Bordeaux is a stunning city, highly recommended

Direct flights to Exeter from Dublin year round with Flybe.
Bayonne flights from Dublin in October, in December and January we need to get a bit creative (indirect flights or go to Bordeaux).
La Rochelle flights are summer only but I think Ryanair go Dub-Nantes year round. Bordeaux is also an option there.

How many of these places do Ryanair fly to I wonder?

That's the same thing as from Edinburgh site. The email from EPCR said differently. We'll find out which one is right in a minute ...

EDIT. Yeah it's right. Qualifiers in Tier 4.

We're in Tier 3.

Pool 2: Exeter, Bayonne, Connacht, La Rochelle

Not the worst.

The most useful thing connacht ever posted. we have a chance to be in tier 2

Challenge Cup Pool Draw Explained
10th June 2014

The 2014/15 season will herald the inaugural European Rugby Challenge Cup run by the newly-constituted tournament organiser European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR).

The Pool Draw for the 20 clubs which have qualified on merit for the European Rugby Challenge Cup from the Aviva Premiership, the Greene King IPA Championship, the Top 14, the PRO D2, the Pro12 and from the FIRA-AER play-offs, is a vital component of the preparatory work which is already underway in advance of the new season.

The Pool Draw for the 2014/15 European Rugby Challenge Cup will take place in Neuchatel, Switzerland on Tuesday, 10th June at 12.00 (UK and Irish time) before the draw for the European Rugby Champions Cup. Both draws will be broadcast live on btsport.com, Sky Sports News, TG4 and Infosport +and streamed live on epcrugby.com

The key principles and key steps integral to the Pool Draw are explained below.



Key principles


The 20 clubs which have qualified on merit from the Aviva Premiership, the Greene King IPA Championship, the Top 14, the PRO D2, the Pro12 and from the FIRA-AER play-offs will compete in the 2014/15 European Rugby Challenge Cup in five pools of four.
The clubs are divided into four tiers based on the qualification positions from their respective Leagues.
Each of the five pools will include one club from each of the four tiers.
Each pool will have at least one club from the Aviva Premiership, the Top 14 and the Pro12.
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 Tier 4 allocation.
A club from the FIRA-AER qualifying tournament cannot be drawn into a pool which contains two French clubs or two English clubs.
As one or both of the FIRA-AER qualifiers could be from Italy, the two qualifiers cannot be drawn in the same pool as Zebre during the Tier 4 allocation.
European Rugby Challenge Cup qualification

For the purposes of creating the tiers, the clubs are ranked based on their finishing positions in the Top 14, Aviva Premiership, Pro12 and PRO D2 Leagues, or on their qualification via a play-off.

Rank Top 14 Aviva Premiership Pro12
1 Stade Francais Paris Exeter Chiefs Cardiff Blues
2 Bordeaux-Bègles Gloucester Rugby Edinburgh Rugby
3 Brive London Irish NG Dragons
4 Bayonne Newcastle Falcons Connacht Rugby
5 Grenoble London Welsh Zebre
6 Oyonnax
7 Lyon
8 La Rochelle-ASR
Two additional qualifiers: FIRA-AER 1, FIRA-AER 2


Tier 1

Tier 1 will include the three No 1 ranked clubs from the Top 14, Aviva Premiership and the Pro12. (Stade Francais Paris, Exeter Chiefs and Cardiff Blues)

Tier 1 will also include two of the three second-ranked clubs from the Top 14, Aviva Premiership and the Pro12. The two clubs will be decided by a draw.

Tier 2

Tier 2 will include the three clubs which are ranked third from the Top 14, Aviva Premiership and the Pro12. (Top 14: Brive; Aviva Premiership: London Irish; Pro12: Newport Gwent Dragons)

Tier 2 will also include the second-ranked club which was not drawn into Tier 1, and the club which is ranked fourth from the same League as the club which was not drawn into Tier 1.

Tier 3

Tier 3 will include the two clubs ranked fourth which are not in Tier 2. (If Top 14: Bayonne; if Aviva Premiership: Newcastle Falcons; if Pro12: Connacht Rugby)
Tier 3 will also include the three clubs which are ranked fifth from each League. (Top 14: Grenoble; Aviva Premiership: London Welsh; Pro12: Zebre)

Tier 4

Tier 4 will include the sixth, seventh and eighth-ranked Top 14 clubs (Oyonnax, Lyon and La Rochelle) and the two FIRA-AER qualifiers.

