Champions Cup draw 2pm today

https://www.epcrugby.com/video/video-2018-2019-champions-cup-challenge-cup-pool-draws-live/

Full text below....


The 2018/19 Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup Pool Draws will be shown here from 2pm (UK and Irish time) today.

Leinster Rugby, Saracens and Castres Olympique are guaranteed top seedings in this afternoon’s Heineken Champions Cup draw and for the Challenge Cup draw, Sale Sharks, Benetton Rugby and La Rochelle are confirmed among the Tier 1 clubs.

The Challenge Cup draw will take place first  at 2.00pm before the Heineken Champions Cup draw follows directly after at the iconic Olympic Museum.

Both draws will be streamed live on this page and also on official tournament Facebook channels.

The event comperes will be Sarra Elgan (BT Sport) and Raphaël Ibañez (France Télévisions), with Dimitri Yachvili (beIN SPORTS) and Austin Healey (BT Sport) conducting the draws.

Twenty clubs from Gallagher Premiership Rugby, the Guinness PRO14 and the TOP 14 have qualified on merit for the Champions Cup. The clubs will be divided into four tiers of five and a preliminary draw will be conducted to establish Tier 1 with two of the three second-ranked clubs – Exeter Chiefs, Scarlets and Montpellier – joining Champions Cup and PRO14 winners, Leinster, Premiership winners, Saracens, and TOP 14 winners, Castres, in the top tier.

Once Tier 1 has been established, the remaining three tiers will fall into place. Tier 2 will include the three third-ranked clubs from the leagues – Wasps, Glasgow Warriors and Racing 92 – as well as the second-ranked club which was not drawn into Tier 1 and the fourth-ranked club from the same league as the club which was not drawn into Tier 1.

Tier 3 will include the two clubs ranked fourth which are not in Tier 2 as well as the three fifth-ranked clubs from each league – Leicester Tigers, Edinburgh Rugby and Toulouse.

Tier 4 is complete and contains the sixth-ranked clubs from each league – Bath Rugby, Challenge Cup winners, Cardiff Blues, and RC Toulon – as well as Ulster Rugby and Gloucester Rugby.

When the tiers are completed, the main draw for the five pools will be made, and during the draw, some clubs may have to be placed directly into a pool in order to ensure that the key principles apply.

Click HERE for a detailed explanation of the Heineken Champions Cup pool draw

Sale Sharks, Benetton Rugby and La Rochelle are confirmed among the Tier 1 clubs for the Challenge Cup draw which will be conducted on similar lines with four tiers and five pools.

Timisoara Saracens of Romania, who reached the penultimate stage of last season’s Continental Shield, will be included among the 20 competing clubs along with the Shield winners from Bilbao, Russia’s Enisei-STM.

In Tier 4, Stade Francais Paris, Pro D2 winners, Perpignan, and Grenoble will be drawn into pools which contain one other TOP 14 club.

Click HERE for a detailed explanation of the Challenge Cup pool draw



Pool draws – key principles
The 20 clubs are divided into four tiers based on their qualifying positions from the leagues, or on other official qualification criteria. This will be done where necessary by a draw.
The 20 clubs will then be drawn into five pools of four clubs each.
Each pool will have at least one club from each of the three leagues.
Each of the five pools will have one club from each of the four tiers.
There will be no more than two clubs from the same league in a pool.
No pool will contain two PRO14 clubs from the same country.
Clubs from the same league will be kept apart until the allocation of the Tier 4 clubs.
In the Challenge Cup draw, a club from the Continental Shield cannot be drawn into a pool which contains two TOP 14 clubs or two Premiership clubs.


EPCR key dates – 2018/19 season
Round 1: 12/13/14 October
Round 2: 19/20/21 October
Round 3: 7/8/9 December
Round 4: 14/15/16 December
Round 5: 11/12/13 January 2019
Round 6: 18/19/20 January 2019
Quarter-finals: 29/30/31 March 2019
Semi-finals: 19/20/21 April 2019

2019 Newcastle finals
Challenge Cup final: Friday 10 May, St James’ Park
Champions Cup final: Saturday 11 May, St James’ Park

For Leicester we could get:

From Tiers 1&2 - Leinster, Castres, Montpelier (but not if we have Castres), Scarlets, Glasgow or Racing (but not if we have either of the other French sides).

