The lesser of the two European competitions kicks off this week. It’s always a difficult one to get excited about. First it’s the teams from the bottom halves of the leagues but more importantly not all teams take it seriously. This means fans aren’t watching first choice sides and sometimes won’t recognise some of their own players never mind the opposition. Still it is an opportunity for your team to pit themselves against exotic overseas opposition and for some fun weekends away.
Here is my European Rugby Challenge Cup 2017-2018 Preview:
The pools for 2017-2018 are:
Pool 1
Bordeaux Begles
Dragons
Enisei-STM
Newcastle Falcons
Pool 2
Cardiff Blues
Lyon
Sale Sharks
Toulouse
Pool 3
Agen
Gloucester
Pau
Zebre
Pool 4
Edinburgh
Krasny Yar
London Irish
Stade Francais
Pool 5
Brive
Connacht
Oyonnax
Worcester Warriors
In brief here are the teams that I think will qualify for the quarter finals:
Bordeaux
Newcastle
Sale
Gloucester
Pau
Edinburgh
Connacht
Worcester
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