The dates, venues, kick-off times, and TV coverage for the Investec Champions Cup round of 16 fixtures have been confirmed by EPCR.
Unbeaten so far this season with 13 straight wins, second seeds Leinster will return to Croke Park on Saturday, April 5 for their round of 16 match against Harlequins. Kicking off at 3pm, the game will be shown live on RTÉ 2 and the RTÉ Player,
Leinster are two out of two in this latest run of matches at Croke Park and beat Munster there in front of a record BKT United Rugby Championship crowd of 80,468 in October. With home games secured all the way to the semi-final this could be the first of a trilogy at the GAA Headquarters.
Munster will travel to face La Rochelle at Stade Marcel Deflandre that same afternoon with a kick off time of 5:30 pm.
16th-ranked Ulster, who are on the same side of the draw as Munster, will kick off the action on Sunday, April 6 (kick-off 12.30pm Irish time) with a repeat of their pool encounter with top seeds Bordeaux-Bègles.
This time the high-flying Top 14 outfit will have home advantage, with Richie Murphy’s charges visiting Stade Chaban Delmas almost four months on from their 40-19 defeat in Belfast.
Every round of 16 match will be televised live by Premier Sports in the UK and Ireland, beIN Sports in France, SuperSport in South Africa, and by FloRugby in the USA and Canada.
Additional free-to-air coverage will be available for select matches in France on France Télévisions and RTÉ in Ireland, as well as select games being available on EPCR’s OTT platform EPCRugby.TV. EPCRugby.TV is also the exclusive home of the Champions Cup in Italy.
In the EPCR Challenge Cup’s round of 16, Pool 1 winners Connacht will aim for a repeat of last week’s win when they take on Cardiff at Dexcom Stadium on Saturday, April 5 (kick-off 8pm).
As top seeds, a fifth successive victory of their European campaign would ensure the westerners are at home to either Perpignan or Racing 92 at the quarter-final stage. The quarter-finals in both competitions will take place on April 11-13.
SPORT FOR BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Knowing the times, and the venues well in advance is a strong positive for fans and match day organisers. That is the benefit of the break for the Guinness Six Nations and from her on in will be a luxury not possible to enjoy.
WHAT’S UP NEXT?
The first weekend of April is crunch time for all four provinces.
MEMBERSHIP AND EVENTS
All four provinces and principal sponsor Bank of Ireland are full active members of the Sport for Business community.
The Sport for Business Membership comprises nearly 300 organisations, including all the leading sports and sponsors, as well as commercial and state agencies.