The "easiest" draw would probably be Castres & Glasgow, though we have had both recently and I generally like to see us against new teams. So the ideal draw for me would be Montpelier and Scarlets.

Looking at the challenge cup - Pool 3 is very tough. Sale, Connacht, Bordeaux & USAP. I'm sure there will be plenty of Ulster support for USAP at the Dog Track.

Sin é wrote:Looking at the challenge cup - Pool 3 is very tough. Sale, Connacht, Bordeaux & USAP. I'm sure there will be plenty of Ulster support for USAP at the Dog Track.

There'll probably be a fair bit of support for Connacht too

Pool 1: Leinster, Wasps, Toulouse, Bath
Pool 2: Castres, Exeter, Munster, Gloucester
Pool 3: Saracens, Glasgow, Lyon, Cardiff
Pool 4: Scarlets, Racing, Leicester, Ulster
Pool 5: Montpellier, Falcons, Edinburgh, Toulon

Absolutely delighted with our group 2. Pool 1 is horendous

Glasgow in the Pool of Non Death for once 

Pool 5 will be interesting.
I reckon Edinburgh could turn over Toulon and Falcons at home, maybe even Falcons away. IMO they have a good chance at a runners up space.

Pool 4 is a tough one.

Racing and Ulster again . Would have liked a little variation. Good news for Ulster fans because their boys always pull it together when playing against us.

Sin é wrote:Pool 1:  Leinster, Wasps, Toulouse, Bath
Pool 2:  Castres, Exeter, Munster, Gloucester
Pool 3:  Saracens, Glasgow, Lyon, Cardiff
Pool 4:  Scarlets, Racing, Leicester, Ulster
Pool 5:  Montpellier, Falcons, Edinburgh, Toulon

Absolutely delighted with our group 2.  Pool 1 is horendous

Munster Vs Exeter should be a good watch. Looking forward to that one as a neutral. Might be a good game Vs Gloucester as well, but unknown how good they'll be at the minute.

Look I don't want to talk down any team because we all know any team can come and bite you in the ass at any time in the Champs Cup... but if you look at the kinds of strengths these teams have, Leinster looks to have gotten a bit of a breather group for a change.
- on paper.
GoD? Well Ulster look to have a tough assignment and will have to get their house in order pronto to survive in it

George Carlin wrote:Glasgow in the Pool of Non Death for once 

Don't jinx it though, George.

SecretFly wrote:
GoD?  Well Ulster look to have a tough assignment and will have to get their house in order pronto to survive in it

Other than signing another fly half, not sure what's to be got into order as they are more than capable of beating all 3 teams

A fly half then? ........... boy, you quibble with detail so much, marty

Good luck anyway. I still see it as a pseudo Pool of Death from this far out. Things change and form changes of course but it looks tough.

Bath were always going to get one Test team of Ireland, Wales or Scotland. My Dublin friends will be delighted.....Bath has lots of good restaurants......

formerly known as Sam wrote:Racing and Ulster again   . Would have liked a little variation. Good news for Ulster fans because their boys always pull it together when playing against us.

Sin é wrote:Pool 1:  Leinster, Wasps, Toulouse, Bath
Pool 2:  Castres, Exeter, Munster, Gloucester
Pool 3:  Saracens, Glasgow, Lyon, Cardiff
Pool 4:  Scarlets, Racing, Leicester, Ulster
Pool 5:  Montpellier, Falcons, Edinburgh, Toulon

Absolutely delighted with our group 2.  Pool 1 is horendous

Munster Vs Exeter should be a good watch. Looking forward to that one as a neutral. Might be a good game Vs Gloucester as well, but unknown how good they'll be at the minute.

Castres will be hungover from winning the Top 14 which makes it a very long season. French teams rarely perform well the year after being involved in Top 14 playoffs because they have a mandatory break which means they only get about a one week preseason. Two teams could come out of Pool 2, hopefully Munster is one of them.

Hmmmm???

Everyone happy with their groups?

