World News – GB – European Champions Cup draw: Scarlets and Dragons discover their opponents

The draw for the Heineken Champions Cup has been made, with both Wales representatives in the competition – the Scarlets and the Dragons – seen on their opponents

The Scarlets face group matches at home and away against Toulon and Bath, while the Dragons face Begles-Bordeaux and Wasps at home and away

This is the fifth year out of seven that the Scarlets have had group matches with French giant Toulon in Europe

They were regrouped with them in the Champions Cup in 2014-15, 2016-17 and 2017-18, then again in the Challenge Cup last season, when they also met them in the round of 16

The Dragons, who are part of the European elite for the first time since 2011, will face the play-off finalists of the Gallagher Premiership in Wasps, while Begles-Bordeaux will place twelfth in the French Top 14, with just one victory of their first four league matches

It has gone from 20 teams to 24, while it will take place over eight weeks instead of the usual nine

Wales’ other two professional teams – Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys – will compete in the 14-team Challenge Cup, but there is no draw for this event given its unique group structure

The exact dates of the Champions Cup fixtures and the Challenge Cup preliminary matches, including venues, kick-off times and TV coverage, will be announced after consultation with clubs and broadcasters

Today’s draw saw the 24 Heineken Champions Cup teams split into two pools of 12

Teams were also placed on four levels and could not be drawn to play against teams of their own level or their own league

The billiards phase will take place over four weekends, with each side facing two others at home and away

For the Scarlets, that means games against Toulon and Bath, while the Dragons face Begles-Bordeaux and Wasps

The top four from each pool will then advance to the two-legged quarter-finals, while teams ranked 5-8 in both groups will advance to the knockout stage of the Challenge Cup, the Cardiff Blues competition and the Ospreys are involved in

The draw for the Heineken Champions Cup took place at the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne, Switzerland

Scarlets head coach Glenn Delaney responded by drawing in familiar enemies of Toulon and former rivals of Bath in the group stage of the Champions Cup

« We know these guys very well, we’ve played a lot of European rugby against them and we just had a quarter-final against them

« He’s a great opponent and I think the two clubs like to play against each other. You also have two groups of really passionate supporters, it’s exciting »

As for Bath, coach Kiwi added: “It’s a team with a new group of coaches, guys that I know very well They are a set-piece oriented team, who love to play operate their melee and their power

« These foundations are well established for them and The Rec is one of the best grounds to compete in. We can’t wait to see them »

The exact dates and kick-off times for the four home and away group matches will be published in the coming weeks

The Wasps have been in excellent form since rugby resumed, reaching the Guinness Premiership final and losing only narrowly to Exter at Twickenham last weekend

It will be interesting to see which side of the Wales Lock Will Rowlands appears on when the Dragons take on the Coventry-based side as he looks set to join the Men of Gwent at some point.

As for Begles-Bordeaux, they are in twelfth place in the French Top 14, with just one victory in their first four league matches

Looking elsewhere in the draw for the Champions Cup – which took place at the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne – Exeter, newly crowned European champion, will face Toulouse and Glasgow in the group stage

Leinster, Guinness PRO14 champion, will have Montpellier and Northampton Saints as opponents, while Munster will face Clermont Auvergne and Harlequins

The exact dates of the Pool Stage matches and the Challenge Cup preliminary stage matches, including venues, kick-off times and TV coverage, will be announced after consultation with clubs and diffusers

This is the fifth year out of seven that the Scarlets have faced group matches against Toulon!

They were reunited with them in the Champions Cup in 2014-15, 2016-17 and 2017-18, then again in the Challenge Cup last season

As for Bath, they were group opponents in 2017-18 when the Scarlets reached the Champions Cup semi-finals after a memorable win at The Rec

Here is the full draw for this season’s Heineken Champions Cup pool, with each team’s group opponent in brackets

PISCINE A (with opponents in parentheses) Bordeaux-Bègles (Dragons, Northampton Saints) Leinster Rugby (Montpellier, Northampton Saints) Wasps (Dragons, Montpellier) Bath Rugby (La Rochelle, Scarlets) Edinburgh Rugby (La Rochelle, Sale Sharks)) RC Toulon (Sale Sharks, Scarlets) La Rochelle (Bath Rugby, Edinburgh Rugby) Sale Sharks (Edinburgh Rugby, RC Toulon) Scarlets (Bath Rugby, RC Toulon) Dragons (Bordeaux-Bègles, Wasps) Montpellier (Leinster Rugby, Wasps) Northampton Saints (Bordeaux-Bègles, Leinster Rugby)

