salmson wrote: Some media sources giving Gloucester as top English seed (Sale 2 Quins 3) which would increase our chances of getting Quins.

I'd say that's wide of the mark. For whatever reason EPCR are adamant that European performance will have absolutely no influence on European rankings. Apparently it doesn't meet their definition of "merit based". It's all league based. So Toulon aren't even guaranteed top seeding in the Champions Cup, despite having won it three times, they have to win the Bouclier to guarantee top spot.
That said, you can never rule out a curve ball with these guys.

salmson wrote: Basic draw is as per Not-HEC :-

2 of the second seeds are drawn into Pot 1 along with all the top seeds.

One of the 4th seeds is drawn into Pot 2 along with the remaining 2nd seed and all the third seeds.

Remaining 4th seeds and the 5th seeds go into Pot 3 and everyone else goes into Pot 4.

Not sure what the exact rules are with country exemptions, obviously one group will have an extra English team and 2 groups have an extra French team. There was a rule in the old HEC that the top seeds were spared having a team from their own country in their group, but no idea if it applies for this competition.

Anyway we're very unlikely to meet Quins as they may be drawn into our Pot.

Edit: pro 12 teams kept apart; Worcester, Pau and Agen will be drawn into pools containing one of their own country's teams.

Also second ranked team and the fourth ranked team that go into Pot 2 will be from the same league (can't find that written down now but that's how it worked last year). So for example if Edinburgh are drawn into Pot 2, Cardiff will automatically go in there too.

In that case the Pots would be:
1 Montpellier, Sale, Connacht, La Rochelle, Harlequins
2 Edinburgh, Brive, Gloucester, Dragons, Blues
3 Grenoble, London Irish, Castres, Newcastle, Zebre
4 Pau, Agen, Worcester, Enisei, Calvisano

In that case we'd be 50/50 to get Brive or Gloucester as we can't get any of the other teams in Pot 2.
Probably better if La Rochelle are the unlucky team, then we have three French teams in Pot 2 and less likely to get Glaws.
Only rule for Pot 4 is that Calvisano can't go in with Zebre. Every Pot will have one English and one French team in it by then anyway.

I really hope we don't get Harlequins. Someone like Worcester would probably be the ideal English team to get, they'd be more concerned with their domestic league to give the competition a real go.

Congrats to Bordeaux-Begles. It looked like they may have missed the boat with Beauxis missing that simple kick against Toulouse on the final day but they came back strongly today so fair play to them.

Its tough on Gloucester but in their heart they will know we were robbed blind at the end last week. Really winning the Challenge Cup should have got them in if all was fair but the epc made a complete balls up of managing the competition this year and an even bigger mess of the qualification criteria for 2015/16. They were doing ridiculous juggling to try and keep all the plates in the air all season and it hasn't worked out, there will only be 6 English teams in the main competition next season. :lol:

pinky wrote: So the ranks for the draw now are:

1 Montpellier, Sale, Connacht
2 La Rochelle, Harlequins, Edinburgh
3 Brive, Gloucester, Dragons

Some media sources giving Gloucester as top English seed (Sale 2 Quins 3) which would increase our chances of getting Quins.

Basic draw is as per Not-HEC :-

2 of the second seeds are drawn into Pot 1 along with all the top seeds.

One of the 4th seeds is drawn into Pot 2 along with the remaining 2nd seed and all the third seeds.

Remaining 4th seeds and the 5th seeds go into Pot 3 and everyone else goes into Pot 4.

Not sure what the exact rules are with country exemptions, obviously one group will have an extra English team and 2 groups have an extra French team. There was a rule in the old HEC that the top seeds were spared having a team from their own country in their group, but no idea if it applies for this competition.

Anyway we're very unlikely to meet Quins as they may be drawn into our Pot.

Edit: pro 12 teams kept apart; Worcester, Pau and Agen will be drawn into pools containing one of their own country's teams.

We gonna get Quins aren't we?
We always get Quins

Pinky

Where did you get the info on the ranking.
looks like they are giving the French top billing, then the Prem and finally the Pro 12 ?

I would have expected the English powers would have push to give the Prem top billing ?

