Ulster Rugby vs Leicester Tigers

EPCR WELCOME

Off the pitch, EPCR’s headquarters in Neuchatel, Switzerland is now operational while on the commercial front, EPCR’s tournaments have already established a solid foundation on which to build. The TV platform is providing even more exposure for the tournaments as well as increased revenues for the professional club game. All 10 Champions Cup games are now broadcast each weekend in the UK, France and Ireland by our partners, BT Sport, Sky Sports, beIN Sports and France Televisions, while Sky Italia are covering games in Italy. Our thanks to Heineken, a long-standing supporter of European club rugby, who are a founding partner of the new tournaments, and also to GILBERT, our official ball supplier, and to Canterbury who provide apparel for match officials. This season, as we celebrate 20 years of European club rugby, we hope fans from across Europe will engage with www.epcrugby.com digital platforms which include Google+ and YouTube as new tournament digital partners. Finally, I would like to wish this evening’s teams every success for these vital concluding pool fixtures and for the remainder of the season which will culminate in the London 2015 finals weekend at the beginning of May.

The pool stages of the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup are set to reach a tension- packed conclusion with prized quarter-final places in both tournaments on the line. On behalf of tournament organisers, EPCR, I am delighted to welcome you to this evening’s match and I would like to thank all clubs, coaches, players and supporters across Europe - for their support. The enhanced and streamlined formats of both tournaments look set to produce a battle for qualification which will be even more compelling and dramatic than what we have come to expect. Under the new 20 club format, the five pool winners and the three best runners-up will qualify for the knockout stages with the four highest-ranked pool toppers earning home quarter-finals. The revised Challenge Cup sees all eight quarter-finalists coming from within that tournament, giving the competing clubs an even greater incentive going into the final Pool rounds. In parallel to this weekend’s top-tier action an expanded Qualifying Competition for next season’s Challenge Cup is also under way providing opportunities for emerging clubs from Russia, Spain and Portugal, and a pathway for more established clubs from the Italian Eccellenza.

Jacques Pineau // EPCR Director General