who wouldn't be able to come for an international."

Dates and kick-off times for the final two rounds of pool games in January will not be determined until later, but of more concern to Fitzgerald is the ERC's decision to grant exclusivity to secondary sponsors of the tournament such as Zurich Financial Services and Fiat.

Both are in competition with Munster's main sponsors, Toyota, as well as Bank of Scotland and Bank of Ireland at Leinster and Ulster, who invest roughly €1.25 to €1.5 million per annum combined into the three provinces, but will now not be able to have perimeter advertising or even ads in the match programmes.

"They shouldn't be giving exclusivity to secondary sponsors," says Fitzgerald.

"It's a bad commercial decision, and it endangers the sponsorships of the home teams."

(All kick-offs local time)

LEINSTER (Pool Two)

Sat, Oct 23rd: Benetton Treviso v Leinster, 4.0;

Sat, Oct 30th: Leinster v Bath, 5.15;

Sat, Dec 4th: Leinster v Bourgoin, 5.15;

Fri, Dec 10th: Bourgoin v Leinster, 8.30.

MUNSTER (Pool Four)

Sat, Oct 23rd: Munster v NEC Harlequins, 5.15

Sun, Oct 31st: Neath-Swansea Ospreys v Munster, 3.0

Fri, Dec 3rd: Castres Olympique v Munster, 8.30

Sat, Dec 11th: Munster v Castres Olympique, 5.15.

ULSTER (Pool Six)

Fri, Oct 22nd: Ulst-er v Cardiff Blues, 7.30

Sat, Oct 30th: Gloucester v Ulster, 3.0

Sat, Dec 4th: Stade Francais v Ulster, 2.0

Sat, Dec 11th: Ulster v Stade Francais, 1.0.