Now Wales put on their own club double header
The RaboDirect Pro 12 matches – scheduled for the Easter weekend in late March – will feature Cardiff Blues against champions Ospreys and Newport Gwent Dragons against the Scarlets.
Wales aim to emulate the now traditional English Premiership double-header at Twickenham with a crowd of more than 50,000.
Details of the initiative will be outlined during ‘a major news announcement’ in Cardiff on Tuesday at a conference called jointly by the clubs’ umbrella organisation, Regional Rugby Wales Ltd, and the Welsh Rugby Union.
A four-year agreement guarantees that the double-header will be played annually until March 2016.
Unlike the English equivalent where the four London area clubs – Harlequins, Wasps, London Irish and Saracens – take it in turns to be the home team, the Welsh regions will not operate on a similar rotation.
The double header will be a home fixture for the Blues and the Dragons season in, season out.
They will share the gate receipts as reward for switching the matches onto the big stage from the Arms Park and Rodney Parade respectively.
The enterprising move follows months of protracted talks between the regions, the Pro12 League and the Union.
The Ospreys’ and Scarlets’ understandable refusal to relocate their Boxing Day fixture scuppered a proposal for a Christmas double-header at the Millennium.
Neither region was prepared to ask their fans to travel to Cardiff for a supposed home fixture.
Instead the Ospreys will aim to fill the Liberty Stadium for their local derby against the Scarlets on Boxing Day, as their near neighbours did at the Parc-y-Scarlets on the same day last season.
PETER JACKSON