As it is possible that one or both of the FIRA-AER qualifiers could be from Italy, the two qualifiers will be drawn first into pools which do not include Zebre.

Each of the three remaining Top 14 clubs will then be drawn into a pool which already contains another Top 14 club.



How the draw works

Upon direction from the MCs, one person will draw the club balls and another person will draw the pool balls.

Step 1

For the purposes of the Pool Draw, only Tier 4 is established at this point.

A draw has to be made to establish the five Tier 1 clubs, and once Tier 1 is confirmed, Tiers 2 and 3 fall into place as per the key principles above.

The draw now takes place to establish which two clubs from the three second-ranked clubs – ie. Bordeaux-Bègles, Gloucester Rugby and Edinburgh Rugby – will join Stade Francais Paris, Exeter Chiefs and Cardiff Blues in Tier 1.

The Bordeaux-Bègles, Gloucester and Edinburgh balls are placed in the bowl, and two clubs are then drawn into Tier 1.

Tier 1 clubs
Stade Francais Paris
Exeter Chiefs
Cardiff Blues
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX

Step 2

Once the Tier 1 clubs are established, the five Tier 2 clubs can be confirmed as follows: the three third-ranked clubs – Brive, London Irish and Newport Gwent Dragons – will be joined by XXXXXX who were not drawn into Tier 1, and by XXXXXXX who are the fourth-ranked club from the XXXXXXXX

Tier 2 clubs
Brive
London Irish
Newport Gwent Dragons
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX

Step 3

Once the Tier 2 clubs are established, the five Tier 3 clubs can be confirmed as follows: the two remaining fourth-ranked clubs, XXXXXXX and XXXXXX, and the three fifth-ranked clubs: Grenoble, London Welsh and Zebre.

Tier 3 clubs
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
Grenoble
London Welsh
Zebre

The clubs in Tier 4 are already confirmed as follows:

Tier 4 clubs
Oyonnax
Lyon
La Rochelle-ASR
FIRA-AER qualifier 1
FIRA-AER qualifier 2

Step 4

Each of the five Tier 1 clubs are drawn, followed by a pool number for that club.

Step 5

Draw for the five Tier 2 clubs.

As each club ball is selected, a draw is then made to allocate the club a pool from the available pools based on the key principles above. Some clubs may have to be placed directly into a pool in order to ensure the key principles apply.

Step 6

Draw for the five Tier 3 clubs.

Again, as each club ball is selected, a draw will then be made to allocate the club a pool from the available pools based on the key principles above. Some clubs may have to be placed directly into a pool in order to ensure the key principles apply.

Step 7

In Tier 4, each of the two FIRA-AER qualifiers will be drawn first into a pool which does not contain Zebre to ensure the key principles apply.

Oyonnax, Lyon and La Rochelle will be then be drawn into pools which contain another Top 14 club.

swift4prez wrote:

mahick wrote:
Connacht in Pot 4- I'd love to read Pinkys travel report vs Q1 and Q2.. Met S4P at the airport where he was looking for Q2, and not a 4D in sight...

It's a myth that I get lost everywhere I go lol

Pinky this could be good news for us. I read that leagues will be kept apart as much as possible.
Before it was country's but seems that they don't want weaker pro12 teams together

Getting q 1 or 2 in pot 1
Brive or irish from pot 2
Connacht pot 3
Rochelle or Welsh pot 4

Get lost.. perish the thought Swift4Prez- you take the scenic route and check out the possibilities :whistle:

Interesting that even though the EPCR are adamant that they are definitely not the ERC and have nothing to do with them, they have no problem taking over their mailing list and twitter followers.

Please note change in Twitter handle @ercrugby now @epcrugby and home of European Professional Club Rugby. Followers retained from @ercrugby

EPCR Ezine
You have received this news story as a subscriber to the ERC Ezine and you will continue to recieve news and ezines from European Professional Club Rugby.

swift4prez wrote:

mahick wrote:
Connacht in Pot 4- I'd love to read Pinkys travel report vs Q1 and Q2.. Met S4P at the airport where he was looking for Q2, and not a 4D in sight...

It's a myth that I get lost everywhere I go lol

Pinky this could be good news for us. I read that leagues will be kept apart as much as possible.
Before it was country's but seems that they don't want weaker pro12 teams together

Getting q 1 or 2 in pot 1
Brive or irish from pot 2
Connacht pot 3
Rochelle or Welsh pot 4

Weaker Pro12 sides [Italy/Scotland] are only a problem in the Champions Cup, the French and English sides in the lower reaches of the leagues after the first few weeks (or newly promoted sides who are main relegation candidates) are no better until the knockout stages when they start taking the competition seriously.

