Andy Robinson welcomed the news that Edinburgh will face European champions Munster in the curtain raiser to the 2008/2009 Magners League season at Murrayfield on the weekend of 6 September but acknowledges it will be tough opening match.
After recording their best ever finish in the Magners League last season, Edinburgh will be aiming to improve upon on fourth spot during the forthcoming campaign.
The squad – containing 17 Scotland internationalists – has been strengthened during the summer following the arrivals of Chris Paterson and Jim Hamilton.
But Edinburgh will start the new season against Munster; in the Irish Province’s first competitive match since they were crowned European champions in May.
Nevertheless head coach Robinson believes the test will prove to be beneficial; preceded by warm-up matches against English champions London Wasps and European Challenge Cup holders Bath.
Remember you can watch all nine home matches in the Magners League (plus the away match at Glasgow in January 2009) plus all three Heineken Cup Pool matches and the friendly match against London Wasps (Saturday, 23 August kick off 2.30pm) where you can bring along a friend for FREE - all included in your 2008/2009 season ticket package. Call 0131 346 5180 and become part of a team that an inspirational capital can be proud of.
Robinson said: “In our warm-up matches we will be facing the English champions and the European Challenge Cup champions.
“Then our opening two competitive matches will be against the European champions and the Magners League champions (Leinster), so we fully understand the task ahead.
“We have been handed a tough start, but it will give the players an early opportunity to measure how far we have progressed over the course of the summer programme.
“Munster have got some fine players and a proud tradition, so we will be looking forward to kicking off our Magners League campaign in front of a big, vocal crowd at Murrayfield.”
In the second round of the Magners League, Edinburgh will travel to face Leinster at Dublin’s RDS on the weekend of 13 September while Llanelli Scarlets visit the Scottish capital the following weekend.
The eagerly awaited 1872 Challenge Cup matches against Glasgow Warriors will take place over the festive period with the opener staged at Murrayfield (weekend of 27 December) while the return match at Firhill will take place the following weekend.
Assistant coach Rob Moffat says he is really excited about the fixtures and believes they will prove to be great adverts for Scottish Rugby.
Moffat said: “Last season’s 1872 Cup matches were two very good games of rugby. The games were not just exciting, but were also very skilful which is a factor not always associated with derby matches.
“When we played Glasgow at Murrayfield last season we generated a crowd of over 6,000 and they witnessed a cracker; hopefully those fans will come back again this year.”
w/o 6 Sept Munster (h), w/o 13 Sept Leinster (a), w/o 20 Sept Scarlets (h), w/o 27 Sept Dragons (a), w/o 4 Oct Ulster (a), w/o 25 Oct Connacht (a), w/o 29 Nov Ospreys (h), w/o 27 December Glasgow (h), w/o 3 January Glasgow (a), w/o 10 Jan Ulster (h).
The full 2008/2009 Magners League fixture list will appear here on www.edinburghrugby.org very shortly and ticket information for individual games, including the curtain raiser against Munster.
