Wednesday was the draw for the 2015-16 European Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup, the two pan-European rugby competitions, drawing clubs from England, France, Ireland, Wales and Italy.
There was a Canadian twist to both draws, as clubs featuring Canadian players were drawn against each other.
Pool 2 features Jamie Cudmore’s Clermont and Jeff Hassler and Tyler Ardron’s Ospreys. All three are key players for their respective clubs, the matchup will be one to watch.
Similarly, pool 3 features DTH van der Merwe’s old club Glasgow (Connor Braid also played there this past season) and his new club, Welsh region Scarlets.
In the Challenge Cup, Phil Mackenzie’s Sale Sharks is up against Cam Pierce’s Pau in pool 2, while Jebb Sinclair’s London Irish is up against Taylor Paris and Jason Marshall’s Agen.
Hey, Jebb’s excited, and so should you.
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Side note: Russian semi-pro outfit Enisei-STM, based in Krasnoyarsk, is in this year’s Challenge Cup draw. They’re in pool 1 with Connacht, Brive and Newcastle Falcons. It’s 7000 km from the UK to Krasnoyarsk, which is in deepest, darkest Siberia. For comparison: it’s 7,500 km from Heathrow to Vancouver. It makes you wonder if Canadian rugby officials might get ambitious and try to enter one of the Canadian Rugby Championship sides into the event in future seasons.
