2017/18 ERCC draw - Thursday 8th June

thomond2006

Following the final rounds of matches in the Guinness PRO12, Aviva Premiership and TOP 14 regular seasons, EPCR has confirmed the following 19 clubs have qualified for the 2017/18 Champions Cup.

Guinness PRO12 ? Munster Rugby, Leinster Rugby, Scarlets, Ospreys, Ulster Rugby, Glasgow Warriors, Benetton Rugby

Aviva Premiership ? Wasps, Exeter Chiefs, Saracens, Leicester Tigers, Bath Rugby, Harlequins

TOP 14 ? La Rochelle, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Montpellier, RC Toulon, Castres Olympique, Racing 92

EPCR have confirmed that the Pool Draws for 2017/18 Champions Cup and Challenge Cup will take place in Neuch?tel, Switzerland on Thursday, June 8.

The 20th place for next season?s tournament will be decided by a series of play-off matches.

If Gloucester Rugby win Friday evening?s Challenge Cup final at BT Murrayfield, they will take the place of Northampton Saints ? the seventh-ranked club from the Aviva Premiership ? in Play-off 1.

Champions Cup play-offs ? 19/20/21 May

Play-off 1: Northampton Saints (Aviva Premiership seventh-ranked club) or Gloucester Rugby v Connacht Rugby (PRO12 ninth-ranked club)

Play-off 2: Stade Fran?ais Paris (TOP 14 seventh-ranked club) v Cardiff Blues (PRO12 eighth-ranked club)

The Premiership and TOP 14 clubs will have home advantage.

Play-off Final ? 26/27/28 May

Winner Play-off 1 v Winner Play-off 2

The winner of the Play-off Final takes the 20th place in the 2017/18 Champions Cup

The remaining 18 clubs from the Aviva Premiership, the Guinness PRO12 and the TOP 14 which have not qualified for the Champions Cup will play in the 2017/18 Challenge Cup.

The 19th and 20th places in next season?s Challenge Cup have been secured by Russia?s Enisei-STM and Krasny Yar who will play in the Continental Shield final at the BT Murrayfield complex on Saturday.

irishbucsfan

Anyone know the date of the final in Bilbao yet? (Just a murmuring of a rumour?)

I'm a bit warey of accomodation this time round, there's dodgy geezers what is snapping up all them beds

On another note, looking forward to the Krasny Yar/Enise match. Game of the season, I'll be there with the hipflask.

Eod100

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Anyone know the date of the final in Bilbao yet? (Just a murmuring of a rumour?)

I'm a bit warey of accomodation this time round, there's dodgy geezers what is snapping up all them beds

Guess if it follows last 2 years and it's the 2nd Saturday in May again it'll be 12 May 2017. Will they confirm it at the pool draw probably?

Bridge93

Anyone know when the last time Leinster drew the Italian team was? I cant recall it. Would be nice to get them

Bridge93

Bridge93 wrote: »

Anyone know when the last time Leinster drew the Italian team was? I cant recall it. Would be nice to get them

We tend to do best coming out of tough groups historically speaking.

I can't remember personally, it's been a good while.

Riskymove

Bridge93 wrote: »

Anyone know when the last time Leinster drew the Italian team was? I cant recall it. Would be nice to get them

it is difficult as being a pro12 team you have to have a french and english team in the pool and that leaves only 1 other slot ....and now there is only one italian team to get but a couple of english and/or French

thomond2006

Am I right in saying Scarlets as top seeds have to draw Treviso? IIRC the top seeded PRO12 side has to be paired with a bottom seed PRO12 side.

Former Former

thomond2006 wrote: »

Am I right in saying Scarlets as top seeds have to draw Treviso? IIRC the top seeded PRO12 side has to be paired with a bottom seed PRO12 side.

No.

Teams can only be paired with another team from the same league when the second team is in tier 4, but it is not guaranteed that it must be tier 1 plus tier 4.

So any of the Irish provinces could just as easily get Treviso.

Former Former

Tiers are almost there now.

Tier 4 is Glasgow, Castres, Quins, Treviso and Saints.

Tier 3 is Ulster, Bath, Montpellier and two of (Ospreys, Leicester, Racing).

Tier 2 is Leinster, Saracens, La Rochelle, one runner up and one of (Ospreys, Leicester, Racing), whichever one is from the same league as the Tier 2 runner up.

Tier 1 is Exeter, Scarlets, French champs and two runners up.

Not sure there's any easy permutations really.

thomond2006

Assuming Clermont beat Toulon, we could have:

1: Exeter, Scarlets, Clermont, Munster, Wasps
2: Saracens, Leinster, La Rochelle, Toulon, Racing
3: Bath, Ulster, Montpellier, Ospreys, Leicester
4: Harlequins, Glasgow, Castres, Saints, Treviso

Best case scenario: Munster, La Rochelle, Bath, Treviso
Worst case scenario: Munster, Saracens, Montpellier, Glasgow

We could have Munster, Saracens, Toulon, Glasgow if the draw for tiers goes another way. Yikes.

thomond2006

4 : Glasgow, Castres, Quins, Treviso and Saints.

3: Ulster, Bath, Montpellier and two of (Ospreys, Leicester, Racing).

2: Leinster, Saracens, La Rochelle, one runner up and one of (Ospreys, Leicester, Racing), whichever one is from the same league as the Tier 2 runner up.

1: Exeter, Scarlets, Clermont and two runners up.

Updating FF's post.

molloyjh

Might be easier to view it like this.