POOL B (with opponents in parentheses) Exeter Chiefs (Glasgow Warriors, Toulouse) Lyon (Glasgow Warriors, Gloucester Rugby) Ulster Rugby (Gloucester Rugby, Toulouse) Bristol Bears (ASM Clermont Auvergne, Connacht Rugby) Munster Rugby (ASM Clermont Auvergne, Harlequins) Racing 92 (Connacht Rugby, Harlequins) ASM Clermont Auvergne (Bristol Bears, Munster Rugby) Connacht Rugby (Bristol Bears, Racing 92) Harlequins (Munster Rugby, Racing 92) Glasgow Warriors (Exeter Chiefs, Lyon) Gloucester Rugby (Lyon, Ulster) Toulouse (Exeter Chiefs, Ulster Rugby)

BREAKING: Scarlets face Champions Cup group matches at home and away against Toulon and Bath, while Dragons face Begles-Bordeaux and Wasps

Well we know they won’t be against PRO14 teams to begin with Looking first at the Scarlets they are at level 3 so they will be playing an English team and a French team at level 2 at home and outside

As for the Dragons, their Tier 4 status confronts them with an opposition from Tier 1, in the form of Exeter or Wasps and Begles-Bordeaux or Lyon

We’ll find out what to expect for each Welsh region in about ten minutes

There is a later start to Europe than usual this season, with everything put back in place due to the impact of Covid-19

Everything will end next May, the final of the two competitions taking place in Marseille

Let’s move on to the Challenge Cup, which will start with 14 clubs, six from the French TOP 14, four from the English Premiership and four from the PRO14 – all in one pool

Like the Champions Cup, it will be played over eight weekends with four rounds of matches in the preliminary stages and, once again, clubs in the same league will not play against each other

Without any obligation to draw lots for this occasion, the Challenge Cup matches will be announced in the coming weeks

Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys will therefore have to wait a little longer to find out who they are playing

The eight best clubs in the single pool, as well as the eight teams in the Champions Cup, will advance to the round of 16, follow the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final next May in Marseille

It’s when you look at the Heineken Champions Cup format that things get really complicated

The simplest solution would have been to have six pools of four, with six rounds of home and away group matches, as was the case when it previously had 24 teams

But that would not have reduced the total number of European weekends from nine to eight

It will see the teams split into two pools of 12 by means of today’s draw, with four rounds of group matches instead of the usual six

Clubs will be separated into tiers and sides of the same league in the same tier will not be drawn in the same pool

Clubs ranked number 1 and number 2 in each league will be at level 1, numbers 3 and 4 will be at level 2, numbers 5 and 6 will be at level 3 and number 7 and 8 will be level 4

Tier 1 and Tier 4 clubs that have been drawn in the same pool, but are not from the same league, will play against each other at home and away during the pool, as well as level 2 and 3 clubs which were drawn in the same pool, but which are not from the same league

So essentially the Scarlets (Tier 3) and Dragons (Tier 4) will both play an English side and a French side – Tier 2 and 1 respectively – at home and away. We will find out which ones today

The top four ranked clubs from each pool will then advance to the two-legged quarter-finals, and the clubs ranked 5-8 in each pool will advance to the knockout stage of the Challenge Cup

They actually racked up fewer championship points (24) in the Guinness PRO14 last season than Benetton (36) and Cardiff (33), who end up in the Challenge Cup

But Dean Ryan’s side qualified for the Champions Cup as the fourth eligible team in Conference A, with the Cheetahs unable to take a spot

Qualifying was actually based on the teams ‘position after Round 13 of PRO14, rather than their final position, but the same principle applied in terms of the Dragons’ conference position proved to be decisive

The European Rugby Cup has a new format this season, with the changes introduced as a one-off event due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The French TOP 14 having been abandoned last season and the Guinness PRO14 reduced, it was decided to increase the number of Heineken Champions Cup teams from 20 to 24, in order to give a chance to more teams in the elite event

There will therefore be eight teams from each championship: the Gallagher Premiership of England, the TOP14 and PRO14

The Scarlets and Dragons are Wales’ representatives in the high-level tournament, while Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys will compete in a 14-team Challenge Cup

Another major change is that Europe will run over eight weeks this season, instead of the usual nine, due to match congestion caused by rugby’s five-month hiatus

There will be four rounds of group matches, starting in mid-December, followed by four weekends of knockout matches

European Rugby Champions Cup, Rugby Union, Leinster Rugby, Connacht Rugby, PRO14, Munster Rugby, Exeter Chiefs, Racing 92