The 2015/2016 Challenge Cup draw took place today in Switzerland, and there are a number of reasons to look forward to the tournament. From a Gloucester perspective the Cherry and Whites will be up against some familiar faces; the 2014/2015 holders were drawn in Pool 4 alongside La Rochelle, Zebre and Worcester Warriors. Gloucester and Zebre clashed in Pool stages last season, whilst La Rochelle broke Gloucester’s long unbeaten home record in 2010 and Worcester of course are Gloucester’s closest rivals so there will be an additional two local derbies for the fans to look forward to.
Despite winning the tournament back in May, Gloucester did not gain a place in the Champions Cup or even a ranking as a Tier 1 side. The redesign of the European Tournaments has improved the meritocracy of qualification but this is an anomaly that suggests further improvements could be made. Indeed Toulon, who have just won three Champions Cup titles in a row, were only seeded second and have been drawn into the ‘group of death’ in that tournament.
On the other hand the winners of the Challenge Cup this season will be awarded a place in the Champions Cup, which will hopefully improve French participation in the tournament. Last season saw no French sides reach the Quarter Finals of the Challenge Cup, with weakened sides being fielded due to the greater incentives available in the Top 14. A case in point is Stade Francais, who are now French league champions yet only came third in their pool behind Newcastle Falcons and Newport Gwent Dragons. But now teams like Grenoble, Castres and perhaps even newly-promoted Pau, with their freshly-acquired All Blacks Colin Slade and Conrad Smith, can use this competition to gain a Champions Cup place that is unattainable through their league position. Equally it gives motivation to English sides like Newcastle and London Irish who have not been in contention for Champions Cup rugby for a number of years.
There is also progress in the reach of the tournament, with a Russian side, Enesei-STM, competing for the first time. Connacht, Newcastle and Brive will face the potentially perilous trip to Siberia, and it will be interesting to see whether the Russians can compete better than some minnows who have been on the end of some huge beatings in previous years. For example Gloucester defeated Bucharesti 106-3 on their way to the title in 2005/2006, but now the Romanian side (now known as Bucharest Wolves) are starting to be competitive within their Pool each year. This can only be good for European rugby as a whole, with suggestions that Georgia and Romania could be eventually invited to join the Six Nations.
Before the draws began EPCR announced that the final for both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup will be hosted at the brand new, 59000-seater stadium in Lyon. This gives further support to the Challenge Cup by giving it parity with its sister tournament for the final, whereas in previous years it was played in a smaller stadium near to the Champions Cup venue. From Gloucester’s experience with this in 2015 this can only be a positive, as when they reached the final a number of supporters were put off from attending because they believed they wouldn’t be able to get tickets, only for many empty seats to be available on the night. There is no doubt that if Gloucester were to reach the final again there would be a very strong contingent of travelling supporters, despite it being in the south of France.
Whilst the media attention will naturally focus on the Champions Cup, the Challenge Cup has great potential to produce some exciting rugby. Having followed Gloucester through their title-winning campaigns in 2006 and 2015 it certainly doesn’t fail to interest the supporters, with the convoy of Gloucester coaches that travelled to the Twickenham Stoop in May testament to that. With match-ups such as Harlequins vs Cardiff Blues, where Jamie Roberts will play against his former team, and some exotic European trips for supporters, the standard of rugby in the tournament is rising and it is difficult to pick a winner out of the initial Pool line-ups.
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