THERE will be part of Thomond Park at Páirc Uí Chaoimh for tonight’s historic meeting of Munster and a South Africa XV at 7.30pm.
As the goal posts at the venue were not suitable, the posts from Thomond Park were moved to Cork earlier in the week. The posts at nearby Musgrave Park were not an option because of issues with fittings.
As GAA pitches are bigger, sponsorship hoardings have been moved closer to the side/endlines and new match clocks have been installed in the corners, as the ground’s current scoreboard clock runs without stoppages.
With the novel fixture attracting a capacity 41,400 crowd, the Munster Rugby coffers will also be boosted by proceeds from other events around the event, such as this week’s celebratory dinner, while Cork GAA are expected to receive €200,000 for providing the venue.
The fixture has an added element of intrigue with a host of South African players – including CJ Stander, BJ Botha, Damian de Allende, Shaun Payne, and Jean De Villiers – wearing the Munster jersey with pride, in addition to current squad members RG Snyman, Jean Kleyn, and Keynan Knox.
Television coverage, from 6.30pm onwards, is free-to-air on Virgin Media.
