European Comps

From the EPCR websites:

'Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup are set for a major viewership boost with the announcement that BT Sport, as well as ITV, RTÉ and S4C, have all agreed multi-year partnerships for the new broadcast cycle in the UK and Ireland.

BT Sport to continue as lead broadcaster in UK and Ireland
EPCR and BT Sport extend long-standing partnership, with BT Sport set to broadcast eighth season of both competitions
ITV, RTÉ and S4C to generate new viewers with extensive free-to-air coverage
BT Sport, who have delivered comprehensive and innovative coverage of the elite club competitions since 2015, have recommitted to the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup to extend their long-standing partnership with EPCR. As lead broadcaster in the UK and Ireland, BT Sport will continue to televise both tournaments until the conclusion of the 2023/24 season.

In addition, ITV, RTÉ and S4C have come on board in the UK and Ireland to provide free-to-air coverage and the new agreements will expand access for rugby fans across two key markets to the Heineken Champions Cup – the world’s biggest and most celebrated international club rugby competition – which is entering its 28th year.

The agreements with ITV and RTÉ, which will see each broadcaster cover one Heineken Champions Cup match per round in the UK and Ireland – including the Final – on a free-to-air basis, also run until the end of the 2023/24 season.

S4C will focus on the Welsh regions with live coverage of all Ospreys’ pool stage fixtures in the Heineken Champions Cup as well as one match featuring either Cardiff Rugby, Dragons RFC or the Scarlets in each pool stage round of the EPCR Challenge Cup also until the conclusion of the 2023/24 season.

“Broadcast partnerships are a massively important part of our strategy to bring our world-class competitions to even wider audiences, and we are very pleased with our partners in the UK and Ireland for the new cycle,” said EPCR Chairman, Dominic McKay.

“Following on from what was a magnificent Finals weekend in Marseille last May, we are delighted to continue to work with BT Sport, who have delivered incredible coverage of, and audience growth for, our competitions. It is also significant that we welcome three free-to-air partners on board in ITV, RTÉ and S4C, who will boost our viewership and profile as South African clubs come into the EPCR fold.

“BT Sport, ITV, RTÉ and S4C represent four more exciting broadcast partnerships in the key markets of the UK and Ireland, and with beIN SPORTS and France Télévisions in France, SuperSport in South Africa and FloSports in the USA, we are looking forward to bringing the pinnacle of international club rugby to more audiences than ever before.”

This update follows previous announcements of broadcast partnership renewals by both beIN SPORTS and France Télévisions in France, as well as confirmation of SuperSport as the exclusive broadcaster of EPCR’s tournaments in South Africa, with the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup set to extend their global reach with the historic inclusion of the DHL Stormers, Vodacom Bulls, Cell C Sharks, Emirates Lions and Toyota Cheetahs from this season.

EPCR has also agreed a multi-year agreement with the streaming platform FloSports, the home of rugby in the USA, as the exclusive broadcaster of the tournaments to American rugby fans until the conclusion of the 2024/25 season.

The deal is part of a ground-breaking alliance which will see the Heineken Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup bundled with key fixtures in the BKT United Rugby Championship and the TOP 14, ensuring viewers in America will have unprecedented access to all four competitions on one digital platform.

Rachel Knight, Sports Rights Director, BT Sport, said: “Today’s news means BT Sport remains the home of club rugby in the UK and Ireland, offering unrivalled coverage from the Heineken Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup, plus multiple live matches every week from Gallagher Premiership Rugby.”

Last month, BT Group and Warner Bros. Discovery completed their transaction to form a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) that combines the assets of BT Sport and Eurosport UK. As the JV works to develop a new sports offering for the UK and Ireland, BT Sport and Eurosport UK will retain their separate product propositions and customers can continue to enjoy the sport offerings in all the same ways as they do currently.

Niall Sloane, ITV Director of Sport, said: “This new deal brings rugby fans live, free-to-air coverage of some of the biggest matches in club rugby, featuring the stars of the game and adds Heineken Champions Cup action to ITV’s range of top-class rugby alongside the domestic and international competitions we bring to viewers.”

Declan McBennett, RTÉ Group Head of Sport, said: “The Heineken Champions Cup is a tournament that is much loved and followed by fans throughout Ireland. We are delighted to partner with EPCR to bring this prestigious competition to audiences free-to-air and extend its reach to the widest possible audience in the Republic of Ireland.”

