Ding dong battle in Rodney Parade. Come on Dragons ...

It's doooooooooooooooooone. Oyonnax did it. Only 1 point for Woucester, thank you Oyonnax

Good start from Oyonnax. Took advantage of the sin bin to go 14 up.

Edit: All over 27-20. Missed a last minute penalty to deny them the LBP. Still, advantage Connacht ...

Worcester and Oyonnax teams named for tomorrow.
www.epcrugby.com/matchcentre/36874.php
Obviously with Oyonnax having left a lot of their frontliners out of the euro squad, they weren't in a position to name their strongest team, but they've brought in Seuteni at full back and Fabbri in the second row, who are regular Top 14 starters, so they look stronger than last week. Worcester are similar to last time, though they're starting Chris Pennell, who was benched for the home game. Oyonnax might have a bit of a go in their first proper home game. A win would really help matters. Even denying Warriors a TBP (which they nearly did last week) would be very useful.
If Dragons can beat Newcastle in Rodney Parade, that would be good news from a seeding point of view too.

connemara man wrote: I really don't see it happening to be honest

No, seems odd. I assume the logic is that if they go down to the Championship, the SRU have a lower level pro club to send some of their fringe players to without losing them from the system altogether. But all the talk can't help with player retention and focusing on rugby matters. Maybe Oyonnax can capitalise
Seems to have been second string teams from both sides last weekend so probably more of the same on Friday. Worcester have a relegation ding-dong with Irish the following week, so maybe Oyonnax's espoirs have a chance.

I really don't see it happening to be honest

All sorts of shenanigans going on when it comes to Worcester's future, with talk of the SRU buying them now. I couldn't find a proper report so the Daily Mail will have to do.

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/art...s-bid-Worcester.html

4 Irish provinces 2 Scottish because they're brave, Clermont and La Rochelle because they play brillant rugby and have the best fans. That's enough, straight to QF, so we could organise a proper Pro14 with home and return games

connachta wrote: You're right about top 6
FFS It was so much better with 24 clubs in it

To be honest I think they need to drop it to 16 teams. Too many English clubs distorting the competition by getting hammered out the gate...

You're right about top 6
FFS It was so much better with 24 clubs in it

It is top 6 for LNR Champions Cup qualification. Also 6 English, 7 Pro12 and the one "spare" which may or may not be the Challenge Cup winner. Very hard not to see Clermont there though, as Connachta says; they're only 4 points off third.

Still only six places each in England and France.
I would expect Clermont to qualify that way alright (they are only 4 points behind Lyon in third), and you are also probably correct about Toulon (Bath will hopefully beat them this weekend) but there's always that small risk ...

pinky wrote: Fair point, though it requires an element of luck. We could even qualify just by winning a quarter final if the other 3 semi finalists qualify via their leagues, but also we could win the Cup and not qualify (Clermont and Toulon are now among the favourites for the Champions Cup and are currently outside of the top 6 domestically). And even with a home QF, we could come up against someone like Toulouse. It's doable of course, but compared to overtaking a Cardiff side who's form has been as erratic as our own, it seems to me like a tougher route.

I didn't think about "HCup winner not qualified" hypothesis. The way they played yesterday, I can't see Clermont outside top 7 (it's not top 6 anymore). And Toulon is too weak to win Europe the year.
It would be so, so, extremely unlucky to win the Challenge and still miss the big competition.

Fair point, though it requires an element of luck. We could even qualify just by winning a quarter final if the other 3 semi finalists qualify via their leagues, but also we could win the Cup and not qualify (Clermont and Toulon are now among the favourites for the Champions Cup and are currently outside of the top 6 domestically). And even with a home QF, we could come up against someone like Toulouse. It's doable of course, but compared to overtaking a Cardiff side who's form has been as erratic as our own, it seems to me like a tougher route.

pinky wrote: Given that we're away to Leinster on Monday 1st, away to Munster on Saturday 6th and potentially away to Worcester on Thursday 11th (hopefully not), some kind of rotation is inevitable. Under the circumstances, you'd imagine that of those three, Sixways would be the higher priority. But other than that, there is no real need to choose between competitions. If we get to the QF, we are at home to Edinburgh the week before, which obviously is crucial, but given that the preceding two weekends are rest weekend for the 6N, it makes sense to go full strength for both those games.
Personally I would think we are much more likely to make up the one point deficit with Blues (or beat Edinburgh in the playoff) than we are to win the Challenge Cup. We'd have to get past Blues and Edinburgh to do that anyway, plus maybe deal with those upstarts in Toulouse and Gloucester along the way.
But can't we do both? My vote is for the scenario where we play Edinburgh in the playoff AND the Challenge Cup final. I just want to see the looks on the Pro14/EPCR lads faces as they try to figure out what the flip is going on (presuming they send me pictures of the looks on their faces, which now I think of it is probably unlikely, but as you may have guessed by now, I have a vivid imagination).

My initial point was we may not need to win it, a final may be enough.
Edinburgh in both play-off and CC final would be funny indeed. It would mean qualification anyway.
But teams like Toulouse, Pau, Gloucester, one of Newcastle or Sale, and Cardiff as we said, are pretty much in contention for automatic qualification via their domestic league. It would be unlucky to go to Bilbao for the final and meet a team who's not qualified already.
Could happen, but not likely, and that's why the Challenge Cup route seems easier IMO

Given that we're away to Leinster on Monday 1st, away to Munster on Saturday 6th and potentially away to Worcester on Thursday 11th (hopefully not), some kind of rotation is inevitable. Under the circumstances, you'd imagine that of those three, Sixways would be the higher priority. But other than that, there is no real need to choose between competitions. If we get to the QF, we are at home to Edinburgh the week before, which obviously is crucial, but given that the preceding two weekends are rest weekend for the 6N, it makes sense to go full strength for both those games.
Personally I would think we are much more likely to make up the one point deficit with Blues (or beat Edinburgh in the playoff) than we are to win the Challenge Cup. We'd have to get past Blues and Edinburgh to do that anyway, plus maybe deal with those upstarts in Toulouse and Gloucester along the way.
But can't we do both? My vote is for the scenario where we play Edinburgh in the playoff AND the Challenge Cup final. I just want to see the looks on the Pro14/EPCR lads faces as they try to figure out what the flip is going on (presuming they send me pictures of the looks on their faces, which now I think of it is probably unlikely, but as you may have guessed by now, I have a vivid imagination).