{"id":794490,"date":"2026-10-07T05:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T05:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/794490\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T05:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T05:20:14","slug":"club-nights-back-on-agenda-as-leinster-return-to-their-true-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/794490\/","title":{"rendered":"Club nights back on agenda as Leinster return to their true home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>  Published: 13 hours ago | 6 October 2026 12:14 EDT  <\/p>\n<p>mens<\/p>\n<p>united-rugby-championship<\/p>\n<p>    Fintan Gunne scoring Leinster Rugby&#8217;s second try in pre-season fixture against Zebre Parma in the Laya Arena \/\/ Photo Credit: Inpho Photography <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"expand\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-cdn.rugbypass.com\/images\/common-svg\/select-arrow.svg\" height=\"6\" width=\"11\"\/>      <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rugbypass.com%2F\" onclick=\"GATracking.sendDataLayerEvent(&#039;preferredsourcegoogle&#039;);\" aria-label=\"Google Prefered Source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791350413_504_google_preferred_source_badge_light.png\" alt=\"Google Prefered Source\" width=\"141\" height=\"44\" class=\"google-source\"\/> <\/a>     <\/p>\n<p>It will be the dawn of a new era for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/leinster\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leinster<\/a> Rugby this weekend as they play their first BKT URC game at the redeveloped Laya Arena.<\/p>\n<p>The league champions will welcome second-placed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/cardiff-blues\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cardiff Rugby<\/a> to their new-look home at the Royal Dublin Society site on Saturday evening, with a bumper crowd expected for the landmark fixture.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the redevelopment, which cost \u20ac52m and is the product of more than 220,000 working hours, the capacity is now up to 20,600, with the new Anglesea Stand holding 6,775.<\/p>\n<p>One other nice stat is that the total distance of seating if laid end to end would stretch 3.39km. For those with local knowledge, that takes you as far as the Ha\u2019penny Bridge!<\/p>\n<p>So, after two seasons at the Aviva Stadium, Leinster are back at the RDS, having signed a 25-year agreement to use the Laya Arena for their home games.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Leo Cullen views it as a very welcome move as he embarks on his final season at the helm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou want a proper club ground, with a proper club feel, that\u2019s the big thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you go to an international stadium, it\u2019s very hard to generate a club feel because you are on the bus, you are under the tunnel, it\u2019s an international ground.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere at the Laya, there\u2019s proper engagement with the fans with everyone on top of each other. That\u2019s what club rugby should be like.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKids who come into the ground can actually see their heroes whereas it\u2019s always a bit more distant at the bigger stadiums like the Aviva.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, we are very lucky to play there, but it\u2019s not a club ground. Club is the big thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the redevelopment project, he said: \u201cA huge amount of work has gone into upgrading the venue and we can\u2019t wait to build a powerful bond with our team and supporters as we progress through the season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adding his thoughts, assistant coach Emmett Farrell said: \u201cThe old RDS had some great nights and we are looking forward to having some really big nights in the Laya Arena.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/309.png.webp\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p> Head-to-Head <\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/302.png.webp\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p>Last 5 Meetings<\/p>\n<p>Average Points scored<\/p>\n<p>   <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/cardiff-blues-vs-leinster\/?g=951204\/\" class=\"link-box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">   <\/p>\n<p>Assessing the challenge presented by Cardiff, Farrell said: \u201cIt will be a big test. They are really good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are definitely the strongest Welsh team at the moment. They are growing the depth of their squad with quality guys. So they are definitely a threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey got the better of us twice last year. They beat us in pre-season at Tallaght and then they beat us at the Arms Park later in the year. So they will be very confident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have had a really strong start to the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey got an away win in a Welsh derby, which is a big confidence boost, and they had a nice comfortable win against Zebre.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey look very strong. Their pack has been brilliant, their maul has been going well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve got really good half-backs. Their tactical kicking is very strong, so we are going to have to be very secure in the back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir aerial game is very strong. They did a bit of a job on us in Cardiff when they won a lot of the aerial contests. So we have to make sure we reverse that trend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He concluded: \u201cThey will be coming here full of confidence which is a danger to us. They are going to have a good crack. They will have good belief that they can do it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere will be no holds barred on the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Title holders Leinster will be looking for their first win of the URC season having lost their opening two games out in South Africa \u2013 against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/golden-lions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lions<\/a> and the Sharks \u2013 while picking up three losing bonus points as valuable consolation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 13 hours ago | 6 October 2026 12:14 EDT mens united-rugby-championship Fintan Gunne scoring Leinster Rugby&#8217;s second&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-794490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}