Geraint Evans, S4C Director of Content and Publishing Strategy, said: “The Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup are two of the finest competitions that club rugby has to offer and we are pleased to renew our successful broadcast partnership with EPCR. S4C viewers will be able to follow the progress of all four Welsh regions across both tournaments and we look forward to some top-quality matches.”

With more than 50,000 tickets already sold for EPCR’s 2023 finals, the journey to Dublin’s Aviva Stadium will get underway in early December, and the exact dates, kick-off times and TV coverage of the pool stage fixtures will be announced later this week.'

They would sell even more tickets if they gave us the dates.
3 months to the first weekend and still no firm dates - joke

Have they all gone to sleep in Switzerland ?

https://twitter.com/btsportrugby/status/1578324787344330752?t=fh8ZH4VPR1fQqmrtfZ1i8A&s=19

geoff999rugby wrote:They would sell even more tickets if they gave us the dates.
3 months to the first weekend and still no firm dates - joke

Have they all gone to sleep in Switzerland?

They probably ate too much cheese.

The EPCR have once again failed to promote tier 2 clubs. Instead of inviting Rugby Europe Super Cup sides (or any other tier 2 teams) to Pool B in the Challenge Cup, it has been reduced to 8x teams with no sides to fill in for the two missing English sides. Lets remember one of their original promises was the creation of a third tier to act as a qualifier for the challenge cup.

Instead through the years, we have had this disgraceful debacle https://www.theoffsideline.com/heidelbe ... lenge-cup/, which not only ensured the destruction of professional domestic rugby in Germany, but also the third tier comp as a whole (rugby Europe runs the super cup). How have we gone backwards from the time of having Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese clubs competing in the challenge cup, under the ERC to this? The EPCR have never, or will ever be fit for purpose, their takeover has been a disaster for tier 1 and 2 clubs.

With Tel Aviv Heat beating Saracens yesterday in an exhibition and Georgia beating Wales with a number of Black lion players in the squad, it really is a mystery as to why these franchises are not allowed into the challenge cup.

I can't find the highlights show on terrestrial tv yet and I've searched all week .

Can someone help me lol as I really liked watching highlights of Europe on 4, Ed Jackson is a great host.


Btw Viaplay (originally Premier Sports) have variety of matches this weekend.

If it helps on their website they have ITV as a broadcast partner.

Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose (capt), Charlie Ngatai, James Lowe; Ross Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Michael Ala’alatoa, James Ryan, Jason Jenkins, Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris

Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Ed Byrne, Cian Healy, Ross Molony, Jack Conan, Luke McGrath, Harry Byrne, Jamie Osborne

Henshaw, Sexton, Furlong omitted.
Healy shouldn't be on the bench, that was a clear red card last weekend.

Pool A Games
Date Home Score / Time Away Venue TV
Sat, Dec 10th Sharks vs Harlequins Hollywoodbets Kings Park BT Sport
Sat, Dec 10th Racing 92 vs Leinster Stade Océane BT Sport
Sat, Dec 10th Gloucester vs Union Bordeaux-Begles Kingsholm Stadium BT Sport
Sat, Dec 10th Bulls vs Lyon Loftus Versfeld BT Sport
Sat, Dec 10th Castres vs Exeter Chiefs Stade Pierre Fabre BT Sport
Sun, Dec 11th Saracens vs Edinburgh StoneX Stadium ITV/BT Sport

Pool B Games

Date Home Score / Time Away Venue TV
Fri, Dec 9th London Irish vs Montpellier Gtech Community Stadium BT Sport
Sat, Dec 10th Clermont Auvergne vs Stormers Stade Marcel-Michelin Virgin Media/C4/BT Sport
Sat, Dec 10th La Rochelle vs Northampton Stade Marcel Deflandre BT Sport
Sun, Dec 11th Sale Sharks vs Ulster AJ Bell Stadium BT Sport
Sun, Dec 11th Munster vs Toulouse Thomond Park RTÉ/BT Sport
Sun, Dec 11th Ospreys vs Leicester Tigers Swansea Stadium BT Sport

Bayonne have made 14 changes from their last match for the game against us, we really should be targeting a win.

A lot of twin fixtures having the same kick off time.
12 games over the weekend. Genuinely interested in how the SA sides do. They settled fairly quickly into the URC last season but this is a step up in competition and the early rounds are the times to pick off a win against them.

Sale Sharks: Carpenter; Reed, James, Tuilagi, O'Flaherty; R Du Preez (capt), Warr; Rodd, van der Merwe, Schonert; Wiese, Hill; L Du Preez, Curry, D Du Preez.

