2018-2019 Champions Cup

Burkie1203

Draw on June 20th
Toulon are 4th seeds. So good news for Ulster

https://twitter.com/leinsterrugby/status/1006133956855595008?s=19

Riskymove

A preliminary draw will be conducted to establish Tier 1 with two of the three second-ranked clubs – Exeter Chiefs, Scarlets and Montpellier

Joining Leinster, Saracens, and Castres, in the top tier. Once Tier 1 has been established, the remaining three tiers will fall into place.

Tier 2 will include 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 Leicester Tigers, Edinburgh Rugby and Toulouse.

Tier 4 is complete and contains Bath Rugby, Cardiff Blues, RC Toulon, 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.


For some reason they do not name the Fourth ranked teams which includes Munster

Riskymove

Heineken Champions Cup Pool Draw – 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.

Burkie1203

So Munster could end up in a group with Saracens Toulon and ome of Scarlets/Racing/Exeter.

Riskymove

Burkie1203 wrote: »

So Munster could end up in a group with Saracens Toulon and ome of Scarlets/Racing/Exeter.

I think Irish teams could only end up with a second Pro14 team from Tier 4...so Cardiff

Cant get Scarlets

Sarries, Racing and Toulon a possibility...if Munster end up in Tier 3 rather than tier 2


there will be only one group with two french teams so would be unlucky but possible

Riskymove

I think the other 4th teams are Newcastle and Lyon

thomond2006

Leinster must draw Cardiff since Tiers 1-3 cannot mix different leagues and Leinster cannot be paired with Ulster in Tier 4. If Scarlets are allocated to Tier 1 they cannot be paired with Cardiff.

At least, I think I have that right?

Edit: Oops, I think it just means Leinster cannot draw a Pro14 side in Tiers 2 and 3. Nevermind...

thomond2006

Just looking on expedia: Accomodation is scarce for the final weekend. Sounds fishy.

Podge_irl

thomond2006 wrote: »

Just looking on expedia: Accomodation is scarce for the final weekend. Sounds fishy.

fishy?

Neil3030

So looking at how the Tiers work, the whole process follows from whatever two teams are drawn in Tier 1, from the 3 second seed teams, i.e., Monty, Scarlets and Exeter.

So it will be:

Leinster Sarries Castres Exeter Scarlets
Wasps Glasgow Racing Monty Lyon
Leicester Edinburgh Toulouse Newcastle Munster
Bath Cardiff Toulon Ulster Gloucester

or:

Leinster Sarries Castres Monty Exeter
Wasps Glasgow Racing Scarlets Munster
Leicester Edinburgh Toulouse Newcastle Lyon
Bath Cardiff Toulon Ulster Gloucester

or:

Leinster Sarries Castres Scarlets Monty
Wasps Glasgow Racing Exeter Newcastle
Leicester Edinburgh Toulouse Lyon Munster
Bath Cardiff Toulon Ulster Gloucester

vienne86

What time is the draw at tomorrow? And is it on tv?

The Lost Sheep

vienne86 wrote: »

What time is the draw at tomorrow? And is it on tv?

Wont be on tv.
Draw is at 2.20 irish time

Former Former

vienne86 wrote: »

What time is the draw at tomorrow? And is it on tv?

Streamed on EPCR website

Peregrine

vienne86 wrote: »

What time is the draw at tomorrow? And is it on tv?

Yes, BT Sport 2.

vienne86

Peregrine wrote: »

Yes, BT Sport 2.

Well spotted - Peregrine!

molloyjh

Neil3030 wrote: »

So looking at how the Tiers work, the whole process follows from whatever two teams are drawn in Tier 1, from the 3 second seed teams, i.e., Monty, Scarlets and Exeter.

So it will be:

Leinster Sarries Castres Exeter Scarlets
Wasps Glasgow Racing Monty Lyon
Leicester Edinburgh Toulouse Newcastle Munster
Bath Cardiff Toulon Ulster Gloucester

or:

Leinster Sarries Castres Monty Exeter
Wasps Glasgow Racing Scarlets Munster
Leicester Edinburgh Toulouse Newcastle Lyon
Bath Cardiff Toulon Ulster Gloucester

or:

Leinster Sarries Castres Scarlets Monty
Wasps Glasgow Racing Exeter Newcastle
Leicester Edinburgh Toulouse Lyon Munster
Bath Cardiff Toulon Ulster Gloucester

So, based on the above, the easiest draw for Leinster would be Newcastle, Lyon and Cardiff. The hardest would be Racing, Leicester, Toulon. Do I have that right?

EDIT: Possible draws being:

Leinster
Exeter/Wasps/Newcastle
Toulouse/Lyon
Bath/Cardiff/Toulon/Ulster/Gloucester


Leinster
Racing/Monty/Lyon
Leicester/Newcastle
Bath/Cardiff/Toulon/Ulster/Gloucester

Jump_In_Jack

molloyjh wrote: »

So, based on the above, the easiest draw for Leinster would be Newcastle, Lyon and Cardiff. The hardest would be Racing, Leicester, Toulon. Do I have that right?

