Connnnnacht wrote:

Siob wrote: Could have a play-off between the losing semi-finalists, don't know how you'd sort home advantage though.

And what happens if the 2 of them have qualified?!

Everyone left picks a number between 1 and 23, whoever's right gets the spot...

It would be a very strange year if that happened, 2 out of 4 this year, neither in the final

Siob wrote: Could have a play-off between the losing semi-finalists, don't know how you'd sort home advantage though.

And what happens if the 2 of them have qualified?!

Could have a play-off between the losing semi-finalists, don't know how you'd sort home advantage though.

Shelflife wrote: It used to be that the next best position in their league would qualify.

And could be by "national Unions", not leagues. Even if it's unliklier than a play-off IMO

It's weird it wasn't sorted out, though

So we'll have to pray for Cardiff winning it as they did in the past. Straight into ChampionsCup if we manage to finish 8th as high as this year.
Lack of ambition, you'd say, but still a reasonable possibility

It used to be that the next best position in their league would qualify.

New rules :
What happens if BOTH Challenge Cup winner AND finalist are qualified through their League?
Exceptional play-off?

Edit : could well happen on a regular basis, for example 2 within 3 of LaRochelle, Ospreys or Bath, who weren't far this season

Personally disappointed we wont see any Italian clubs in the top tier of european rugby for the foreseeable. I would've liked to have seen the introduction of a development / transfer "tax" imposed on clubs who continually pluck the best italian players from their clubs sides and then complain about the lack of quality in Italian rugby.

thehoneybadger wrote: On a side note I was at the final in Edinburgh last weekend and the Enisei team paraded the ERC shield the won that morning at half time. They've qualified for the Challenge Cup next season on the back of it. They looked pretty chuffed! Tried to attach a photo there but it didn't work....

Caught the Continental Shield game on an erc thread last Saturday. Had to cheer on our old pals Enisei, and you're right thehoneybadger, it meant so much to them. Delighted to see them do the walkabout with the shield at half time of the Final.
BOTH Enisei and Krasno Yar are in the Challenge Cup, so if we don't do the business tomorrow we may have another long journey next season..!!

On a side note I was at the final in Edinburgh last weekend and the Enisei team paraded the ERC shield the won that morning at half time. They've qualified for the Challenge Cup next season on the back of it. They looked pretty chuffed! Tried to attach a photo there but it didn't work....

It means that Champions Cup rugby every season is a realistic goal for Connacht, and that should have a positive effect on recruitment.
Based on this season's table it's a reduction of 15 points in the qualification mark (and 7, 7 and 14 in the previous 3 seasons).

Much happier with this format, the league will work better for it. And any run in the challenge cup has a genuine benefit at the end with a spot in the Champions cup.

salmson wrote: O'Shea is on record as saying he didn't want automatic qualification, and since the current agreements aren't up til 2020 for the Pro12 and 2018 for the EPCR, this couldn't have been brought in without their agreement. It's notable how they both picked up when they had something to play for towards season's end, and Dragons ended up finishing between them, so there's not even that clean delineation between Italy and the rest any more. Treviso finished 10th, 10th, and 7th in their first 3 years, before the Italian federation shafted them. They look to have stabilised and I expect them to push on now. Notably if you look at the last 7 seasons (of a 12 team league) only Zebre and Edinburgh would never have qualified for the HEC/Champions Cup under this rule.

They've signed a couple of handy players for next season too.

O'Shea is on record as saying he didn't want automatic qualification, and since the current agreements aren't up til 2020 for the Pro12 and 2018 for the EPCR, this couldn't have been brought in without their agreement. It's notable how they both picked up when they had something to play for towards season's end, and Dragons ended up finishing between them, so there's not even that clean delineation between Italy and the rest any more. Treviso finished 10th, 10th, and 7th in their first 3 years, before the Italian federation shafted them. They look to have stabilised and I expect them to push on now. Notably if you look at the last 7 seasons (of a 12 team league) only Zebre and Edinburgh would never have qualified for the HEC/Champions Cup under this rule.

I'm divided on this.

On the positive side of things, it is better for all non-italian teams, and the Champions Cup. Connacht have a much better chance of qualifying each season, and will keep the league interesting towards the end of the season

On the negative side, I feel the Italians will fall apart, and most likely disband. I've always thought a European Cup should try to include at least one team from each country.
Obviously I'm not campaigning for Romania, Georgia, Russia, Portugal etc. to all have a team in the tournament

Hopefully this will force the Italians to work harder to qualify on their own merit, rather than go out of business.

pinky wrote: I don't think Connacht can say they were ever done by any "Italian rule". Two season's ago we would have qualified if these new rules were in place, but this season we wouldn't even have gotten a playoff spot, plus we've had more than our fair share of qualification by dubious routes.
That said, the playoffs are a bit silly and this is a better system and gives more certainty, etc.
I'm very surprised the English and French agreed to it though. The whole rationale behind the extra place for the Pro12 was that they had to keep one for each country. With that gone, I thought they'd push for equal representation for each league.
Still no automatic spot for the Champions Cup winners - someday someone is going to get caught with that ...

It's hard to know on this one. We basically lay down to finish 8th. If there'd been a chance that 7th would have gotten us in there I'm sure we'd have finished the season stronger (at least I certainly hope so)