Halliday predicts heavyweight match-ups in Champions Cup pool draw
EPCR chairman, Simon Halliday
Simon Halliday, the recently-appointed chairman of EPCR, believes tomorrow’s pool draws for the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup in Neuchatel will be the strongest in the history of European club rugby.
“There is a new order in European rugby with teams like Glasgow Warriors winning a title, as well as Bath Rugby and Stade Francais Paris coming back to the fore, and it really is great to see more and more clubs across the continent looking to become more and more competitive in the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup,” said Halliday.
Click here for details of the 2015/16 Pool Draws
“Everyone is aiming higher and I don’t think we have ever seen a stronger group of clubs going into the draw for the Champions Cup than the 20 select sides tomorrow. It looks as though there could be more than just one Pool of Death when the draw is done in Neuchatel judging by way the teams have qualified. We are now talking about truly elite-level sport.”
The former Bath, Harlequins and England star, who played in the 1991 World Cup final and won five English Cups, a league title and a Grand Slam, was at the Kingspan Stadium to see Glasgow Warriors win the Guinness PRO12 title for the first time, and last weekend he was in Paris as Stade Francais secured a first Top 14 title since 2007.
“I’ve been doing a lot of listening in the first few weeks of my time as EPCR independent chairman. Many clubs have told me that they are now concentrating on getting themselves well positioned in their domestic leagues in order to do well in Europe,” said Halliday.
“Everyone was pleased with the way the PRO12 worked last season and the battle for qualification for the Champions Cup caused both the standards and the interest to pick up. This is going to be the norm in the future.
“Everyone and everything is in-situ in Neuchatel and we are now ready to move EPCR forwards. We want to get on the front foot as an organisation and we want to get things right. It’s now a question of improving on what has gone before. We are not looking to re-define the wheel because a lot of hard and good work has already been done.
“Good communication between the clubs, the leagues and EPCR is vital and we are already working hard on this aspect. We have good people in place and we have two great tournaments to promote.
“We had two excellent finals at the end of last season and it’ll be great to see two famous names from French rugby in Pau and Agen returning to the Challenge Cup, as well as Worcester Warriors from the Aviva Premiership. And, of course, we will have a Russian club, Enisei-STM, involved for the first time after they won through the qualifying competition.”
The Pool Draws for the 2015/16 Challenge Cup and Champions Cup take place tomorrow in Neuchatel, Switzerland with the draw for the Challenge Cup pools starting at 13.15 (UK and Irish time).
The draws will be streamed live on epcrugby.com and covered on btsport.com, Sky Sports News, and on beIN Sports in France.