Strange.  It must be the smell of fresh cut Heineken grass again that's brought on a feeling of invincibility all round

Sin é wrote:Pool 1:  Leinster, Wasps, Toulouse, Bath
Pool 2:  Castres, Exeter, Munster, Gloucester
Pool 3:  Saracens, Glasgow, Lyon, Cardiff
Pool 4:  Scarlets, Racing, Leicester, Ulster
Pool 5:  Montpellier, Falcons, Edinburgh, Toulon

Absolutely delighted with our group 2.  Pool 1 is horendous

Pool 1 have won the Heineken Cup (European Rugby Champions Cup) a combined 11 times. That has to be some kind of record for any pool since it's inception (would only have been surpassed if Toulon had been the final team in the pool instead of Bath I suppose)

Some nice match-ups across those pools (Leinster Wasps / Munster Exeter / Saracens Glasgow / Scarlets Racing / Newcastle Edinburgh). Mixes of styles. Interested in Newcastle/Edinburgh, Richards and Cockerill, close neighbours over the border.

What happened to the token Italian team? They don’t get a guaranteed spot anymore ?

Just the token Scottish team now.

No easy pool there, with 1 & 4 probably among the toughest. New boys Cardiff won't mind that pool. Familiar opposition in Glasgow and Lyon, along with a Saracens team possibly on the wane but I think we'll have to wait and see about that.

The Pro 14 changed its qualification criteria so now it is based on merit - now the top 3 teams in each conference and the 4th placed teams having a playoff to decide the 7th qualifier.

Edinburgh certainly aren't a token team - they qualified on merit finishing 3rd in the conference (2 points behind top placed leinster), recording the joint highest number of wins in the entire league along the way 

Thanks RDW
Indeed no easy pool although I still expect Leinster to dominate pool 1. The others are pretty tough to call . When it comes to where the best 2nds will come from I would say 2, 3 and maybe 5 at a push. BPs will be critical.

If pool 5 had drawn any 4th seed other than Toulon it would definitely have been the most competitive pool. Instead it has probably become a two horse race - great experience for Edinburgh and Newcastle though.

mikey_dragon wrote:No easy pool there, with 1 & 4 probably among the toughest. New boys Cardiff won't mind that pool. Familiar opposition in Glasgow and Lyon, along with a Saracens team possibly on the wane but I think we'll have to wait and see about that.

Saracens on the wane?

They seemed to win the AP quite comfortably, so I am not sure I would go along with that!

BigGee wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:No easy pool there, with 1 & 4 probably among the toughest. New boys Cardiff won't mind that pool. Familiar opposition in Glasgow and Lyon, along with a Saracens team possibly on the wane but I think we'll have to wait and see about that.

Saracens on the wane?

They seemed to win the AP quite comfortably, so I am not sure I would go along with that!

To be fair they aren't the team they were 2 years ago but Sarries on the wane should still get a quarter final game most likely at home. They just were so good

From a Munster point of view if Castres are home first and away last and they are their usual "it's not the T14 I don't care" selves that should give Munster 10pts. Gloucester should be two wins (hard games though). Exeter are a physical team and all the teams Munster have struggled against have had good pack so worried we will lose both.

Looking forward to it

Anyone know what the record number of times in a row two teams have been in the same pool

BigGee wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:No easy pool there, with 1 & 4 probably among the toughest. New boys Cardiff won't mind that pool. Familiar opposition in Glasgow and Lyon, along with a Saracens team possibly on the wane but I think we'll have to wait and see about that.

Saracens on the wane?

They seemed to win the AP quite comfortably, so I am not sure I would go along with that!

Depends how they recruit. They recruited badly last summer and suffered unfortunate injuries to players they'd have wanted to take the burden off of the returning Lions players. If they can acquire a good scavenging openside and keep fit the likes of Rhodes and Williams (who both missed significant chunks) then they should show some more of their old selves.

Brendan wrote:From  a Munster point of view if Castres are home first and away last and they are their usual "it's not the T14 I don't care" selves that should give Munster 10pts.  Gloucester should be two wins (hard games though).  Exeter are a physical team and all the teams Munster have struggled against have had good pack so worried we will lose both.

Looking forward to it

Anyone know what the record number of times in a row two teams have been in the same pool

I watched the draw yesterday and given the somewhat farcical draw process to keep teams apart, it is no wonder the same teams keep showing up in the same pools, such as Leinster, Wasps & Bath or Racing & Leicester.

Recwatcher16 wrote:

Brendan wrote:From  a Munster point of view if Castres are home first and away last and they are their usual "it's not the T14 I don't care" selves that should give Munster 10pts.  Gloucester should be two wins (hard games though).  Exeter are a physical team and all the teams Munster have struggled against have had good pack so worried we will lose both.

