Munster's Heineken Champions quarter-final at home to five-times winners Toulouse will be moved to the Aviva Stadium because Thomond Park is hosting two Ed Sheeran concerts on Thursday May 5th and Friday May 6th.
The quarter-finals are scheduled for that weekend - May 6th to 8th - and it would it be impossible to de-rig a concert and make the pitch playable within a day. Indeed, with over 70,000 tickets sold for the two Sheeran concerts, it will take weeks for the pitch to be playable again.
The allotted weekends for the Champions Cup, including the quarter-finals, were announced in July 2021, and would have been known by the participants before they were publicised by EPCR, while the dates for Sheeran concerts were confirmed the following September.
The Munster branch will point out that the last major concert in Limerick was performed by Bruce Springsteen in 2013 and the Sheeran concerts will bring a multi-million economic boost to the city and the mid-west region.
Aside from the income generated by the Sheeran concerts, Munster will also receive an enhanced 65 per cent in ticket sales from moving the quarter-final to the Aviva Stadium rather than the 50-50 split had the game been held in Thomond Park.
Toulouse beat Munster by 40-33 at Thomond Park in the round of 16 last season but prior to that Munster beat the five-times winners at their Limerick citadel at the quarter-final stage in 2014 (by 47-23) and 2017 (41-16), and there’s no doubt that switching the tie to Dublin will diminish the advantage of having a home tie.