If you simply list the teams 1 - 20 and make the assumption that Pool 3 would have have the teams listed at 3, 8, 13 and 18 position. We would get a really crap pool consisting of ourselves, Gloucester, Casters and Worcester.

Just looked at the EPRC site and for what it is worth, they are listing the tournament in the order or Premiership, Top 14 and Pro 12.

If they fill the Pool's in the same order I would stick my neck out and suggest a pool for Connacht of Brive, Newcastle and Agen but just like Pinky said, could be way off the mark.

So the ranks for the draw now are:

1 Montpellier, Sale, Connacht
2 La Rochelle, Harlequins, Edinburgh
3 Brive, Gloucester, Dragons
4 Grenoble, London Irish, Blues
5 Castres, Newcastle, Zebre
6 Pau, Agen, Worcester, Enisei, Calvisano

So we have a very good chance of getting Gloucester as they will definitely be in Tier 2. On the plus side we can't now get Montpellier.
We're also unlikely to get La Rochelle or Harlequins (they have only a 1/3 chance of being in Tier 2, and if so we'd have a 1/4 chance of getting them so that's 1/12 for each of them).
I make it 1/3 chance of getting Gloucester or Brive.
7/24 chance (29%) of getting Grenoble, London Irish, Castres, Newcastle
1/4 chance of Calvisano (slightly higher than the other Tier 4 as they can't get Zebre)
3/16 chance (19%) of Pau, Agen, Worcester, Enisei

Of course those numbers could be all wrong, depends on whether I read the rules right.

Right, looks like we could have Gloucester again after all!
The end looked eerily similar to the end of normal time in their last game. Trying to run down the clock, penalty, line-out, score. They must feel like we did last week. Madness will never be able to set foot in Gloucester again.

Bookies have installed Glaws as favourites for Sunday but not by a huge amount. 5 point handicap. So don't rule out meeting them again in the pool stage next season!
Couldn't spot a Bordeaux team online. Maybe they don't have to name til tomorrow.

Gloucester Rugby:
Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Bill Meakes, Billy Twelvetrees (capt), Jonny May; James Hook, Greig Laidlaw; Nick Wood, Richard Hibbard, John Afoa; Tom Savage, Tom Palmer; Sione Kalamafoni, Jacob Rowan, Ross Moriarty
Replacements:
Darren Dawidiuk, Yann Thomas, Shaun Knight, Elliott Stooke, Dan Thomas, Callum Braley, Billy Burns, Henry Purdy

Later start this year with 1st weekend of games supposed to be 12th - 15th Nov

biffo77 wrote: weekends are enough to book trips, I try to be there for the Friday through to Sunday night

Sometimes but sometimes not. E.g. the Caracassonne flights arrive in at 1745 on Friday and go back on Sunday at 1430 so that is perfect for a Saturday game, a bit tight but doable for a Friday night game, but useless for Sunday.
Also bear in mind the games can be on Thursday night.

Last January if you wanted to book La Rochelle in advance and cover all the bases, you had to fly out on Thursday and stay til Tuesday.
That said, if you have a bit of time and are prepared to go via Paris or whatever, it could be done.

weekends are enough to book trips, I try to be there for the Friday through to Sunday night

pinky wrote: Worcester book their spot. Some drama. Looked to be in the driving seat then shipped 21 points during a sin-bin then two late tries to tie it up. Poor old Bristol can't buy a win. If Gloucester win on Sunday, Worcester will be in pot 3.

Poor old Sean Holley, how amusing that after rejecting us he's still scrabbling between jobs in the lower leagues... #Karma

biffo77 wrote: most places in France are doable via Paris and TGV at least. A trip to Russia would be great!

** Trying to get to Swansea for pro12 last year was more trouble than getting to LaRochelle in January. Cork->Stanstead-> la Rochelle with Ryanair, La Rochelle -> Paris (TGV, 30e First class :whistle: ) -> Cork with Aerlingus.

we'll find out 17th June where we'll be going, I guess it'll be August/September before we get which weekend we'll be playing?

Last year it was late August and they only confirmed dates for rounds 1 and 2. ERC used to confirm first 4 rounds in late July.