Leinster & Ireland's 2017/18 schedule [first draft]

GREY BOXES INDICATE DATES & TIMES THAT ARE YET TO BE DECIDED
Competition	Date	Game	Venue	KO (Irish time)
#WRWC2017	Wed Aug 9	IRELAND v AUSTRALIA	UCD Bowl	7:00pm
Friendly	Fri Aug 11	Perpignan v Leinster	Stade Aimé Giral	7:00pm
#WRWC2017	Sun Aug 13	IRELAND v JAPAN	UCD Bowl	5:15pm
#WRWC2017	Thu Aug 17	IRELAND v FRANCE	UCD Bowl	7:45pm
Friendly	Fri Aug 18	Leinster v Gloucester	St Mary's RFC	7:30pm
#WRWC2017	Tue Aug 22	IRELAND playoff semifinal	Belfast
Friendly	Fri Aug 25	Leinster v Bath	Donnybrook	7:30pm
#WRWC2017	Sat Aug 26	IRELAND playoff final	Belfast
Guinness Pro14	Sat Sep 2	Dragons v Leinster	Rodney Parade	3:15pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Sep 8	Leinster v Cardiff Blues	RDS Arena	7:35pm
Guinness Pro14	Sat Sep 16	Southern Kings v Leinster	Nelson Mandela Bay	1:15pm
Guinness Pro14	Sat Sep 23	Cheetahs v Leinster	Toyota Stadium	7:00pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Sep 29	Leinster v Edinburgh	RDS Arena	7:35pm
Guinness Pro14	Sat Oct 7	Leinster v Munster	Aviva Stadium	2:00pm
Champions Cup	Fri Oct 13	TBC	TBC
British & Irish Cup	Sat Oct 14	Doncaster v Leinster A	Castle Park	2:30pm
Champions Cup	Fri Oct 20	TBC	TBC
British & Irish Cup	Fri Oct 20	Leinster A v Cardiff Blues PS	Donnybrook
Guinness Pro14	Sat Oct 28	Ulster v Leinster	Kingspan Stadium	6:15pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Nov 3	Glasgow Warriors v Leinster	Scotstoun	7:35pm
Guinness Series	Sat Nov 11	IRELAND v SOUTH AFRICA	Aviva Stadium	5:30pm
Guinness Series	Sat Nov 18	IRELAND v FIJI	Aviva Stadium	5:30pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Nov 24	Leinster v Dragons	RDS Arena	7:35pm
Guinness Series	Sat Nov 25	IRELAND v ARGENTINA	Aviva Stadium	5:30pm
Guinness Pro14	Sat Dec 2	Treviso v Leinster	Stadio di Monigo	3:30pm
Champions Cup	Fri Dec 8	TBC	TBC
British & Irish Cup	Fri Dec 8	Bristol v Leinster A	Ashton Gate	7:45pm
Champions Cup	Fri Dec 15	TBC	TBC
British & Irish Cup	Fri Dec 15	Leinster A v Bristol	Donnybrook
Guinness Pro14	Tue Dec 26	Munster v Leinster	Thomond Park	3:15pm
Guinness Pro14	Mon Jan 1	Leinster v Connacht	RDS Arena	3:15pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Jan 5	Leinster v Ulster	RDS Arena	5:35pm
Champions Cup	Fri Jan 12	TBC	TBC
British & Irish Cup	Fri Jan 12	Cardiff Blues PS v Leinster A	TBC
Champions Cup	Fri Jan 19	TBC	TBC
British & Irish Cup	Fri Jan 19	Leinster A v Doncaster	Donnybrook
OFF WEEK	Fri Jan 26
SIX NATIONS	Sat Feb 3	FRANCE v IRELAND	Stade de France	4:45pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Feb 9	Edinburgh v Leinster	Myreside
SIX NATIONS	Sat Feb 10	IRELAND v ITALY	Aviva Stadium	2:15pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Feb 16	Leinster v Scarlets	RDS Arena
Guinness Pro14	Fri Feb 23	Leinster v Southern Kings	RDS Arena
SIX NATIONS	Sat Feb 24	IRELAND v WALES	Aviva Stadium	2:15pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Mar 2	Scarlets v Leinster	Parc y Scarlets
SIX NATIONS	Sat Mar 10	IRELAND v SCOTLAND	Aviva Stadium	2:15pm
SIX NATIONS	Sat Mar 17	ENGLAND v IRELAND	Twickenham	2:45pm
Guinness Pro14	Fri Mar 23	Ospreys v Leinster	Liberty Stadium
Champions Cup	Fri Mar 30	Quarterfinals	TBC
Guinness Pro14	Fri Apr 6	Leinster v Zebre	RDS Arena
Guinness Pro14	Fri Apr 13	Leinster v Treviso	RDS Arena
Champions Cup	Fri Apr 20	Semifinals	TBC
Guinness Pro14	Fri Apr 27	Connacht v Leinster	Sportsgrounds
Guinness Pro14	Fri May 4	Playoffs	TBD
Champions Cup	Sat May 12	FINAL	San Mamés Stadium
Guinness Pro14	Fri May 18	Semifinals	TBD
Guinness Pro14	Fri May 25	FINAL	TBD

All throughout last season in the [then] Pro12 I kept harping on Leinster's difficult run-in...as in turned out although it didn't stop us getting a home semifinal, we were unable to do anything with it.

This time  the tricky series of matches comes around at the start of the season, and although September is traditionally a shaky month for us, it's October that seems to be more challenging than usual.

We kick off away to the Dragons - this may not look like much on paper but we have had our problems there before and now they have rebranded including the addition of names familiar to Leinster fans in Bernard Jackman as coach and Zane Kirchner.

Next we kickoff our home campaign with the visit of the Cardiff Blues before we become the first Celtic team to travel to South Africa, hitting both of the new venues in rounds 3 & 4.   We complete the month at home to Edinburgh and from there things really begin to take off.

In many ways our season could well depend on how we get on in our five matches from October 7 to November 3.  Munster at the Aviva, our first two Champions Cup matches, then Ulster and Glasgow away.  Yikes.

Of course I'm not saying we're not up to such a challenge - I have already pointed out that we seem to have a decent squad going into the new campaign.  But even though the new format makes it easier to qualify for playoffs [6 from 14 is a shade better than 4 from 12] a club like ours really needs to be looking to top our conference and enjoy the home semifinal that comes with it.

Some other observations from our schedule...we hit all three Irish provinces in a row over the Christmas period, we play the champions Scarlets twice in three rounds in late Feb/early March, two of our final three regular season matches are at home to the Italia duo, and if we need anything from our final match we'll have to go to Galway to get it.

As for Ireland, well you probably know we've South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in November [all on Saturdays in the Aviva with 5:30pm kickoffs], there's a tour of Australia to be organised at the end of the season and in between, our Six Nations 2018 campaign begins in Paris, ends in Twickers on Paddy's Day and has three home matches on Saturdays at 2:15 in between.

But before we get too worked up about any of that, there's the small matter of the Women's World Cup for us to enjoy starting tonight.  Best of luck to the girls, here's hoping the entire Irish rugby community gets behind them over the coming weeks - it promises to be a cracking tournament.  JLP 

PS - a link to the chart you see above will eventually appear in the sidebar and we'll update it throughout the season