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English Aviva Premiership club side London Irish have confirmed that their home fixture against Saracens this season will take place in the USA. The round 16 fixture will be played on March 12 2016 at the Red Bull Arena in the Greater New York area.
The move is to be the first of its kind with no away country ever having previously hosted an Aviva Premiership fixture. It follows successful efforts in recent seasons in which cities including Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia have played host to noteworthy fixtures and have achieved strong attendances.
Speaking of the decision to play outside of England London Irish chief executive Bob Casey declared “this is an enormous opportunity for our club to gain exposure in one of the biggest sporting cities in the world”.
Premier Rugby chief executive spoke of the importance of the occasion in saying “It has taken a number of years and a lot of hard work to bring to fruition. There are ambitious plans to grow the game in the States and this is the latest stage in that strategy.”
With London Irish being home to Canadian Jebb Sinclair and Saracens having the trio of Eagles Titi Lamositele, Hayden Smith and World Cup captain Chris Wyles the fixture is likely to attract great interest with a full house attendance entirely possible for the 25,000 capacity stadium.
