IRFU provincial and national age grade coaches - Under-18s, Under-19s and Under-20s - and IRFU elite player development staff from the four provinces gathered recently to review their experiences, discuss challenges and align closer to ensure the development of more effective elite players across the IRFU Elite Player Pathway.

RaboDirect PRO12 Fixtures Announced For New Season

The weekend dates for the 2012/13 RaboDirect PRO12 season fixtures have now been announced. The race is on to see which venue will become the 35th different ground to be used in the history of the competition.

During round 2, the weekend of September 7/8/9, two new grounds are set to make their bow - Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow and Stadio XXV Aprile in Parma, home to the new Italian team, Zebre.

However first up for Italian new boys is a trip to the Newport Gwent Dragons in Wales, whilst reigning champions the Ospreys face the reverse journey as they play the second Italian outfit, Benetton Treviso, at Stadio di Monigo.

Last season's beaten RaboDirect PRO12 finalists and reigning European champions Leinster start the new campaign in Wales with a game at Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli, whilst the other two 2011/12 play-off contenders, Glasgow Warriors and Munster, face away trips to Ulster and Edinburgh respectively.

The Cardiff Blues' visit to Galway to play Connacht completes the opening weekend's fixtures.

Round 2 sees Cardiff play their first home RaboDirect PRO12 game since completing their return to Cardiff Arms Park when Edinburgh are the visitors.

One new ground will make its bow when the Scarlets are the first visitors to Scotstoun Stadium, whilst Connacht will play Zebre in the opening match at Stadio XXV Aprile.

Leinster, Munster and Ospreys host the remaining three games in the second round.

Full Fixture List

2012/13 RaboDirect PRO12 Opening Fixtures -

Round 1 - August 31/September 1/2

Benetton Treviso v Ospreys
Connacht v Cardiff Blues
Edinburgh v Munster
Newport Gwent Dragons v Zebre
Scarlets v Leinster
Ulster v Glasgow Warriors

Round 2 - September 7/8/9

Cardiff Blues v Edinburgh
Glasgow Warriors v Scarlets
Leinster v Newport Gwent Dragons
Munster v Benetton Treviso
Ospreys v Ulster
Zebre v Connacht

The full fixture list can be viewed in our RaboDirect PRO12 tournament page.

Connacht elite player development officer Jimmy Duffy chats about the province's latest programme, 'Grassroots to Green Shirts', which they hope will increase the number of indigenous players coming through the provincial player pathway. In the westerners' current senior squad, there are 19 players who have come through the Connacht system.

Speaking about Connacht's 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' initiative, the province's CEO Tom Sears said: "We like to think we're innovative in our approach, that we're looking at things slightly differently. We've shown that the production line is working with the young players coming through. The system is working, we just need a bit more investment to make sure we can get more players through."

Connacht's head of commercial and marketing Alex Saul talks about some exciting developments off the pitch for the province, including their 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' crowd-funding initiative which gives fans the chance to play their part in growing and developing the future stars of Connacht and Irish rugby.

Speaking after the 30-11 home win over the Dragons, Connacht head coach Eric Elwood said: "We're a little bit disappointed we didn't get the bonus point, but the good thing is we got a good victory at home and we had a great crowd. We're back on the horse and it sets us up for Harlequins (next week)."

Speaking about recovering from the disappointing defeat to the Scarlets, young Leinster centre Noel Reid said: "We went over looking for a result and we didn't perform the way we wanted to. So we need a big week now of training and focusing on the things that didn't go our way - the breakdown in particular."

Speaking after Leinster's 31-30 RaboDirect PRO12 final defeat to the Ospreys, head coach Joe Schmidt said: "They scored a try in each of those instances (when we had a player yellow carded). It obviously has an impact, particularly in the last ten minutes when we felt that we would have a bit of fatigue."