RaboDirect Pro12
Round 17 of the Pro12 kicks off with five games on Friday, with both contenders for the top spot in action.
Leaders Ulster, who have been at the top since round five, welcome Benetton Treviso to Ravenhill whilst Glasgow Warriors host Cardiff Blues at Scotstoun.
With just seven rounds left in the regular season of the PRO12, the race is really on for a top four finish, and qualification for the play-offs. In the pick of the games this weekend first plays second when leaders Ulster travel to face Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun on Friday night.
With a pause in the international matches, the Pro12 takes centre stage again this weekend with games in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
First up on Friday night table toppers Ulster welcome Zebre to Ravenhill. The leaders will be keen to get back to their winning ways having suffered only their second defeat in this season’s campaign at the hands of Ospreys last week.
While most of the attention up north should be on the internationals with this being weekend two of the 2013 RBS 6 Nations let us not forget that we also have round fourteen of the RaboDirect Pro12 competition to look forward to.
Despite their loss to Munster at Thomond Park last Saturday, Ulster remain clear at the top of the Pro12 table as we start the New Year.
Ulster have a nine-point lead over second placed Scarlets, who they welcome to Ravenhill on Friday.
Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby did battle yesterday in the Rabo Direct Pro12 at Murrayfield. The match also doubled up as the second leg of the 1872 Cup. Glasgow won the first leg of the cup game last weekend at their home ground, Scotstoun Stadium, by nine points. Glasgow were comfortably in front in yesterday’s game, leading by 18 points on the 55 minute mark. However, a late rally by Edinburgh made for an exiting finish, FINAL SCORE : Edinburgh 17 – 21 Glasgow.
Rather than bring one match report I thought for a change would post two match reports, one from either camp. There is some repetition but it is interesting to see the reports as written from ‘both sides of the fence’.
At the half-way point of the regular season Ulster sit atop of the Pro12 table with a perfect won 11 out of 11 record.
The leaders face Munster in one of four games on Saturday, safe in the knowledge that regardless of other results, they will enter 2013 as table toppers.
This weekend sees further action in the RaboDirect Pro12 as this season’s competition enters the twelfth round of matches in the league stage. Most of the games will be completed during the weekend but one of the matches, Scarlets versus Ospreys, is scheduled for the afternoon of Monday afternoon.
The attention in Scotland in particular will, for the second week in a row, be centred on the derby match between Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors. This match will take place at Murrayfield on Saturday, kick off due 18.05 South African Time.
After their forays into Europe, this weekend sees the start of the festive derby fixtures for the Pro12 teams.
Ulster still lead the way with a perfect 10 out of 10 in this competition, a full nine points clear of their nearest rivals, Scarlets, and are one of three Irish Provinces currently in the play-off zone. They welcome Leinster to Ravenhill on Friday, a victory for the visitors would close the gap between themselves and the leaders to single figures, a loss could, put their own top four place into jeopardy.
After a few weeks of Heineken Cup rugby this weekend seems the return to action in the major leagues in the form of the Aviva Premiership and the Rabbo Direct Pro12 as well as the French Top 14. Of particular interest in Scotland is the big derby match between Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh on Friday night in Glasgow.
The pick of the games in the Pro12 Round 10 will not take place until Sunday, when second placed Scarlets welcome table-topping Ulster to Llanelli.
Table topping Ulster welcome Edinburgh to Ravenhill in one of three Pro12 games Friday. Ulster have been victorious in all competitions so far this season, and will no doubt want to maintain that unbeaten record as the Pro12 breaks for the year-end Tests.
Ruan Pienaar scored 21 points playing at flyhalf as unbeaten Ulster secured a 46-19 away Pro12 victory against the Dragons on Friday.
The focus turns once again to the Pro12 this weekend, with Ulster leading the table courtesy of their unbeaten run so far this season. They travel to Rodney Parade on Friday night to face a Newport Gwent Dragons team who are uncomfortably sat at the wrong end of the table, although at this stage in the season there are only 5 points, or a try bonus point win, between the Men from Gwent and 5th placed Munster.
