Ireland will play two Test matches in Bloemfontein and Pretoria on their demanding seven-match tour of South Africa next summer. As a prelude to those two Tests, Brian Ashton's team will also play current Currie Cup holders Western Province in Cape Town.
The tour begins with a game against Boland in Wellington on Saturday May 30th and concludes three weeks later with the second Test in Pretoria on June 20th. It is, according to Irish manager Pat Whelan, more or less what they wanted.
"We had a choice in terms of times and location, although we were given the opposition. But we might as well go for it. Playing back to back Tests is no more difficult that it would be in the World Cup and that was part of our thinking."
Logistically, and geographically, the tour has been designed with the minimum amount of difficulty. The first three games are in the Cape region, and the fourth against Griqualand West in Kimberley is in the Northern Cape en route to the final three, which are all in the high veldt.
Meanwhile, Whelan will not hear the results of the scan on Conor McGuinness' knee injury until tomorrow, prior to the Irish selectors' meeting to pick the team to meet Italy on December 20th.
To mark the introduction of the IRFU-funded floodlighting system at Donnybrook, the A international between Ireland and Scotland on Friday, February 6th, will be played under lights that evening at a time yet to be finalised. Ireland A also meet Wales A in Thomond Park on March 20th, with an afternoon kick-off, to commemorate the Limerick 800 celebrations and the 100th anniversary of the only Ireland-Wales international played in Limerick, on March 19th 1898.
A sin-bin system will be introduced, on an experimental basis, in AIB League divisions one and two matches from January 3rd. A player who persistently infringes Law 18 (tackle) and Law 24 (offside) will be sent-off for 10 minutes. It will not be used for Law 26, (foul play) where the sanctions - yellow card and red card - will still apply.
Shoulder padding and scrum caps, already permitted for use in internationals, have also been approved for use in domestic games.
Jim Glennon has resigned as manager of the Irish under-21 team due to pressure of business and is replaced by Philip Rainey.
Thirty-three schoolboys have completed a Young Referees Course and have been presented with certificates at a ceremony at Lansdowne Road.
Galwegians, buoyed by two opening wins in Division Two of the AIL, have announced a new sponsor in Nortel, Northern Telecom, a global provider of digital network solutions who have operated in Galway since 1973 and now have a workforce in the city of over 800.
