Latest news with #EPCR
South Wales Argus
15-07-2025
- Sport
- South Wales Argus
Dragons RFC European fixtures for 2025/26 campaign announced
Tournament organisers EPCR have confirmed the dates for the pool stages of the EPCR Challenge Cup. The Dragons are set to face French Top 14 heavyweights Lyon and the Newcastle Falcons from the English Premiership at Rodney Parade. The Men of Gwent, playing in Pool 2, kick off their campaign against Perpignan at Stade Aimé Giral on Sunday, December 7, with a 2pm local time start. The following weekend will see Filo Tiatia's squad welcome last season's runners-up, Lyon, to Rodney Parade for a 3.15pm kick-off on Sunday, December 14. Round 3 will have the Dragons on the road again, this time facing United Rugby Championship rivals Benetton Rugby at Stadio Comunale di Monigo on Saturday, January 10, with a 6.30pm start in local time. The group stages will conclude with a home fixture against Newcastle Falcons on Friday, January 16, under the Rodney Parade lights, with an 8pm kick-off. The EPCR fixtures for the 2025/26 season are as follows: Round 1: Sunday, December 7: USAP vs Dragons RFC, Stade Aimé Giral, 2pm local time. Round 2: Sunday, December 14: Dragons RFC vs Lyon Olympique. Rodney Parade, 3.15pm. Round 3: Saturday, January 10: Benetton Rugby vs Dragons RFC, Stadio Comunale di Monigo, 6.30pm local time. Round 4: Friday, January 16: Dragons RFC vs Newcastle Falcons, Rodney Parade, 8pm. In other news, Dragons RFC's Rodrigo Martinez has been selected for the Argentina XV squad for the upcoming international against Romania. The loosehead, after training with the squad, is now part of the selection process for the second fixture. The game will be on Friday, July 18, at Club Atlético San Isidro in Buenos Aires. Argentina, having beaten Brazil 45-17 earlier this month, aim to secure a double in the July international window. Team news will be announced later this week.
The Citizen
02-07-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
‘Small margins': Rassie weighs in on SA teams finding their feet in Euro tournaments
The Springbok coach sympathised with franchise coaches due to their difficult schedule, but said it produced battle-hardened players. Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was reluctant to criticise South African franchises and coaches for their struggles in European domestic rugby tournaments. Instead, he sympathised with the difficult schedule they faced and looked at the positives – how adversity and experience in different playing conditions breed a Test-level player. Erasmus was speaking ahead of the Springboks' first of two Tests against Italy at Loftus this Saturday, and on the back of a frustrating, if not awful, domestic season for South Africa's four big franchises. SA teams meet mixed success in URC The Bulls were the most consistent and successful South African franchise in 2024/25, reaching the final of the United Rugby Championship after finishing second on the table with 14 wins. While underperforming in the final against Leinster, they had a good campaign in the build-up, dominating all opposition in the forward pack battle and making history on a memorable tour in Europe. It was their third defeat in a URC final. Their EPCR campaign wasn't great, crashing out of the Champions Cup group stage and only reaching the quarter-finals of the lower-tier Challenge Cup, but it was better than the other SA franchises. The Sharks had their best URC to date, winning the SA shield for the first time and likewise reaching the semi-finals for the first time. But their EPCR campaign was poor. They also fell out of the Champions Cup group stage and lost their Challenge Cup last-16 match badly, though they were the defending champions. The Stormers recovered from a sub-par start to finish fifth on the URC log. However, they had a poor quarter-final against Glasgow Warriors and crashed out there. It was disappointing after winning the inaugural URC title and finishing runners-up in 2023. They had such a poor Champions Cup group stage that they didn't even qualify for the Challenge Cup. The Lions finished 11th on the URC table and, for the fourth time, didn't even reach the play-offs. They fell out of the Challenge Cup at the round of 16, a feat still better than the Cheetahs. Erasmus would love to see an SA team win the URC Erasmus said it would be a great feat for a South African franchise to win either the URC or Champions Cup, but it would be difficult. 'I think the Champions Cup at this stage, not that I want to talk [speak] for our coaches in the franchises, it's a bit of a stretch for us now to compete really well in both competitions just because of the way the season works,' he said. 'We are playing Test match rugby in the southern hemisphere and we are playing franchise rugby in the northern hemisphere. It's a very long season so it is tough. I think they will get used to that. He said looking at the success and near-success of the Stormers and Bulls in the URC, South African teams were getting there. Plus, the fact that the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers all reached the play-offs. 'It's small margins. It's sad that we don't win it, but we don't know exactly what the coaches are coaching there, and we don't tell them what to do, where players must play. So it's tough for us to judge the player there. 'And we don't go through what the franchise coach must go through, one week against [a French team], next week he is flying to Italy… But for us, it definitely grows the Test match level kind of player that gets used to Scottish, Irish, Italian players.'