In what will be the final round of Pro12 games before the start of the European competitions, Ulster sit one point clear at the top of the table with a game in hand over their rivals. They welcome Connacht to Ravenhill on Friday night, a place where the visitors have never won in this tournament.
The fifth round of the RaboDirect Pro12 started with four matches on Friday night and the remaining two fixtures in the round being played on Saturday. This round yielded numerous surprise results, so much so that we only managed to correctly predict one out of the six results.
In the wake of Nevin Spence’s death alongside his brother and father, Ulster’s players now just want to return to action. They will do so on Friday night when they face Cardiff Blues in the RaboDirect PRO12 at the Arms Park.
This weekend sees the fifth round of the 2012/13 Pro12 competition, with four games taking place on Friday night and the remaining two fixtures in the round scheduled for Saturday.
Glasgow Warriors are gunning for their second home RaboDirect PRO12 victory in seven days when they face Zebre at Scotstoun Stadium on Friday (kick-off 7.35pm British Summer Time). The Warriors have made several changes to their match day squad of 23 for this game. In arguably the most notable change, former Golden Lions eighthman and captain Josh Strauss will be starting at eightman.
As Round Four of the PRO12 opens, a Welsh Region still tops the table, however it is not last season’s winners, Ospreys, but their opponents on Friday night, Scarlets, setting the pace.
After just two rounds there are only three teams left with 100 percent winning records in the Pro12, namely, Munster, Scarlets and Ulster. One of those will go this weekend, as Ulster host Munster at Ravenhill on Friday. Whilst Munster have the better record in this fixture, Ulster have had the better of their opponents at home, so it really is anyone’s game.
It was reported earlier in the week that telecommunications company BT had secured the exclusive broadcast rights for the English Premiership rugby starting from the 2013/14 season in a complex deal involving rights to broadcast various other rugby matches. The contract is set to run to the 2015/16 season and was reported to have been worth up to a whopping £152m.
The second round of the RaboDirect Pro12 competition is scheduled for this weekend. Four of the games will be played on Friday night with the remaining two games taking place on Saturday.
This weekend sees the start of the RaboDirect Pro12 for the 2012/2013 season. In what could arguably be the pick of the fixtures Edinburgh, last year’s Heineken Cup semi-finalists, face Munster. Defending champions The Ospreys will be away to Treviso, while Leinster, consistently Ireland’s best team for the last few years, travel to face Llanelli Scarlets.
The launch of the RaboDirect Pro 12 Rugby tournament took place at Glasgow’s impressive Riverside Museum on Tuesday morning with coaches and captains from all twelve teams in attendance.
The regular rugby season officially kicks off in the UK and Ireland in just over two weeks time when the Aviva Premiership and RaboDirect Pro12 league games start. However, the clubs have been busy with their pre-season preparations and a number of friendly matches were played this past weekend.
Early last month Edinburgh Rugby announced they had acquired the services of former England and Lions star flanker Neil Back; as forwards coach.
Yesterday, Edinburgh indicated they had bolstered their hooking options by signing another former Lions player, and one time Sale Sharks stalwart, hooker Andy Titterrell.
Welsh regional team the Ospreys won the final of the RaboDirect Pro12 2011/2012 season, played at RDS Dublin. The match was a highly charged tense affair and the Ospreys hung on defiantly in the end to win by a mere point, after hero Shane Williams, playing in his last game for them, scored two excellent tries.
As reported earlier in the week the finals of the Aviva Premiership and the RaboDirect Pro12 take place this weekend. They should both be really high intensity games with the teams competing quite evenly matched.
This weekend saw the semi finals of the two competitions being played. The final scores were fairly close in all but one of the matches.
The RaboDirect Pro12 ‘dream team’ for the season 2011/2012 was announced last week. There is a fair mix of representation of players from Irish, Welsh and Scottish clubs with no Italian clubs having any players in the team. On Sunday evening, in Cardiff, various awards for this season were handed out with the accolade for player of the season going to Edinburgh try scoring machine Tim Visser.
There were no surprises in Saturday’s final round of the RaboDirect Pro12. All the results were as expected with the only real issue being the margins in some of the games being a little different than perhaps expected.