Replacements: Taylor, McIntyre, Jones, Beaumont, Ross, Simpson, Curtis, McGuigan.

Ulster: Lowry; McIlroy Hume, McCloskey Stockdale; Burns, Doak; Warwick, Herring, O'Toole; O'Connor (capt), Treadwell; Matty Rea, Timoney, Vermeulen.

Replacements: Stewart, O'Sullivan, Moore, Carter, Marcus Rea, Shanahan, Moore, Moxham.

For the love of god, how does Moxham make the 23.

STARTING XV
15 Anthony Watson [6]
14 Harry Potter [49]
13 Guy Porter [49]
12 Dan Kelly [44]
11 Hosea Saumaki [17]
10 Charlie Atkinson [4]
9 Jack van Poortvliet (vc) [54]
1 James Whitcombe [29]
2 Charlie Clare [61]
3 Joe Heyes [108]
4 Harry Wells [164]
5 Ollie Chessum [36]
6 George Martin [47]
7 Hanro Liebenberg (c) [68]
8 Olly Cracknell [8]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Gabriel Oghre *
17 Nephi Leatigaga [72]
18 Will Hurd [14]
19 Eli Snyman [26]
20 Sean Jansen [9]
21 Richard Wigglesworth [41]
22 Jimmy Gopperth [6]
23 Matt Scott [53]

15. Max Nagy
14. Alex Cuthbert
13. George North
12. Joe Hawkins
11. Keelan Giles
10. Jack Walsh
9. Rhys Webb

1. Nicky Smith
2. Scott Baldwin
3. Tom Francis
4. Adam Beard
5. Alun Wyn Jones
6. Jac Morgan
7. Justin Tipuric (c)
8. Morgan Morris

Replacements:
16. Sam Parry
17. Gareth Thomas
18. Tom Botha
19. Huw Sutton
20. Rhys Davies
21. Reuben Morgan Williams
22. Owen Williams
23. Michael Collins

Looks like Ospreys are going strong and Tigers are rotating. Having Dan Kelly back at 12 is still a huge boost for Tigers though. I do worry about Tigers lack of a jackler when up against that Ospreys backrow though, slightly disappointed that Ilione hasn't got a go. JVP and Atkinson form a new and exciting young halfback combination. Well actually the 9/10/12 combination are all 22 or under.

Interesting match ups at 12. Looking forward to Whitcombe against Francis too.

Maine man wrote:Sale Sharks: Carpenter; Reed, James, Tuilagi, O'Flaherty; R Du Preez (capt), Warr; Rodd, van der Merwe, Schonert; Wiese, Hill; L Du Preez, Curry, D Du Preez.

Replacements: Taylor, McIntyre, Jones, Beaumont, Ross, Simpson, Curtis, McGuigan.

Ulster: Lowry; McIlroy Hume, McCloskey Stockdale; Burns, Doak; Warwick, Herring, O'Toole; O'Connor (capt), Treadwell; Matty Rea, Timoney, Vermeulen.

Replacements: Stewart, O'Sullivan, Moore, Carter, Marcus Rea, Shanahan, Moore, Moxham.

For the love of god, how does Moxham make the 23.

Moxham has no redeeming features that I've seen. If I were to attempt to create one it'd be that he's better in defence than he is in attack. It doesn't say much though.
I hope they've mixed up the Reas, I'd rather 80 mins of Marcus.
Doak needs to up his game this week and Burns just needs to not be limping around the field.
We're threadbare in too many crucial positions but hey, it's Euro Rugby weekend so lets think positive thoughts, at lease Sexton isn't in the 23.

Vodacom Sharks have a good team, but they looked incredibly poor in their last few matches. Quins could turn them over. Also looking forward to Ospreys vs Tigers, for the contest up front although Ospreys look gash again.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Interesting match ups at 12. Looking forward to Whitcombe against Francis too.

Good point the battle of the 12s could be a good watch, a match up that could be replicated on the international stage in years to come.

The Ospreys must be expecting their international and experienced tighthead to go after 22 year old Whitcombe. The young lad is pretty good but is still learning, not a guarantee he'll have the normal Tigers scrum dominance. Hopefully he'll cause an upset though not too much, don't want the WRU trying to tempt him into changing allegiance.

Got a Welsh granny has he?

mikey_dragon wrote:Got a Welsh granny has he?

His great grandad was a Welsh Rugby League International. His grandad played Rugby League. His dad also played for Tigers and played Union though represented England at age level. Don't know how Welsh the family is post his great granddad but could be.