Irish Times
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Champions Cup draw live updates: Leinster and Munster await their fate
-1 minutes ago Hello and welcome to live coverage of the EPCR pool draws for the 2025 Investec Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup , which will take place at the Premier Sports studios in Dublin at 1.30pm. Leinster and Munster are among the 24 teams that have qualified for the Champions Cup, while Ulster and Connacht have qualified for the Challenge Cup. For the Champions Cup, each pool of six will contain two clubs from each of the leagues, where Leinster and Munster will be kept apart. There will be no matches between clubs from the same league. Leinster are in Tier 1 for the draw thanks to winning the United Rugby Championship, which means they also cannot play Union Bordeaux Bègles (2025 Investec Champions Cup winners), Bath Rugby (2025 Gallagher Premiership winners) and Toulouse (Top 14 winners). Munster will be in Tier 2 with the rest of the teams. The Challenge Cup draw will have 18 clubs, with pools of six also, with Connacht and Ulster kept apart. There is no tier system involved for that draw, it is an open draw other than stipulations about teams from the same country and league meeting.
Irish Times
13-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Gerry Thornley: URC win in Dublin would end Leinster's frustrating season on a high
Akin to the Champions Cup , the URC may have been landed with a final that the competition badly needed and helped to give its competition some sustenance, particularly in Ireland. On foot of having more reboots than the most dilapidated laptop, one of the URC's biggest challenges has been in both maintaining and developing supporter interest across 16 competing teams in five different countries. It hasn't been an easy sell. Ironically, although they are the newest additions, the South African franchises and their public appear to have a bigger buy-in than their northern hemisphere counterparts, including the Irish provinces, where the URC is a poor relation to the adored and much coveted Champions Cup which is now entering its fourth decade. The URC also has nothing like the history or tradition of the Premiership in England, much less the French Championship, nor the advantages and simplicity of a competition being held within the boundaries of one country. READ MORE Not the least of these advantages is being able to set a date in stone for a final a year or more in advance, something the EPCR can also do. Given the risk of having an all-Celtic final in South Africa or an all-South African final in, say, Dublin, at a week's notice that is not an option for the URC. Next season, the URC will have a two-week gap between the semi-final and final, which is the best case scenario and will at least allow double the time to sell tickets for the competition's blue riband day. True, both Munster and Glasgow defied the long-haul travel at short notice to win the last two Grand Finals in Cape Town and Pretoria. But as well as being the first final in Croke Park, it's the first outside South Africa in the four years since the competition was expanded to include their four franchises. Considering tickets have only been on sale for six days, for more than 42,000 to have been sold by Friday is actually quite an achievement. The organisers are hoping to beat the previous Irish best of 46,092 for the Leinster -Scarlets Grand Final of 2018, when they had nine months to sell those tickets. It's just a pity that this attendance might seem a little more lost, and leave many more empty spaces, in the iconic home of the GAA. It's remarkable to think that Leinster's 2020 and 2021 Pro14 finals were won behind closed doors, while the 2019 title was claimed in Glasgow. Hence the aforementioned 2018 win over Scarlets is the last time Leinster lifted a trophy in front of their own fans. That's extraordinary really, and perhaps Leinster's first URC final in four attempts and that long gap since last lifting a trophy in front of their own living, breathing, cheering supporters has helped to galvanise interest for this seasonal finale. There was a distinct impression that the much-reduced attendances for Leinster's last four games since the Northampton defeat were a reflection of their fans' disgruntlement with that semi-final. But perhaps the magnitude of this Grand Final has hit home, as well as the realisation that this would be hugely meaningful silverware on several levels. In addition to being high achieving organisations with well stacked trophy cabinets, Leinster and the Stormers have each endured a relatively barren spell which should have them feeling voracious for an overdue piece of silverware. These finalists are giants