EDIT: Possible draws being:

Leinster
Exeter/Wasps/Newcastle
Toulouse/Lyon
Bath/Cardiff/Toulon/Ulster/Gloucester


Leinster
Racing/Monty/Lyon
Leicester/Newcastle
Bath/Cardiff/Toulon/Ulster/Gloucester

It depends how you decide which team is stronger or weaker,
For example, out of Leicester and Newcastle, Newcastle are the higher seed from the English league.
And between Racing, Montpellier and Lyon, Montpellier are the highest seed from the French league.
And between the two leagues, which combination would work out stronger or weaker, Tier 2 team from France with Tier 3 from England or the other way around.

I posted this back in May on the previous thread based on league performance, and I think it still holds, however I haven't done the research into transfers for next season, so teams past performance may not be the best indicator without factoring in the transfers:

Leinster (worst case) Leinster/Montpellier/Newcastle/Toulon
Leinster (best case) Leinster/Lyon/Leicester/Blues

Munster (worst case) Saracens/Montpellier/Munster/Toulon
Munster (best case) Castres/Munster/Leicester/Blues

Ulster (worst case) Saracens/Scarlets/Toulouse/Ulster
Ulster (best case) Castres/Newcastle/Edinburgh/Ulster

Not that bothered what group Leinster get. We had probably the hardest group of all time this year and won the thing outright and we generally do better when we win in a tough pool.

I'm more interested to see what sort of interesting fixtures the pool stages throw out. Mostly interested to see what sort of a pool Ulster get because if they can get any opportunity for knock out rugby next season it would be a brilliant turnaround.

irishbucsfan

That would be really impressive considering the draw isn't made until 2pm

Jump_In_Jack

At least now we can go back to calling it the Heineken Cup again as they are the sponsors for the new season.

umop episdn

Jump_In_Jack wrote: »

At least now we can go back to calling it the Heineken Cup again as they are the sponsors for the new season.

Or "Rancid piss masquerading as beer" Cup

its_phil

umop episdn wrote: »

Or "Rancid piss masquerading as beer" Cup

GTFO with your blasphemy

umop episdn

its_phil wrote: »

GTFO with your blasphemy

You'll be one of the " 3 pints of Heinomite brigade"

thomond2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T3iZjt0yIM

irishbucsfan

Here we go, are we all wildly excited?

ScrubsfanChris

Still feel it's bollox that German team were disqualified. Those players must be rightly pissed.

irishbucsfan

Saints in tier 1!

Pau in tier!

The ****ing excitement of it!

irishbucsfan

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

Still feel it's bollox that German team were disqualified. Those players must be rightly pissed.

They should be pissed at HP Wild

wp_rathead

irishbucsfan wrote: »

They should be pissed at HP Wild

they should be pissed at Stade not getting into Champions Cup

errlloyd

Austin definitely ****ed that up. There are 3 clubs in the tier one basin, and 7 in the tier 2.

Edit: ah no, I'm wrong. Just looked weird on TV.

ScrubsfanChris

irishbucsfan wrote: »

They should be pissed at HP Wild

Yeah, didn't mean to imply their gripe was with EPCR

molloyjh

Saints can't catch a break, can they?

irishbucsfan

errlloyd wrote: »

Austin definitely ****ed that up. There are 3 clubs in the tier one basin, and 7 in the tier 2.

Edit: ah no, I'm wrong. Just looked weird on TV.

He'll definitely do something

LeinsterDub

irishbucsfan wrote: »

They should be pissed at HP Wild

They should be pissed and ERPC . It's perfectly ok for 4 Irish own teams to be in the H Cup but they weren't?

irishbucsfan

AJ MacGinty coming back to the Sportsground! How exciting!

ScrubsfanChris

At least Connacht wont be drawn with Bristol now.

irishbucsfan

LeinsterDub wrote: »

They should be pissed and ERPC . It's perfectly ok for 4 Irish own teams to be in the H Cup but they weren't?

Yes, because they're not owned by a private person who could leave or attempt to manipulate the sport for personal gain at any point in time.

I honestly can't imagine how anyone fails to grasp this concept. It's not a new rule.

irishbucsfan

Trip for the Connacht lads down to Bordeaux! Extremely exciting wines

Buer

irishbucsfan wrote: »

AJ MacGinty coming back to the Sportsground! How exciting!

Are you BT's new hype man?

irishbucsfan

Timisoara to beat Clermont!

molloyjh

Clermonts C team could run away with that pool.

irishbucsfan

Buer wrote: »

Are you BT's new hype man?

Nothing new about it

Buer

Jackson back in Ireland!

Rigor Mortis

molloyjh wrote: »

Clermonts C team could run away with that pool.

That’s the team they’ll be putting out!

PTH2009

Why do they make everything so complicated

Could easily just draw a ball out of each bowl and name that pool 1 and so on

Expecting Munster to get a hard group yet again. Hope we don't draw Racing or Leicester again

irishbucsfan

Haha a few Irish lads with palms on foreheads right now...

Shefwedfan

Paddy Jackson to make a quick return to Ireland

Synode

Challenge Cup

Buer

And now, for the interval, Austin will perform Riverdance.

irishbucsfan

Buer wrote: »

And now, for the interval, Austin will perform Riverdance.

Healy v. O'Driscoll II is the undercard for the main draw I believe

thomond2006

Perpignan draw Connacht.

It was always going to happen wasn't it?

Tbh if he ends up first choice (likely) I doubt Jackson will be playing in Galway anyway. USAP won't get a stuff about the Challenge Cup.