ShaneM wrote: Prob too much to ask for both French to be away and both English at home

Oddly enough that seems to be what Cardiff got. Racing and Toulouse away. Bath and Quins at home. They won't be complaining as they have the more beatable opponents at home.
Ulster the opposite, no trip to France at all. Exeter and Leicester likewise two trips to France and both URC games at home.
I would like to see the documentation for this algorithm
(I haven't actually done the maths so maybe it's not possible for everyone to have one home game from each league but seems weird)

EDIT: Maths done (kinda). You can arrange it so that everyone can have a home game from each other league but you can't get all the fixtures into four weekends so someone has to do a double trip to the same place. Looks like two teams from each pool.
This does beg the question: how did they decide which team is chosen for two trips to the same country? There is clearly more than one possible fixture list and given that some outcomes are more favourable than others for a given team, you'd imagine some kind of transparent draw would have been appropriate.
That said I am happy and to hell with everyone else but they are leaving themselves wide open to accusations of conspiracy and whatnot ...

Saracens travel to Loftus the week before we go to London so that won't hurt us.

Round 1
Fri Dec 8 8pm Connacht v Bordeaux

Round 2
Sat Dec 16 1pm Saracens v Connacht

Round 3
Sat Jan 13 1pm (Irish Time) Lyon v Connacht

Round 4
Fri Jan 19 8pm Connacht v Bristol

No Irish sides in the pool stages of the Challenge Cup, but interesting to see Cheetahs (based in Amsterdam for "home" games v European sides) and Black Lion from Tbilisi, Georgia invited into the 23/24 Challenge Cup.

Cheetahs will play Oyonnax, Pau, Zebre and Cell C Sharks in Pool 1.

Black Lion in Pool 3 playing Gloucester, Clermont, Scarlets and Castres.

ShaneM wrote: Prob too much to ask for both French to be away and both English at home

Bizarrely there is no specific rule to prevent it but I refer your question to EPCR Spokesbot Al G. O'Rhythm.
Assuming sanity prevails and it is one from each league at home I would prefer to travel to Saracens. That means we get Bristol at home (winnable) and they have to go to Loftus (heh heh).
Would like to go to Lyon alright. The Virgin Mary is kind of a big deal there though so if we're there on December 8th hotels will be hard to find. But I'm sure Al G will take that into account ...

Sarries at home and Lyon Away @Pinky???
Interesting group, we could cause some trouble for the other teams in this group. Happy enough with the draw.
Prob too much to ask for both French to be away and both English at home

Not far off my ideal draw. Would have preferred Bayonne to Bordeaux but the lack of seeding really worked in our favour.
All the teams in Leinster's pool finished in the top 4 in their league regular season, whereas only two of ours did ...

So Connacht will play Saracens, Bristol, Bordeaux and Lyon. The Bulls are the other URC side in the pool.

In retrospect maybe Toulouse winning was better as it least it rules out being drawn with both of them ...

rugby.connacht.pink/?p=143

This is my favourite part of the press release :

"Fixtures will be determined using an algorithm which will take into consideration the pool draws, league calendar restrictions, individual club calendar restrictions and broadcast requirements"

What in the hell does that even mean? In this case the fixture list is hugely important, as it will determine which teams you play at home and which away, and that will be done behind closed doors with no accountability or transparency. In my @r$€ there is an algorithm ...

Draw from 12:30pm Irish Time on Wednesday, Challenge Cup done first. On epcrugby.tv/

So other than the Top seeds (La Rochelle, Saracens, Munster and Toulouse/Leinster) it's a completely open draw. I must say I wasn't expecting that curveball even from EPCR.
So all our fretting about the seeding order was a moot point. Only winning the league would have gotten us anywhere.
So we could get Toulouse, La Rochelle, Saracens and Sale
Or equally La Rochelle, Bayonne, Bath and Bristol
Bit of a difference there.

So the immediate question is who do we want to win the Top 14 final on Saturday?
If Toulouse win, we will play one of Toulouse, La Rochelle or Saracens
If La Rochelle win, we will play either La Rochelle or Saracens

Of the three I would prefer La Rochelle as we play Toulouse too often and frankly I could do without Saracens in my life right now.
A La Rochelle win would mean we would have a higher chance of getting them, but also a higher chance of getting Saracens.
I think I'll go for a La Rochelle win as the better option. Even if we get Saracens, that increases our chances of getting one (or even two) of the more beatable French teams like Bayonne or Lyon.

The rule about not being in the same pool as the other Irish teams makes no sense to me since we can't play them anyway. It means Cardiff, etc., have a good chance of avoiding all the top seeds but we don't.

This will take time to digest ...

The Champions Cup will be competed for by 24 elite clubs with eight representatives from the TOP 14, eight from the Gallagher Premiership and eight from the BKT United Rugby Championship (URC). (See qualifiers below)

The clubs will be divided into four pools of six by means of a draw with Champions Cup winners, Stade Rochelais, League winners, Saracens and Munster Rugby, as well as the winners of Saturday’s TOP 14 final between Stade Rochelais and Stade Toulousain, making up Tier 1 with each club drawn into a separate pool at the outset.