Possible pool of death:

Clermont
Saracens
Ulster
Racing

Riskymove

Then table clearly shows how little difference there is in being in 1 or 2

it also clearly shows how much of an outlier Treviso is and makes the decision to change this even more sound.

aloooof

Riskymove wrote: »

Then table clearly shows how little difference there is in being in 1 or 2

it also clearly shows how much of an outlier Treviso is and makes the decision to change this even more sound.

Agreed. It's 2018/19 it comes in, right?

ScrubsfanChris

Munster - Montpellier - Bath - Treviso

That wouldn't be too bad

molloyjh

I'd take Exeter-Leinster-Castres-Treviso myself.

Riskymove

There are 6 French and 7 English teams

so one group will have two French teams and two groups will have two english teams

slingerz

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

Munster - Montpellier - Bath - Treviso

That wouldn't be too bad

I'd love a trip to Bath to be honest

Rigor Mortis

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

Munster - Montpellier - Bath - Treviso

That wouldn't be too bad

That would be a Montpellier team with picamoles, pienaar and cruden at 8,9 and 10.

Good luck with that.

Buer

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

That would be a Montpellier team with picamoles, pienaar and cruden at 8,9 and 10.

Good luck with that.

Throw Bardy, Camara and Serfontein into the mix whilst ditching dead weight like Spies. Getting Montpellier as 3rd seeds might be the single sh*ttiest draw in the whole competition. I don't expect them to blow teams away on the road but I can't see many, if any, winning down there.

Even if they're second seeds, I'd much rather a side like La Rochelle who will be concentrating on the T14 and consolidating rather than giving Europe too much attention.

thomond2006

Draw is today at 1pm.

https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanRugbyChampionsCup
https://www.youtube.com/user/ercrugby

ScrubsfanChris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gmUnRvezqw

awec

Is the audio really badly out of sync for anyone else?

molloyjh

So from a Leinster perspective the tier 2 place makes this a bit crappy. Our possible opponents from tier 1 are Clermont, Toulon, Exeter and Wasps. For me Exeter would have to be the preferred selection there.

Meaning that we can only get a French team in tier 3. So Montpellier and Castres. Given Montpelliers signings Castres would be preferred there.

We could get Clermont, Leicester and Racing. That's probably the worst possible draw. Fingers crossed......

ScrubsfanChris

awec wrote: »

Is the audio really badly out of sync for anyone else?

Yeah, same here

molloyjh

awec wrote: »

Is the audio really badly out of sync for anyone else?

Slightly. Bloody ERCCCCCCCCCCCCCC.

thomond2006

Damn you Canal. If you signed up for the Euro rugby we could have Isabelle on today.

molloyjh

thomond2006 wrote: »

Damn you Canal. If you signed up for the Euro rugby we could have Isabelle on today.

Just for you Thomond.....




....and me. And every other guy here.

thomond2006

Connacht get Brive so far. Very good draw.

ScrubsfanChris

Brive - Connacht in Pool 5

are the draws always so ... awkward?

awec

Ouch, Worcester in Connacht's group.

irishbucsfan

Worcester aren't exactly great... Connacht can beat them

ScrubsfanChris

DOC going to the Sportsgrounds

molloyjh

Challenge Cup Pools:

Pool 1|Pool 2|Pool 3|Pool 4|Pool 5
Newcastle Falcons|Cardiff Blues|Gloucester|Stade Francais|Brive
Newport Gwent Dragons|Sale Sharks|Pau|Edinburgh|Connacht
Bordeaux Begles|Lyon|Zebre|London Irish|Worcester Warriors
Enasi STM|Toulouse|Agen|Krasny Yar|Oyonnax

irishbucsfan

Connacht don't luck out and get a Russian side, shame.

Can definitely still top that group. Great target for the new man in the spotlight.

thomond2006

Very doable for Connacht. Oyonnax won't care.

ScrubsfanChris

Connect miss out on getting either of the two russian teams.......

molloyjh

Doable for Connacht. Very doable.

connemara man

Bruce Worcester and Oyannax

Gotta say that's a very winnable group

Chiorino

Didn't London Irish just get promoted back to the Premiership? What was the reason they got a challenge cup place?

awec

What did the french guy say there about the champions cup draw?

Riskymove

pickarooney

Chiorino wrote: »

Didn't London Irish just get promoted back to the Premiership? What was the reason they got a challenge cup place?

Same as Oyonnax

irishbucsfan

Chiorino wrote: »

Didn't London Irish just get promoted back to the Premiership? What was the reason they got a challenge cup place?

Everyone gets a Challenge Cup place

Riskymove

Chiorino wrote: »

Didn't London Irish just get promoted back to the Premiership? What was the reason they got a challenge cup place?

all Premiership clubs get into the competitions

7 into Champions and other 5 in Challenge

ScrubsfanChris

Chiorino wrote: »

Didn't London Irish just get promoted back to the Premiership? What was the reason they got a challenge cup place?

Why should Bristol get awarded for being relegated?

ClanofLams

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Connacht don't luck out and get a Russian side, shame.

Can definitely still top that group. Great target for the new man in the spotlight.

As well off I think. I know Enisei play all their games in Sochi now but that's still well over an 8 hour flight time.

Peregrine

Chiorino wrote: »

Didn't London Irish just get promoted back to the Premiership? What was the reason they got a challenge cup place?

Top 7 teams in the Premiership qualify for Champions Cup and the other 5 qualify for Challenge Cup.

If you don't give the Challenge Cup place to the promoted team, the alternative is to give it to the relegated team.

thomond2006

Munster Tier 1

kuang1

Nice start.