French Opposition for Connacht in European Challenge Cup.

Connacht will travel to France for the first round, first leg of their European Challenge Cup game against Beziers on the weekend of December 5th. The second round takes place a week later and it doesn’t get any easier for Mick Bradley’s squad because if they do get over the Beziers challenge they are likely to be pitted against Pau in Round Two.

And the further they go the harder it gets. The quarter final opposition will come from the quartet of Rotherham, Narbonne, London Irish or Montauban.

This year’s competition has been reduced from 32 to 28 teams due to the reorganisation of the Welsh professional club game and will not have a sponsor after Parker Pen decided not to renew its title sponsorship.

The 28 competing teams from six different countries were broken down into the following categories:
France (10)
Italy (8)
England (6)
Spain (2)
Ireland (1)
Scotland (1).
The Scottish entry is Glasgow Rugby who competed in the Heineken Cup last season but lost out this time around to newcomers, The Borders who finished ahead of them in the Scottish Championship.

The 14 seeded teams are,
France: Grenoble, Pau, Montferrand, Narbonne, Castres Olympique

England: NEC Harlequins, Saracens, London Irish, Newcastle Falcons, Bath Rugby

Italy: Viadana, Petrarca Padova

Ireland: Connacht

Scotland: Glasgow Rugby.

There will be 14 matches in Round 1 of the European Challenge Cup, producing 14 winners to move into the second round. The two best defeated teams will join the 14 winners in Round 2 as Lucky Losers’, providing eight games in that round.

Meanwhile, the 12 remaining first round losers will move into Round 1 of the European Shield where they will be joined by four additional teams, two from Spain – VRAC (Valladolid) and Madrid 2012 – and two from Portugal – FC Belenenses and RC Coimbra. Portugal are back represented for the first time since the national side played in the 1998/1999 event.