And Toulon beat Montpellier so we have:

Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
Connacht	Wasps	Scarlets	Munster
Saracens	Glasgow	Northampton	Sale
Winner T14	Clermont	Toulouse	Zebre
Runner Up 1	Runner Up 3	Other Losing SF 2	Castre
Runner Up 2	Other Losing SF 1**	Other Losing SF 3	Bordeaux

**This team must be from the same league as the losing finalist who is drawn as Runner Up 3 (I think)

Two of Leinster, Exeter and the Top 14 Runner up will go into tier 1 with the remaining team going into Tier 2.

One of Ulster, Wasps and Montpellier will go into Tier 2 with the remaining two teams going into Tier 3.

Toulon play Racing in the Top 14 final.

Cows, you might get your wish for loud fans. Clermont's glorious snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory last night ensures they are in Pot 2, giving us a 1/3 chance of a trip to the Marcel Michelin.

Also, I was just noticing how handy the Nou Camp will be for Montpellier fans if they make the final when it occurred to me that if we draw them, flying to Barcelona mightn't be the worst idea in the world. It's a bit of a train ride at 3 hours, but there are no shortage of flights.

ConnachtCows wrote: Can't wait for this draw.

From Connachts point of view, we want the easiest draw as possible
From ConnachtCows point of view, I want to avoid Parma. Would love to get three teams with loud fans, like Clermont, and Exeter

Castres might be right up your street. Small town, rugby mad, 70km from Carcassonne, recent Top14 Champions but never tend to do well in Europe. They tick a lot of boxes ...

Can't wait for this draw.

From Connachts point of view, we want the easiest draw as possible
From ConnachtCows point of view, I want to avoid Parma. Would love to get three teams with loud fans, like Clermont, and Exeter

Had a quick look at how to get to the various places (so I know who to shout for in the draw)

They are all reasonably doable.
Racing is straightforward of course. Plenty of flights to Paris.
Clermont is a 2.5h bus trip from Lyon, which has daily flights from DUB.
Nice has year round flights from DUB and is handy enough for Toulon (<2h)
And Carcassonne covers Castres, Montpellier, Toulouse (Toulouse also has direct flights in October)
Potentially the most awkward is Bordeaux. There are direct flights from Dublin with Aer Lingus in October and the weekend before Christmas, but the other 3 weekends the nearest direct flight is Carcassonne (over 3 hours on the train).
There could be a few complications with kick-off times, e.g. the Carcassonne flights leave early on Sunday in Dec/Jan and are Tue/Thur/Sat in October and the Nice flight arrives late on Friday, so hopefully they'll be kind to us on that front.

We flew to Bologna a few times for Parma before, but those times seem awkward now, especially in Dec/Jan, so prob better to fly to Linate. Just over an hour from Milano Centrale to Parma.

The English ones are all grand. Flybe to Exeter. Birmingham for Wasps and Northampton. East Midlands for Leicester and Manchester for Sale.

If anyone wants to visualize...
drive.google.com/open?id=1eEGwUT4hE9xIG5...XEn8xvIk&usp=sharing

Black = Can't draw them
Yellow = Pot 4 = 25% chance
Red = TBD %
Green = Pro 12 Champs

Assuming the rules quoted are correct (and they do tally with last year's draw), odds we are drawn against each team are as follows:

Wasps, France 3 (higher finishing losing semi finalist): 1/3 (~33%)
Leicester, Northampton, France 4 (lower finishing losing semi finalist), Toulouse: 7/24 (~29%)
Zebre, Sale, Castres, Bordeaux: 1/4 (25%)
Exeter, France 2 (runner-up): 1/12 (~9%)

Can't draw: Saracens, France 1 (champion), Leinster, Glasgow, Ulster, Scarlets, Munster.

Evil_g wrote: I read on munsterfans that you can't have two teams from the same league until the last pot is drawn (which would mean we can't get Glasgow or Scarlets). Anyone know whether that's true?

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's true. I think that the rule is that two teams from the same country can't be drawn together until Pot 4, but the upshot of that is that after 3 pots there will have to be one from each league.
So the only Pro12 team we can get is Zebre.
Conversely Munster have to get either Glasgow or Scarlets as they can't get any of the Irish teams.

So:

Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
Connacht	Wasps	Scarlets	Munster
Saracens	Glasgow	Northampton	Sale
Winner T14	Runner Up 3	Toulouse	Zebre
Runner Up 1	Best Losing SF 3	Other Losing SF 2	Castre
Runner Up 2	Other Losing SF 1**	Other Losing SF 3	Bordeaux

**This team must be from the same league as the losing finalist who is drawn as Runner Up 3 (I think)

Two of Leinster, Exeter and the Top 14 Runner up will go into tier 1 with the remaining team going into Tier 2.

One of Ulster, Wasps and the fourth placed French team will go into Tier 2 with the remaining two teams going into Tier 3.

French Semifinals (with final league position):


Clermont (1) v. Racing (4)

Toulon (2) v. Montpellier (3)


I read on munsterfans that you can't have two teams from the same league until the last pot is drawn (which would mean we can't get Glasgow or Scarlets). Anyone know whether that's true?

So after the barrages this weekend, Castres complete the lineup in Pot 4 with Bordeaux, Sale, Zebre and Munster, while Toulouse go into Pot 3.
So we can't get the Castres/Zebre combo I wanted, but on the upside, we can't get Toulouse along with one of the other big French teams.

EvoGeo wrote: Draw taking place June 29th

www.irishrugby.ie/provincial/37542.php#.V1IJr8so_qA

As reported here 3 days ago.

Draw taking place June 29th

www.irishrugby.ie/provincial/37542.php#.V1IJr8so_qA

pinky wrote:
No Craig Doyle. The victories keep on coming ...

Craig Doyle has been eliminated?

menacethedenis wrote: Murray Kinsella just tweeted:

EPCR have confirmed that the pool draws for next season's Champions and Challenge Cups will take place on 29 June.

www.epcrugby.com/news/33159.php#.V03wer6c3IU

The event comperes in Neuchâtel will be Alex Payne (Sky Sports) and Matthieu Lartot (France Télévisions).

No Craig Doyle. The victories keep on coming ...

eezipc wrote: Would be nice to get Sale.

Anything to avoid the mighty Zebre.

I make it a 1 in 12 chance of getting Exeter Chiefs. 1/3 they end up in Pot 2 X 1/4 that they get us.
So most likely we are taking a trip to one of the English Midlands trio.
French qualifiers are now known but they can still finish in pretty much any order.

I will have:
Castres
Northampton
Zebre

please Mr Lonely Man in Neuchatel ...

Murray Kinsella just tweeted:

EPCR have confirmed that the pool draws for next season's Champions and Challenge Cups will take place on 29 June.