LI beating Montpellier 17-6 but down to 14 for the rest of the match as Creevy sees red

Another try despite the red makes it 22-6 ... still the rest of the 1st half and whole of the 2nd half to go with 14 men though ...

formerly known as Sam wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Got a Welsh granny has he?

His great grandad was a Welsh Rugby League International. His grandad played Rugby League. His dad also played for Tigers and played Union though represented England at age level. Don't know how Welsh the family is post his great granddad but could be.

Some say he's always wanted to follow Frank and represent Wales.

Then Irish give a try away after thinking time is up and kick the ball out to give Montpellier an attacking line-out from which they score ... don't need to give them easy points when the ref is already on their side

Oakdene wrote:Bayonne have made 14 changes from their last match for the game against us, we really should be targeting a win.

Are Scarlets and Cardiff on telly this weekend?

Not on BT Sport

Some of the games are in S4C and ITV aren't they?

Well Cardiff are on S4C, I just checked. Not really interested in watching Scraplets. Sarries are on ITV but also on the other sports channels.

I think LI are doing well. What sort of team do Montpellier have out? You can never tell with the French and their squads of 50 top players.

It's a strong Montpellier team - Irish unfortunately are trying to help them out with the red card and a gifted 7 points with a timing blunder at the end of the first half - not sure what the stadium clock was showing but White kicked out thinking time was up when there were 2 seconds left apparently - very frustrating ...

Officials not helping much either

And now Monpellier take the lead - so the officials will be happy

Just looking again at the Montpellier try just before half-time and it was clearly lost forwards in the tackle - TMO and ref clueless or worse ...

So it turn out that try was the difference - without that Irish win despite the red card. Another match lost to a useless TMO/ref combo ... seems all swings and no roundabouts for Irish

Heaf wrote:So it turn out that try was the difference - without that Irish win despite the red card.  Another match lost to a useless TMO/ref combo ... seems all swings and no roundabouts for Irish

Nah, we lost because Creevy did something stupid (again) and we screwed up our game management at the end of the first half. Classic LI this season.

Their try wasn't as straight forward as you're making it. Was allowed because of Rogerson's involvement, that the ref interpreted as him having ripped the ball briefly before they regained it to score. Can see the argument and it was a 50:50 one for me. If the ref and TMO really had it in for us they would have brought our last try back for a clear as day neck roll that we got away with just before Loader's break..

Oh for sure without Creevy's red or an extra phase before kicking the ball out before half time (or indeed multiple missed kicks to touch) - we would probably have won easily, so it was there for the taking - but I can't see that as a rip by any stretch, for me the Montpellier player lost the ball in the tackle into Rogerson's body before he even looked like getting his hand on it, so it was a clear knock-on.

Ref in the Sharks v Quins match is letting Sharks get away with offside, falling on the wrong side, blocking and not 10 ...

Epic game in Jo-burg. Finishes 31 all. The win was there for the taking but we couldn’t quite make it.

Sharks are a different team when Etzebeth is there.

Racing are getting destroyed by Leinster.

Ref doing a job on Quins ... now giving knock-ons for off the knee

He tried to give a knock-on against them earlier too when they hadn't touched it but was overruled by the TMO

Meanwhile Sharks continue to lay around on the wrong side after every tackle

mikey_dragon wrote:Sharks are a different team when Etzebeth is there.

I think every team would be just a bit different with Etzebeth out there.
I'm tired after watching Sharks-Quins.

Heaf wrote:Ref doing a job on Quins ...  now giving knock-ons for off the knee

I don't think he was "doing a job" he just wasn't very good. He did give a red and yellow against the Sharks in the second half to give Quins the chance to come back into it. Wasn't his fault they couldn't grab the win at the death.

Yes he did seem to flip with about 20 mins to go and start giving Quins more - still poor overall though

Not sure how Bordeaux aren't getting pinged for standing up under pressure in the scrums ...

I'm still not clear when the TMO can come in - I thought it was for foul play or when asked by the ref? Ben Whitehouse seems keen to get involved uninvited for other Glaws infringements whilst remaining mute for Bordeaux transgressions?

Have to say it’s been a pretty good SA tour for Dragons, but we definitely should’ve beaten Lions at least once. Home games are the ones anyway and then hopefully turn over a disinterested French side away again.

Not a bad little mini documentary released by the Dragons, to build up last week too. If you like access all areas kind of stuff and can spare half hour, I would recommend it. I have so much time for Dai Flanagan.

https://youtu.be/X4n0bpYHe2c-