Hey, friends - can any of you Irish fans explain this controversy over where Leinster will play their semi-final? I have heard on multiple podcasts that "people are really upset," and "the whole thing is unfair," but I can't for the life of me figure out what they're actually grumbling about?... Thanks! -Dave
Leinster have a history of playing both home quarter finals and home semi-finals in the Aviva. In theory, the semis are meant to be played with home country but not home stadium advantage. That means both having a theoretically equal share of tickets for both sets of fans, splitting the ticket revenue equally and not playing the game in the same city or something. The problem is though that there isn't another available stadium in Ireland that is big enough and isn't owned by the GAA (if played them in say Croke Park for example we'd have to pay rent and it's in Dublin anyway). It's unavoidable but I do understand why people get annoyed about it when we already play 2+ games there every season. They changed it this year so that everybody could do it though, if Racing had gone through it's have been in the same place they lost to Toulouse. But really it's just a big deal out of nothing.
What would Edinburgh have done if they'd got to a semi-final? There were practical limitations to the old rule
Murrayfield. Saracens have played in Twickenham in the past. There are a few other examples as well. People have only made a deal about it with Leinster though. Just let the home team play where they want so long as it's big enough.
