| Home | Time | Away |
|---|
- | Friday | - Zebre | 17:30 | Sharks Cardiff Rugby | 19:35 | Bulls Ulster | 19:35 | Munster
- | Saturday | - Benetton | 15:00 | Stormers Ospreys | 17:15 | Glasgow Scarlets | 17:15 | Lions Edinburgh | 19:35 | Connacht
- | Sunday | - Dragons | 13:15 | Leinster
My home team Edinburgh trying to knock the only unbeaten team of the URC down a peg on Saturday, and a mouth watering Irish clash Friday night!
Anyone off to see any this weekend?
The SRU have a stake in Old Glory DC of the MLR, so a few players go out there each year who aren’t quite ready for the URC. We also have a scholarship for a couple of players to go and soak in rugby for a year or two, often our most promising players have had this
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macphail_Scholarship
But the last few names on this haven’t really broken through. Since the switch to SA…
So yes, a lot of similarities between the two countries. One day I’ll make it down, I dream of going to watch us get pumped in Eden Park
My partner & I were supposed to be over in 2020; visiting her family & then doing a roadie around the top, but something happened that year, I forget what.
Unlike European Rugby NZR schedule test matches all around the country, usually based on how many people they think a match will attract. It’s hard to say now given how Aussie have fallen so far and Scotland have risen so much in the rankings, but it would have been Scotland in say Dunedin back in the day. In terms of an actual building, that ground is top 2 for Rugby (along with Rugby Park in Hamilton) in NZ.
Other than Christchurch’s current temporary stadium, all the other big ones - Eden Park, Wellington, pre earthquake Lancaster Park etc are multi purpose grounds so because of the space requirements for cricket you can end up a long way from the sidelines in a footie game.
More & more though NZR are scheduling games at Eden Park just financially it makes sense I suppose. They do risk saturating the market a bit, and further pissing off us provincials - but until Christchurch gets a 45k+ stadium only Wellington really has a stadium + population that can compete with Auckland.
Surely if Scotland ever do tour NZ, Dunedin has to be a stop, it’s literally Gaidhlig for Edinburgh