Looking forward to it

Anyone know what the record number of times in a row two teams have been in the same pool

I watched the draw yesterday and given the somewhat farcical draw process to keep teams apart, it is no wonder the same teams keep showing up in the same pools, such as Leinster, Wasps & Bath or Racing & Leicester.

It's grand to get a team every few years like the first three but the last two are getting their third time.

When the odds of getting a team are about 1/4 or 1/5 at most it's not surprising you get a same team every few years

Jeesus wept tough draw for Ulster.

rodders wrote:Jeesus wept tough draw for Ulster.

After the season you've had I bet the players, coaches and fans are happy just to be there!

whocares wrote:What happened to the token Italian team? They don’t get a guaranteed spot anymore ?

The irony is that even though the PRL wanted to change the Pro14 qualifiers to league position (with the view it would even the playing field with rested players), I think the loss of the Italians is a key reason why the English side are struggling to qualify for the knockout stages in quite the numbers they used to.

Pool 1: Leinster, Wasps, Toulouse, Bath
Pool 2: Castres, Exeter, Munster, Gloucester
Pool 3: Saracens, Glasgow, Lyon, Cardiff
Pool 4: Scarlets, Racing, Leicester, Ulster
Pool 5: Montpellier, Falcons, Edinburgh, Toulon

On paper Exeter & Saracens are probably their best bets.  Wasps maybe a outside chance from that pool.  Bath, Gloucester, Leicester & Falcons I cant see any chance at all of qualifying.  Realistically 2 out of 8 quarter finalists is probably the best the PRL can expect.

Welshmushroom wrote:

whocares wrote:What happened to the token Italian team? They don’t get a guaranteed spot anymore ?

The irony is that even though the PRL wanted to change the Pro14 qualifiers to default teams, I think the loss of the Italians is a key reason why the English side are struggling to qualify for the knockout stages in quite the numbers they used to.

Pool 1: Leinster, Wasps, Toulouse, Bath
Pool 2: Castres, Exeter, Munster, Gloucester
Pool 3: Saracens, Glasgow, Lyon, Cardiff
Pool 4: Scarlets, Racing, Leicester, Ulster
Pool 5: Montpellier, Falcons, Edinburgh, Toulon

On paper Exeter & Saracens are probably their best bets.  Wasps maybe a outside chance from that pool.  Bath, Gloucester, Leicester & Falcons I cant see any chance at all of qualifying.  Realistically 2 out of 8 quarter finalists is probably the best the PRL can expect.

I can't remember the exact numbers but Leicester in particular have benefited from drawing the Italian team very regularly over the years, giving a guaranteed 10 point! I'm sure at one point they were 4 years in 5 drawing an Italian team.

Brendan wrote:

BigGee wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:No easy pool there, with 1 & 4 probably among the toughest. New boys Cardiff won't mind that pool. Familiar opposition in Glasgow and Lyon, along with a Saracens team possibly on the wane but I think we'll have to wait and see about that.

Saracens on the wane?

They seemed to win the AP quite comfortably, so I am not sure I would go along with that!

To be fair they aren't the team they were 2 years ago but Sarries on the wane should still get a quarter final game most likely at home.  They just were so good

Yeah you’re both right. Cardiff would have been slaughtered by the Saracens of 2 years ago but I’m giving them a fighting chance against this Sarries team.

rodders wrote:Jeesus wept tough draw for Ulster.

Nah, Racing are on the slide, Leicester are crap and if you get Scarlets in the December double header Gats will have flogged their players to a standstill in the AIs. Ulster to top the group.

Well I saw this yesterday...marvellous.

I bet Toulon and Montpellier are looking forward to a trip up here to KP in Midwinter!

GeordieFalcon wrote:Well I saw this yesterday...marvellous.

I bet Toulon and Montpellier are looking forward to a trip up here to KP in Midwinter!

That's our main hope I reckon - Edinburgh have a good history with French teams at home and I suspect Newcastle will be the same! They tend to not be able to get up for winter games in the north.

Winter is Coming.

My main fear is that they demolish our powder puff scrum.

GeordieFalcon wrote:My main fear is that they demolish our powder puff scrum.

I thought Jon Welsh anchored your scrum fairly successfully, no?

Jon is a classy TH but he cant do it alone.