By Jason Harris
November 30 2002

Once again, the European club competition schedules have been re-jigged due to the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Next year's Heineken Cup and Parker Pen competitions will kick off in early December 2003 and the finals will be contested in late May 2004. Just two weeks after the World Cup final in Australia, the first and second round games will take place.

There will then be a gap of three weeks before four solid weekends of continental competition in January will close out the Heineken Cup group phases and (if the current format remains in place)reduce the participants in the Parker Pen Challenge Cup to four.

ERC chief Derek McGrath said that this early scheduling of the European weekends was to give each Union plenty of time to structure their domestic competitions around the World and European Cups and added

"We [the ERC] believe the block of fixtures, sandwiching the Christmas and New Year holiday weekends, will enhance the interest and intensity of those early stages of the tournaments".

This decision, taken either due to the staging of the RWC tournanemt or by ERC desigin, is a u-turn by the organisation after this season's re-structure of the fixture programme.

In previous years the four week block proved unpopular. Unpopular with the players due to the increased intensity brought by European competition. Unpopular with the fans as some found it difficult to finance two away trips overseas in such a short space of time.

Most worrying of all, the four-week block meant that rugby was sometimes rated second-best by the television broadcasters who had already scheduled annual events in other sports held at the same time every year.

Thus, the game of rugby union failed at times to capitalise upon the European competitions' appeal.

Whether or not the schedule reverts to its current format in subsequent seasons remains to be seen, but it certainly makes for a packed rugby calendar next season.

ERC WEEKEND DATES FOR SEASON 2003/2004

Weekend 1 (HC round 1, PPCC round 1, first leg)5/6/7 December, 2003

Weekend 2 (HC round 2. PPCC round 1 second leg)
12/13/14 December

Weekend 3 (HC round 3. PPCC round 2, first leg)
9/10/11 January, 2004

Weekend 4 (HC round 4. PPCC round 2, second leg)
16/17/18 January

Weekend 5 (HC round 5. PPCC quarter final first leg)
23/24/25 January

Weekend 6 (HC round 6. PPCC quarter final second leg)
30/31 January, 1 February

Weekend 7 (HC quater finals. PPCC semi final first leg)
9/10/11 April

Weekend 8 (HC semi finals. PPCC semi final second leg)
24/25 April

Finals 22/23 May