The Guinness PRO14 gets underway this evening with recently-crowned 4-times champions Leinster welcoming Dragons to the RDS.
The game will be covered live on TG4 while the most recent beaten finalists Ulster will take on Benetton in front of 600 fans at the Kingspan Stadium on eir Sport.
Tonight’s opening will be followed by a bumper afternoon of live rugby on TG4 on Saturday as Scarlets host Munster in Parc y Scarlets followed by live coverage from The Sportsground where Connacht host Glasgow.
The sense of hardly any break is, of course, real with the conclusion of last season only taking place weeks ago.
Players have been back in training since they were permitted to do so in July. Next Friday we are hosting a special live Webinar with Rugby Players Ireland on their reactions to coming back and on how that can inform the wider return to work that is and will continue in wider society.
The Guinness PRO14 Xtra service is available again giving fans access to video highlights, newsletters and competitions, all for free.
Guinness remains as the main commercial partner with eir, Macron and Gilbert also on board as suppliers.
The tournament will not have South African involvement in at least the first half though as we reported earlier in the week, discussions are well underway for the inclusion in 2021 of four of that country’s most powerful teams.
Join us on Monday when we will take a look at the ways in which the sponsors of the four Irish provinces, led by Bank of Ireland, have promoted the return to action over the weekend.
