It will always be Lansdowne Road to me

But the sponsors want you to call it The Aviva.

Irish Rugby has a new stadium and we were there to see rugby move back to HQ. Match Day is exciting enough wherever it is and whoever is playing. Attending the first ever Match Day at the new Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin was really special.

A match between combined teams of Leinster and Ulster versus Connaught and Munster was played out. To the delight of the Irish fans who I was with, the team playing from the home changing room romped home as 68-0 winners. An omen for the 6 Nations they hope. We’ll see.

The stadium is fantastic. From it’s fibre glass figures that you can pose with out the front, the escalators (Twickenham are you paying attention?!) and the fantastic sculpted curvature of the roof, this is one amazing arena.

The oddest thing about the place though is the North Stand, which only has about 6 rows of seats in it. To fit the stadium into the stand they had to build it with essentially with only three sides. Local press has likened it to a hospital bed pan. Which seems unkind, though provides headline writers with all sorts of opportunities should a team play poorly.