Champions Cup: Lyon v Leinster
Date: November 23rd, 2019. Kick-off: 4.15pm.
After last year’s Champions Cup final disappointment Leinster begin their European campaign this season at home to Bennetton before a trip to France to take on Lyon. This is the first time the two provinces will have met in the Champions Cup after the French side made their debut last year. However, after a third place finish in last season’s Top 14 and currently sitting top of the table this season after beating Toulon at the weekend, they will be give Leinster a run for their money at the Matmut Stade de Gerland.
Getting there
Aer Lingus are the only airline operating direct flights from Dublin to Lyon and, as expected, the price of those flights has already gone through the roof for the weekend of the match. For instance, to fly out on Friday November 22nd and back on Sunday November 24th you’ll pay a cool €525. Contrast that with the previous weekend where the same flights will only cost €80 in total.
However, there are other options. On the Friday and the Saturday morning there are Aer Lingus flights to Paris for between €35 and €52 while flights back from Paris on the Sunday range between €35 and €66. From Paris it’s a two hour high-speed train journey to Lyon through the scenic centre of France which costs around €90 return. All in all that will mean your travel costs add up to less than €200 – significantly cheaper than the €525 it costs to fly direct.
As a tip, if you book your train tickets on thetrainline.com you can often get great discounts. For instance, at the time of writing, you can get a ticket on the 9.05am train to Paris the morning after the match for just €10.
Getting to the ground
Lyon’s 25,000-seater stadium is located in the 7th arrondissement in the south of the city beside the port on the River Rhone. The ground is easy to reach using public transport with the Metro Line B stopping 100m away. You can get Line B from Part-Dieu train station which is the central station in the city.
From Place Bellecour – the main square in the city – you can get the D Line two stops to Saxe-Gambetta before switching to the B Line where it is four stops to the stadium.
Tickets
If you're a Leinster season ticket holder or a Leinster member you can get tickets through the club but it is also possible to get tickets for the Stade de Gerland from Lyon. Tickets go on general sale for Lyon matches on Ticketmaster or on the official Lyon ticket website – billetterie.lourugby.fr – but note that they will not go on sale until close to the time of the match.
If the match doesn’t sell out, tickets are usually available to buy from the booths at the stadium.
Accommodation
Lyon is fast becoming one of the more expensive cities in France thanks to its popularity as a fine dining destination and the price of hotels reflects that. However, given that November is off-peak season, there are plenty of three-star options in the city centre available for about €100 a night on booking.com for the weekend of the Leinster match.
– This article is part of a series of consumer-based sports stories. If you have any queries, stories or issues regarding travel, tickets, sport on television or anything else you can email rcroke@irishtimes.com or via Twitter @Ruaidhri_Croke.
