Ulster Rugby vs Zebre

Chief Executive’s Welcome

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to the new 2014 / 2015 Guinness PRO12 season.

We are delighted to have Guinness on board as our Title Sponsor. They are a major global brand with a longstanding involvement and association with rugby and we are very much looking forward to growing the Guinness PRO12 together. We would also like to welcome our new broadcast partner Sky Sports to the Guinness PRO12. They will be broadcasting 33 live matches this season, making our competition available to all of the UK public, as well as Ireland. To our longstanding partners, Rhino and Specsavers - thank you for your continued support and input over the years. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our other valued broadcasters BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland, BBC Alba, S4C and TG4. We will announce our Italian Broadcast partner shortly. We look forward toworkingwith the traditional and onlinemedia again this season and continuing our promotion of the Guinness PRO12, the premier rugby competition in Ireland, Italy, Scotland andWales. For the 5th year in a row, our competition has achieved year on year growth in attendance at games and in our TV audiences. We experienced record breaking crowds for both our Play-Offs and our Final. Our digital platforms have grown exponentially and we are proud to have launched our new Guinness PRO12 App this week. It was great to see the captains and coaches of all 12 clubs present at our recent launch at Diageo Headquarters and we wish them all well for the season ahead. Their performance and passion is what makes our competition a success. This is matched by the dedication by both the match officials and you, the fans, who all combine to ensure lots of exciting entertainment at all our matches! Last weekend we had lots of exciting rugby with an average 5.5 tries and over 42 points scored per game. No doubt the season ahead will be of particular interest to our 227 current internationals, originating from 14 countries, who will be looking to represent their nations at next year’s Rugby World Cup. Others will also be trying to break into the international squads too so all performances will be closely monitored, something which will only add to the Guinness PRO12. Hope you enjoy today’s game and Happy New (Rugby) Year!

John Feehan Chief Executive Guinness PRO12

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