Maiden Ulster Rugby game at GAA ground

Article posted by Coliseum, September 14^th, 2023

Image: Ulster Rugby

The United Rugby Championship team Ulster Rugby will face their peer team Glasgow Warriors on October 7^th at the home of Cavan GAA in this year’s Bank of Ireland Pre-Season Friendly.

‘ulster.gaa.ie’ stated that the warm-up fixture is set to be the first Ulster Rugby game hosted at a GAA ground. However, whilst the game marks a historic first, it reflects how the Governing Bodies regularly come together to promote Gaelic games and rugby across the province at a grassroots and professional level.

Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the Irish regional pool of the United Rugby Championship and in the European Rugby Champions Cup, each of which they have won once. Ulster was the first Irish team and the first team outside England (UK) and France to win the European Cup in 1999.

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The Ravenhill Stadium (known as the Kingspan Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a rugby stadium located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home of Ulster Rugby. With the opening of a new stand for the 2014 Heineken Cup quarter-final against the Premiership Rugby team Saracens Rugby Club (UK) on April 5^th, 2014, the capacity of the stadium is now 18,196. The stadium is owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).

Dublin (Ireland)-based the United Rugby Championship is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales (UK).

The European Rugby Champions Cup is an annual rugby union tournament organized by the European Professional Club Rugby. It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a predominantly European league.

The European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) is the governing body and organizer of the two major club rugby union tournaments: The Heineken Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup.

The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland (UK). The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014-2015 seasons they won the Pro12 title and became the first Scottish team to win a major trophy in rugby union’s professional era.

The Scotstoun Stadium is an athletics and rugby union stadium in Scotstoun, an area in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. The Glasgow Warriors have trained at the facility since 2009 and have played their home games here from the 2012-201313 seasons onwards. It has a capacity of 9,708 for rugby union.

The Cavan County Board or Cavan GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, and is responsible for the administration of Gaelic games in County Cavan.

The Breffni Park, known for sponsorship reasons as the Kingspan Breffni, is a GAA stadium in Cavan, Ireland. It is the home of Cavan GAA. The ground has an overall capacity of about 25,030 with a 5,030 seated capacity. Breffni is the historic name for the area of counties Cavan and Leitrim.

Dublin (Ireland)-based the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organization focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, Gaelic handball, and rounders.

‘ulster.gaa.ie’ further stated that It follows on from the Game For Anto fundraiser fixture that the Ulster GAA hosted at Ulster Rugby’s Kingspan Stadium back in 2014, which was aimed at raising awareness of Motor Neurone Disease, and supporting the former Antrim county football team captain Anto Finnegan’s deterMND Trust.

Said Jonny Petrie, Ulster Rugby head honcho, “With upgrades of the Kingspan Stadium ahead of the 2023-2024 seasons ongoing, including the new high-performance 3G pitch, our pre-season fixture this year offers a unique opportunity to collaborate with the Ulster GAA on hosting a Senior Men’s game in another part of the province. Our thanks go to our friends at the Ulster GAA and Cavan GAA for offering us the use of the Kingspan Breffni, and their support in putting on the fixture.”

The Ulster Council is a provincial Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) sports of hurling, Gaelic football, camogie, and handball in the province of Ulster. The headquarters of the Ulster GAA is based in the City of Armagh (town in Northern Ireland). The first Ulster GAA Convention was held on March 22^nd, 1903 in Armagh.

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