Categories: Connacht European Rugby Provincial

Connacht’s Pool Opponents Revealed

Connacht and English club Harlequins will renew their rivalry in next season’s Amlin Challenge Cup as well as meeting new oppostion from France and Italy.

The draw for the pool stages of next season’s Amlin Challenge Cup took place in the ERC offices in Dublin on Wednesday.

The draw was conducted using the merit-based ERC European Ranking system compiled on the qualified teams’ performances over the past four seasons in the Heineken Cup and knockout stages of the Amlin Challenge Cup.

Connacht, led by new head coach Eric Elwood, have been placed in Pool 1 alongside two-time winners Harlequins, Bayonne from France and Italian newcomers Cavalieri Prato.

Semi-finalists in this past season’s tournament, the westerners will meet Harlequins for the third time, having played the Guinness Premiership side in a two-legged semi-final in 2004 and in the pool stages in the 2006/07 campaign.

This will be the first time Connacht have locked horns with Bayonne, while Cavalieri Prato are competing in the competiton for the first time having been promoted to the top flight in Italy last year.

Connacht are the only side to have played in the Challenge Cup every year since the start of the competition in 1997.

The five tier 1 teams – Stade Francais, Gloucester, Sale Sharks, Bourgoin and Harlequins – were kept apart as the 20 teams who have qualified for the 2010/11 competition were graded into four tiers of five teams, with each of the five pools having one team from each of the four tier levels.

Next season’s competition features five sides who took part in the 2009/10 Heineken Cup – Stade Francais, Gloucester, Sale, Brive and Harlequins – along with European debutants Exeter Chiefs, who won promotion to the Guinness Premiership last month.

So far, Connacht have played 92 games in the Challenge Cup and will be the first to hit the century if they emulate this past season’s achievement of reaching the semi-finals.

In Michael Bradley’s last European match in charge of the province in April, they went down 19-12 to French glamour side Toulon in a hard-fought semi-final at a packed Sportsground.

2010/11 AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP POOLS –

POOL 1 –

Harlequins
CONNACHT
Bayonne
Cavalieri Prato

POOL 2 –

Sale Sharks
Brive
Petrarca Rugby
Cetransa El Salvador

POOL 3 –

Bourgoin
Newcastle Falcons
Montpellier
Exeter Chiefs

POOL 4 –

Stade Francais
Rugby Parma
Leeds Carnegie
Bucuresti Oaks

POOL 5 –

Gloucester
Agen
Rugby Rovigo
La Rochelle

THE TIERS (with ERC European Ranking points):

TIER 1:

16 – Stade Francais
12 – Gloucester
9 – Sale Sharks
8 – Bourgoin
7 – Harlequins

TIER 2:

6 – Newcastle Falcons
4 – Brive
4 – CONNACHT
3 – Agen
1 – Rugby Parma

TIER 3:

1 – Leeds Carnegie
1 – Montpellier
Bayonne
Petrarca Rugby
Rugby Rovigo

TIER 4:

La Rochelle
Cavalieri Prato
Exeter Chiefs
Bucuresti Oaks
Cetransa El Salvador

2010/11 AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP FIXTURES –

Round 1: October 7/8/9/10
Round 2: October 14/15/16/17
Round 3: December 9/10/11/12
Round 4: December 16/17/18/19
Round 5: January 13/14/15/16
Round 6: January 20/21/22/23
Quarter-finals: April 8/9/10
Semi-finals: April 30/May 1
Final: May 20/21/22