with an appetite. Since the last of their eight Celtic/Magners League/Pro12/14 titles in 2021, Leinster have endured three semi-final defeats on foot of the South African franchises joining the URC, as well as three defeats in Champions Cup finals and, of course, that crushing semi-final loss to Northampton. Likewise, the Bulls are seeking to avoid a fourth trophyless year in a row. Since the last of their 25 Currie Cup triumphs in 2021, the Pretoria-based side lost the 2022 and 2024 URC finals away to the Stormers and at home to Glasgow either side of a quarter-final loss to the Stormers. It tells us much that the Bulls have played knock-out matches in near 50,000-full houses in Loftus Versfeld and that their much-decorated head coach Jake White unhesitatingly put the possibility of the Bulls winning a first URC title alongside their three Super Rugby triumphs in 2007, '09 and '10. The URC bar is rising. In years to come, the benefits of the South Africans coming aboard will be felt in Irish rugby. Ominously, three of the South African quartet finished in the top five. Of the other Irish sides, Munster barely made the top eight and neither Connacht nor Ulster did so. Winning this final would be end Leinster's wait for silverware and ensure less collateral damage moving into next season. But let's park that fifth star for a weekend. Were Leinster to win their ninth title in this competition's many iterations, but their first URC triumph per se, it would be the best of them all. By some distance.
The Citizen
10-06-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
John Plumtree reflects on tough, but improved season for Sharks
Despite enjoying their best season in the URC to date, there is still a sense the Sharks underperformed, with the talent at their disposal. Sharks coach John Plumtree has presided over an improved, but still unsatisfactory season with the union. Picture: Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images The Sharks' season came to an abrupt end over the weekend when they were dumped out of the United Rugby Championship (URC) at the semifinal stage by fierce rivals, the Bulls, at Loftus. It ended a much improved second season at the helm for coach John Plumtree, but many critics were still unhappy due to the Springbok firepower that the union have at their disposal. In the semifinal played at Loftus on Saturday evening the Sharks boasted a team featuring Rugby World Cup winners Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Siya Kolisi, Jaden Hendrikse, Andre Esterhuizen, Lukhanyo Am and Makazole Mapimpi. They also had Aphelele Fassi and Jordan Hendrikse in the starting XV, and Ntuthuko Mchunu and Phepsi Buthelezi on the bench, who have all played for the Boks in the past year. They were however missing their captain and Bok enforcer Eben Etzebeth, along with Trevor Nyakane and Grant Williams who would have added even more Bok firepower to their stocks. Despite the wealth of experience and talent at their fingertips, the Sharks still finished third on the log and dropped out in the semis. But it is still a major improvement after a disastrous previous campaign that saw them finish 14th on the URC log, although they picked up the Challenge Cup trophy to slightly salvage that season. Tough balance Plumtree explained that even though they have immense talent in the group, it was still tough to get the balance right over a long season, in which they missed players on international duty at stages and had to rest them as well. 'It has been a tough season. I learnt a lot in what was my second season of the URC. There were really tough periods of the season, especially after the November internationals when we had tired Boks coming back,' explained Plumtree. 'How we can compete in the tournament with players who have just played 14 internationals is a challenge. And then after Christmas, they go through their Springbok resting, and it's about navigating that period with the rest of the team. 'We also had 18, 19 injuries at one stage, which was a crisis. When you do finally get everyone back in, it's about where you're sitting on the log and how you can progress in two tournaments (the URC and EPCR). Looking ahead Plumtree highlighted the need to build depth at the union, with players who will be able to adequately fill in when their star Springboks are unavailable. 'The key for us is to make sure we have depth in our squad to be able to do well without Springbok players. We showed that this year but it is going to be a continuing challenge for us to keep strengthening the squad,' said Plumtree. 'I think we have done really well with the players we had and we have managed to pick up points. Coaching the Sharks is not for the fainthearted and it keeps me awake at night.'
