Champions Cup 2016/17 draw - Wednesday 29th June 1pm - Sky Sports News

thomond2006

Tier 1: Saracens, Racing, Connacht & two of Exeter/Toulon/Leinster
Tier 2: One of Exeter/Toulon/Leinster, Wasps, Clermont, Glasgow, one of Leicester/Montpellier/Ulster
Tier 3: Two of Leicester/Montpellier/Ulster, Northampton Saints, Toulouse, Scarlets
Tier 4: Sale Sharks, Munster, Castres, Zebre, Bordeaux Begles

This key event will get underway with the pool draw for the 2016/17 Challenge Cup at 13.00 (UK and Irish time) and the draw for the Champions Cup pools will follow immediately.

Both draws will be broadcast on Sky Sports News, beIN Sports and Infosport+ and streamed live on www.epcrugby.com

The event comperes in Neuchâtel will be Alex Payne (Sky Sports) and Matthieu Lartot (France Télévisions) with Dimitri Yachvili (beIN Sports) and Ieuan Evans (Sky Sports) conducting the draws.

Twenty clubs from the Aviva Premiership, the PRO12 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, Leinster Rugby and the TOP 14 losing finalists - joining Saracens, Connacht and the French champions 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 ASM Clermont Auvergne - 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 - Northampton Saints, Scarlets and Toulouse.

Tier 4 is complete and contains the sixth-ranked clubs from each league - Sale Sharks, Munster Rugby and Castres Olympique - as well as Zebre Rugby and the seventh-ranked club from the TOP 14, Bordeaux-Bègles.

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.

In Tier 4, Sale Sharks will be drawn into a pool which contains one other Premiership club, and Castres Olympique and Bordeaux-Bègles will be drawn into pools which contain one other TOP 14 club. Munster cannot be drawn into a pool which contains another Irish province.

Harlequins, Cardiff Blues and Brive 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.

In Tier 4, Bristol Rugby will be drawn into a pool which contains one other Premiership club, and Lyon and Bayonne will be drawn into pools with one other TOP 14 club.

Champions Cup qualification

For the purposes of creating the tiers, the Premiership, TOP 14 and PRO12 clubs are ranked based on their league performances and on their performances in the knockout phases. For clubs which did not qualify for the knockout phases of their leagues, or which were eliminated at the same stage of the knockout phase, rankings are decided by league table finishing positions.

Pool draws - key principles
The 20 clubs are divided into four tiers based on their qualification position from their leagues. This will be done where necessary by a draw.
The 20 clubs will then be divided 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 PRO12 clubs from the same country.
Clubs from the same league will be kept apart until the allocation of the Tier 4 clubs.

EPCR weekends - 2016/17 season

Round 1: 13/14/15/16 October
Round 2: 20/21/22/23 October
Round 3: 8/9/10/11 December
Round 4: 15/16/17/18 December
Round 5: 12/13/14/15 January 2017
Round 6: 19/20/21/22 January 2017
Quarter-finals: 30/31 March - 1/2 April 2017
Semi-finals: 21/22/23 April 2017

http://www.epcrugby.com/news/33202.php#.V22isvkrJdg

sydthebeat

Leinster, Montpellier, scarlets, bordeaux please

wp_rathead

Connacht, Clermont, Northampton and Zebre for me please

sydthebeat wrote: »

Leinster, Montpellier, scarlets, bordeaux please

Need to have an Aviva team

sydthebeat

wp_rathead wrote: »

Connacht, Clermont, Northampton and Zebre for me please



Need to have an Aviva team

Ah yes

Swap bordeaux for sale then I suppose.

Munster will probably end up with a complete bitch of a group

ArmaniJeanss

No pool will contain two PRO12 clubs from the same country.

I've always think this rule is a bit of a shame, like something they've copied from the ECL without thinking it through.
What it means is that in theory Munster could draw Glasgow every year for the next twenty years so they'd play each other 4 times a year (2 in league, 2 in Europe). Yet Munster can never draw Leinster so as a tie its limited to 2 a year in league (ignoring playoffs in both instances).

