Magners League Official Website : Details announced for new look European Challenge Cup

Details announced for new look European Challenge Cup

23 June 2005, 2:11 pm

By Jonathan McConnell

Gregor Townsend will make his return to European action with the Borders as the top seeded team in Pool 4 of the new look European Challenge Cup next season

The Scottish side will face one of Townsend’s former clubs, the 1997 Heineken Cup winners Brive, Jonny Wilkinson’s Newcastle Falcons and L’Aquila.

The 2005 / 2006 tournament will consist of 20 top flight clubs from six countries playing in five Pools of four teams with the five Pool winners and the best three runners-up qualifying for the quarter-finals.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be one-off matches played at home venues and the final at a neutral venue on the weekend of 20 / 21 May, 2006.
The only other Celtic side in the competition, Connacht, are the top seeds in Pool 5 – where they will face Guinness premiership side Worcester.

The new Pool format, which will provide each of the 20 participating clubs with a minimum of six games (three home and three away), will replace the previous season’s knock-out structure and the European Shield tournament.

"After lengthy ERC Board consultations involving the views of both Unions and clubs, it became evident that there were strong requirements for guaranteed fixtures and higher quality contests," said ERC Chairman Jean-Pierre Lux.

"The view was that the Pool format we have followed in the Heineken Cup is the best way to meet those needs.

"There will be 20 teams instead of 32 and 67 matches instead of the 86 we had last season in the European Challenge Cup and European Shield.

"Part of the reason for these reductions are the facts that there is no team from Wales, Italy have requested they have just six instead of 10 teams playing in Europe - two of them in the Heineken Cup - and France will have 14 and not 16 teams playing in Europe as from next season, seven of those in the 2005 Heineken Cup."

EUROPEAN CHALLENGE CUP POOLS 2005 / 2006

Pool 1: Viadana, Narbonne, Northampton Saints, Bristol
Pool 2: Agen, London Irish, Rugby Parma, Pau
Pool 3: Gloucester, Bayonne, Toulon, Bucuresti
Pool 4: The Borders, Brive, Newcastle Falcons, L’Aquila
Pool 5: Connacht, Montpellier, Worcester, Amatori Catania