Connacht land Wasps and Toulouse in Champions Cup

Connacht Rugby will renew acquaintances with Toulouse, the most successful European club of all time, in next season’s European Champions Cup following the draw in Switzerland on Wednesday afternoon.

Connacht were top seeds for the draw due to the fact they were the Pro12 champions, and Pat Lam’s side were also joined in Pool 2 by Wasps. Zebre were also drawn with Connacht for the third time, meaning there is every chance that two sides will qualify from the pool for the quarter-final stages.

“First and foremost we are proud to be in the competition and among the very best clubs in Europe,” Connacht head coach, Pat Lam, told EPC Rugby after the draw.

“This is a reward for what my players achieved last season. You want to play against the best and we’ve got two previous winners in our pool – Wasps, who were unlucky not to reach the final last season; and Toulouse, the most successful team in European Cup history,” he said.

This is the fourth time Connacht will compete in the Champions Cup, and it is the third time they have been paired with Toulouse, and with Zebre.

Connacht were joined as top seeds for this year’s draw by French Top14 champions, Racing 92; and English Premiership champions, Saracens. A draw was then held between the three league runners-up – Leinster (PRO12), Toulon (Top14) and Exeter Chiefs (Premiership) – to see which two sides would be promoted to top seeding, with the balls containing the names of Exeter and Leinster drawn from the hat.

The five top seeds were all allocated a pool, with Connacht the last name from the hat. Wasps was the second side drawn from the tier 2 teams and was placed in Pool 2. Northampton Saints were the first tier three side out of the hat and were drawn in Pool 4, and when Toulouse was the second name out of the tier three hat, they were automatically placed in Pool 2 as Pools 1, 3, and 5 already contained French sides. The final team to join Pool 2 was Zebre.

Toulouse finished 5th in the 2015/16 Top14, which earned them a quarter-final place against a Racing 92 side that has Ronan O’Gara as its kicking coach. Toulouse lost the quarter-final 21-16 to the side that went on to claim the Top14 title with a 29-21 win over Toulon last Friday.

They have won the European Cup four times (1996, 2003, 2005, and 2010), which is more than any other club; while they have also been beaten finalists on two occasions, losing to Wasps in 2004 and Munster in 2008.

For more, reads this week’s Galway City Tribune.