The funny thing is that for us, we now have to take the same approach. The league (and qualification for the Champions Cup through it) has to be our focus from next season onwards...

mahick wrote:
Connacht in Pot 4- I'd love to read Pinkys travel report vs Q1 and Q2.. Met S4P at the airport where he was looking for Q2, and not a 4D in sight...

It's a myth that I get lost everywhere I go lol

Pinky this could be good news for us. I read that leagues will be kept apart as much as possible.
Before it was country's but seems that they don't want weaker pro12 teams together

Getting q 1 or 2 in pot 1
Brive or irish from pot 2
Connacht pot 3
Rochelle or Welsh pot 4

Some info up on IRFU site, which seems different from what was on Edinburgh site.
www.irishrugby.ie/news/31996.php

That has the two qualifiers ranked above Connacht. According to that, one (or even both) qualifiers will be top seeds, which has the potential to skew the draw altogether, like in the old days when Treviso used to get seeded as the top Italian team.

pinky wrote: Details of the draw are up on the Edinburgh site:
www.edinburghrugby.org/news/14/06/07/tue...y-challenge-cup-draw

My prediction wasn't quite right. Teams are ranked based on their relative position within their own league rather than their actual league position, so Exeter (8th in Prem) are considered equal to 7th placed Stade and Cardiff.
So that means Connacht have only a 1/3 instead of 2/3 chance of being in Pot 2.

Basically if Edinburgh lose out in the draw for Pot 1 then Connacht get into Pot 2, else we're in Pot 3. If we get lucky on that front the pots would be.

1. Stade, Exeter, Cardiff, Bordeaux, Gloucester
2. Edinburgh, Brive, London Irish, Dragons, Connacht
3. Bayonne, Newcastle, Grenoble, London Welsh, Zebre
4. Oyonnax, Lyon, La Rochelle, Q1, Q2

The upshot of it all is that there's no team we can't get. I was going to amuse myself by working out some probabilities but there are so many unknowns, it's not worth it.
We could get anything from Cardiff, L Welsh, La Rochelle to Stade, Gloucester, Lyon.

Connacht in Pot 4- I'd love to read Pinkys travel report vs Q1 and Q2.. Met S4P at the airport where he was looking for Q2, and not a 4D in sight...

Interesting article on the score re seedings for h cup. Seems they are based on league position not previous cup performance.

If it's the same for the challenge cup we should do badly.

Details of the draw are up on the Edinburgh site:
www.edinburghrugby.org/news/14/06/07/tue...y-challenge-cup-draw

My prediction wasn't quite right. Teams are ranked based on their relative position within their own league rather than their actual league position, so Exeter (8th in Prem) are considered equal to 7th placed Stade and Cardiff.
So that means Connacht have only a 1/3 instead of 2/3 chance of being in Pot 2.

Basically if Edinburgh lose out in the draw for Pot 1 then Connacht get into Pot 2, else we're in Pot 3. If we get lucky on that front the pots would be.

1. Stade, Exeter, Cardiff, Bordeaux, Gloucester
2. Edinburgh, Brive, London Irish, Dragons, Connacht
3. Bayonne, Newcastle, Grenoble, London Welsh, Zebre
4. Oyonnax, Lyon, La Rochelle, Q1, Q2

The upshot of it all is that there's no team we can't get. I was going to amuse myself by working out some probabilities but there are so many unknowns, it's not worth it.
We could get anything from Cardiff, L Welsh, La Rochelle to Stade, Gloucester, Lyon.

After the f#ck up at home to Cardiff, really if Connacht get seeded as 2nd or 3rd seeds they only have themselves to blame.

I'm also glad to see it revert back to no dropdowns. While it was the Challenge Cup there were so many dire teams, one-sided and meaningless games in it, bigger teams dropping down gave it some profile but now I think the competition has a better chance of standing on its own two feet if its given a bit of profile and the right people are brought in to drive it forward.

I'm liking Connacht's chances of advancing to the knockout stage especially with them reverting to the 3 best second placed teams qualifying rather than dropping 3 down from the Champions Cup (will they be adding sponsors names to each competition so I can use initials again to identify each competition.) Connacht will probably need two home playoff games to makeup for their drop down from the HEC so they better top their pool to have any hope of doing that.

Nothing on seeding? Are the French and Anglo-weasels still trying to work out how to carve it up?