Given such a small pool of potential teams it seems wrong to outright forbid some interesting ties.

thomond2006

Exeter, Montpellier, Scarlets, Munster - best draw
Scarlets, Glasgow, Montpellier, Munster - worst draw

(I know that Munster have to draw either Glasgow or Scarlets, factored that into the above)

phog

thomond2006 wrote: »

Exeter, Montpellier, Scarlets, Munster - best draw
Scarlets, Glasgow, Montpellier, Munster - worst draw

(I know that Munster have to draw either Glasgow or Scarlets, factored that into the above)

We have to have an English and a French team in our pool.

thomond2006

phog wrote: »

We have to have an English and a French team in our pool.

Oops. Swap Racing for Scarlets.

ClanofLams

wp_rathead wrote: »

Connacht, Clermont, Northampton and Zebre for me please :

Clermont would be a great away day but still prefer Montpelier

former total

Terrible cliche but there are no easy draws here.

Leinster's ideal draw is to get a top seeding (67% chance) then draw Exeter as their second seed (12%), Montpellier as third (50% if Exeter are our second seed) and Zebre fourth (25%). Probability of this draw = 1%

Probability of a bitch of a draw: high.

awec

We better not get Saracens again.

thomond2006

I'm torn. I really want to go to Clermont but...

Riskymove

From a Munster point of view best we could get is probably:

1. Exeter
2. Montpellier
3. Scarlets


the most likely outcomes are however:

1 Sarries
2 Toulon/Clermont
3. Scarlets

1. Racing/Toulon
2. One of the English teams
3. Scarlets

very difficult whatever happens


from a desirable roadtrip perspective

Clermont, Montpellier, Exeter would be good

KevinK

Riskymove wrote: »

From a Munster point of view best we could get is probably:

1. Exeter
2. Montpellier
3. Scarlets


the most likely outcomes are however:

1 Sarries
2 Toulon/Clermont
3. Scarlets

1. Racing/Toulon
2. One of the English teams
3. Scarlets

very difficult whatever happens


from a desirable roadtrip perspective

Clermont, Montpellier, Exeter would be good

Not to mess with all your permutations, but are Munster not guaranteed to get Glasgow or Llanelli?

KevinK

KevinK wrote: »

Not to mess with all your permutations, but are Munster not guaranteed to get Glasgow or Llanelli?

sorry - just realized you do have the Scarlets in nearly all your suggested groups!

b.gud

Live stream here http://live.epcrugby.com/eng/player1.php

thomond2006

Mods, could you C&P b.gud's link at the top of my OP? Thanks.

molloyjh

Leinster best is Montpellier, Scarlets & Sale. Worst is Racing/Toulon, Leicester, Castres.

If we want Zebre the best we can do from seed 3 is Toulouse so do we really want that if we can get Scarlets and Sale instead?

former total

molloyjh wrote: »

Leinster best is Montpellier, Scarlets & Sale. Worst is Racing/Toulon, Leicester, Castres.

If we want Zebre the best we can do from seed 3 is Toulouse so do we really want that if we can get Scarlets and Sale instead?

We can't get this draw because you can only double up on teams from the same league once you get to fourth seeds, i.e. we could get Zebre but not Scarlets or Glasgow.

Riskymove

former total wrote: »

We can't get this draw because you can only double up on teams from the same league once you get to fourth seeds, i.e. we could get Zebre but not Scarlets or Glasgow.

sale, castres and Bordeaux can only go into groups that already have a team from their league

thomond2006

It's refreshing that we don't have to care about the Challenge Cup draw. :cool:

Riskymove

Harelquins, Stade Francais, and Edinburgh in the one group

a Champions Cup group not so long ago

thomond2006

Some interesting draws, but we know most of the teams will phone it in early.

Riskymove

Bath and Bristol in same group....big derby days ahead :pac:

Adbrowne

Riskymove wrote: »

Bath and Bristol in same group....big derby days ahead :pac:

what channel is this on

thomond2006

Adbrowne wrote: »

what channel is this on

Search EPCR pool draw on youtube, it's streaming there.

Riskymove

Adbrowne wrote: »

what channel is this on

online...link above

wp_rathead

Riskymove wrote: »

Bath and Bristol in same group....big derby days ahead :pac:

And Cardiff
3 Derby's

wp_rathead

https://twitter.com/ERChallengeCup/status/748128262086336512?s=09

Riskymove

wp_rathead wrote: »

And Cardiff
3 Derby's

pretty crap if you were planning on weekends away!!

thomond2006