If Stade Rochelais happen to win the TOP 14 title, then the Champions Cup final runners-up, Leinster Rugby, will be included in Tier 1.

The remaining 20 clubs make up Tier 2 and will be either drawn or allocated into the four pools by means of an ‘open’ draw with the following in-built key principles:

There can only be a maximum of two clubs from the same league in each pool.

Clubs from the same URC Shield cannot be in the same pool. Therefore, the Irish qualifiers – Munster Rugby, Leinster Rugby, Ulster Rugby and Connacht Rugby – will each be in a different pool, and similarly, the DHL Stormers and the Vodacom Bulls from South Africa will be kept apart during the draw.

There will be no matches between clubs from the same league, so for the purposes of creating the fixtures, each club will play four matches against four different clubs who are not from the same league either home or away during the pool stage.

At the conclusion of the pool stage, the four highest-ranked clubs from each pool will qualify for the Round of 16 and the clubs ranked number five in each of the pools will qualify for the knockout stage of the EPCR Challenge Cup.

The EPCR Challenge Cup will be competed for by 18 clubs with eight representatives from the URC, six from the TOP 14, two from the Premiership, plus two invited clubs which will be announced shortly. (See clubs below)

The clubs will be drawn or allocated into three pools of six with two TOP 14 clubs in each pool. Clubs from the same URC Shield and from the Premiership, as well as the two invitees, will be kept apart during the draw.

Clubs will play four different opponents home or away with same-league matches being kept to a minimum, and only impacting clubs from the URC. The four highest-ranked clubs from each of the pools will qualify for the knockout stage.

The pool draws for the 2023/24 tournaments will take place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday 21 June and will be broadcast live on EPCRugby.TV. Further details and timings will be communicated shortly.

2023/24 CHAMPIONS CUP QUALIFIERS
TOP 14 – Stade Rochelais, Stade Toulousain, Racing 92, Union Bordeaux-Bègles, Lyon, Stade Français Paris, RC Toulon, Aviron Bayonnais
GALLAGHER PREMIERSHIP – Saracens, Sale Sharks, Leicester Tigers, Northampton Saints, Harlequins, Exeter Chiefs, Bath Rugby, Bristol Bears
BKT UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP – Munster Rugby, DHL Stormers, Leinster Rugby, Ulster Rugby, Glasgow Warriors, Vodacom Bulls, Connacht Rugby, Cardiff Rugby

2023/24 EPCR CHALLENGE CUP QUALIFIERS
BKT UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP – Cell C Sharks, Emirates Lions, Benetton Rugby, Edinburgh Rugby, Ospreys, Scarlets, Dragons RFC, Zebre Parma
TOP 14 – Castres Olympique, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Montpellier Herault Rugby, Section Paloise, USAP, Oyonnax Rugby
GALLAGHER PREMIERSHIP – Gloucester Rugby, Newcastle Falcons
INVITED – Two clubs to be confirmed

2023/24 WEEKENDS
Round 1 – 8/9/10 December 2023
Round 2 – 15/16/17 December 2023
Round 3 – 12/13/14 January 2024
Round 4 – 19/20/21 January 2024
Round of 16 – 5/6/7 April 2024
Quarter-finals – 12/13/14 April 2024
Semi-finals – 3/4/5 May 2024
EPCR Challenge Cup final – Friday 24 May 2024, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Champions Cup final – Saturday 25 May 2024, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

I wonder does the radio silence from EPCR perhaps indicate that the new format indicated by PRL might not be a done deal? Barely even a leak or any random speculation for three weeks.
It was this day last year that they confirmed the format for this season so maybe we'll get it soon ...

Yes, I think that is the case. If it works the way I guess it will then the two teams from a given league in each pool will be from the opposite seeding, e.g. Connacht as 7th seed would be with Munster or Stormers and Ulster as 4th would be with Glasgow/Bulls. That would guarantee balance to the pools. So as you say a higher seeding doesn't give you easier games. So in that way it would be one of the fairer systems we've had.
There will be some anomalies e.g. one of Munster/Stormers would be in the same pool as Cardiff meaning all their Anglo-French rivals will have a theoretically handy enough game against the Welsh side while the URC team have a tougher fixture list, but that is a flaw of the qualification and seeding system as opposed to the format. It would be arguably worse under the other systems where some lucky teams get Cardiff twice.
(Of course Cardiff may have a great season and I for one fully expect them to beat Saracens and not pin this post to the wall when we meet them in the Quarter Final)

Interesting so playing the 4 English/French sides potentially suggests being a high seed will have little advantage if the likes of Munster have to play La Rochelle say / Saracens either home or away in the pool as Pot 4 sides.