Eyes on the prize: Sean Lineen will be hoping his Warriors side can go one better and claim the Magners League trophy. Pic: ©SNS Group
Glasgow Warriors will start the season with a home game against Leinster, while Edinburgh are scheduled to be on the road with a match against Cardiff Blues. The fixtures for the 2010/11 Magners League season were announced on Thursday, plotting both team’s routes to a hopeful appearance in the final at the end of May.
Edinburgh will be the first of the two Scottish sides to take on one of the new Italian teams in the competition. Rob Moffat’s team will travel to Lombardy on the weekend of October 1 to take on Aironi, in what will be their fifth game of the season.
The Murrayfield-based side will also end their regular season with a trip to face Benetton Treviso, two weeks after their final home game against Newport Gwent Dragons.
The Warriors will host the first leg of the 1872 Cup across the festive period on an unconfirmed date between December 24 and 27. The Murrayfield leg will take place on either December 31, January 1 or 2.
Sean Lineen’s team will finish their regular season with a trip to play Leinster, two weeks on from their final home game against Scarlets at Firhill. Warriors fans can also look forward to two back-to-back trips to Italy, first to play Aironi on the weekend of April 1 and then Benetton Treviso on the weekend of April 15.
Three of the Glasgow side’s first four fixtures will be at home, with games against Connacht and Munster following in weeks three and four after a trip to face the Dragons.
“You certainly want to get some home games early in the season and they are really tasty fixtures for the fans as well as for the players,” Lineen said of the early season fixture schedule. “It's great that we have three home games out of four to start off with.
“I think it's massively enticing for the fans, especially when you see the teams we are playing at home. Certainly Leinster and Munster are the two that stick out there.
“For us, as a squad, it's always good to play at home. You do get an advantage when you play at home, and to have three games at Firhill in the first four games, I would see as an advantage to us.”
Edinburgh coach Moffat is optimistic his side can reach the play-offs this season, having missed out thanks to a poor run of form towards the end of the last campaign. “I've been really impressed with the attitude and determination the guys have shown in the first part of pre-season, and I'm convinced we'll be exactly where we need to be when the first week of September comes round,” he said.
“As with the Heineken Cup, Cardiff will be a difficult place to go first up in the Magners League, but we showed there on the opening day of last season that there is nothing for us to fear.”
