Sunday, February 11th, 2007, will be forever remembered as a momentous date in Irish sport as the French become the first foreign nation to play a rugby match in Croke Park. This hasn't stopped the GAA rolling out a full list of fixtures - most are early throw-ins - in direct competition.
It's been known for some time the National Football League will take place that weekend, 12 games have been brought forward to the Saturday, but the GAA announced yesterday the All-Ireland club hurling semi-finals are to be played in Mullingar and Portlaoise on the Sunday.
It means, among others, RTÉ's sports personality of the year Henry Shefflin and the Dublin football team, who are in Limerick, will miss Croke Park opening its gates to rugby union.
The high-profile meeting of Leinster and Kilkenny champions, Ballyhale Shamrocks, and Munster and Tipperary champions, Toomevara, takes place in Portlaoise at 1pm with Connacht and Galway champions Loughrea playing Antrim and Ulster champions Cushendall at 2.30pm in Mullingar. The kick-off for Ireland against France is 3pm.
"We have no room to manoeuvre," said GAA PRO Danny Lynch. "We already moved several fixtures forward to the Saturday and have also staggered the time to avoid a clash. "It is difficult enough to reconcile the club versus county problem that faces our fixture plans. We must do what is practical. If we were to start factoring in other sports, even ones that utilise our facilities, it would become impossible."
Jimmy Dunne, the chairman of Central Competitions Control committee (CCC), did hint at some wriggle room for the clubs to object to the current fixtures but the never-ending GAA season appears to hinder any drastic change at this juncture.
"It is a matter of trying to get times to accommodate everyone, which is not always possible. Having said that we are approachable and will try to facilitate clubs where if we can. We already put a lot of football league games back to the Saturday and have put the club hurling on at earlier times. We recognise there is a huge interest in the rugby at Croke Park.
"If the clubs do have any problems with this there is another meeting on Tuesday, January 23rd, when they can make their feelings clear through the correct channels."
TG4 will televise the Toomevara versus Ballyhale Shamrocks semi-final, while the Cushendall against Loughrea fixture is expected to give the most ardent anti-rugby supporter an option of watching a live game of hurling during events at Croke Park.
TG4 also confirmed they will be showing deferred coverage of all the National League floodlit games, which are live on Setanta Sports, this season.
The All-Ireland club football championship times, venues and dates have also been announced. Kerry and Munster champions Dr Crokes must overcome London champions St Brendan's in Ruislip to set up a semi-final with Kildare and Leinster champions Moorefield in Limerick on February 18th. In the event of an upset, the fixture will switch to Mullingar. Roscommon and Connacht champions St Brigid's face Armagh and Ulster champions Crossmaglen in Mullingar on the same day.
