The launch of the second season of the RaboDirect Pro 12 took place in Glasgow yesterday. On the pitch the tournament provides a mainstay of the rugby season narrative, providing high end competition for main and squad players throughout the campaign and complementing the Heineken Cup and the Ulster Bank League which this season moves in the main to Friday nights.
Off the pitch as well RaboBank has expressed itself delighted with the first season, having made significant inroads on brand awareness through mainstream and especially social media.
Much of the emphasis at the launch centred on Leinster, who last year completed an unhappy hat trick of Grand Final defeats.  Last May’s reverse against the Ospreys followed a similar patter to the previous year against Munster coming hot on the heels of a Heineken Cup triumph.
Leinster finished top of the League phase but manager Guy Easterby stressed it was silverware that was their ambition.
“It’s hard to put something like that to bed, especially as individuals,” he said.
“Leo [Cullen] was talking about how painful it was when he was still on holiday and how his wife was demanding that he start enjoying his holiday and stop thinking about the final.”
“But we see it as we weren’t good enough and we need to get better and we have to try to work on getting better every single day and do that up to the weekend and try and win that game and then start the cycle over again.”
Leinster begin their pursuit of their first Celtic League title since 2008 against Scarlets who they will also face in the Heineken Cup pool phase later in the autumn. Ulster host the Glasgow Warriors at Ravenhill on Friday night, August 31st in their opening game while Connacht take on the Cardiff Blues in Galway and Munster travel to Murrayfield to face Edinburgh.
Sport for Business is supporting a meeting of the Rugby Business Network at Lansdowne Rugby Club on the evening of September 11th.
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