Warriors to battle Brive for quarter-final place
Warriors head to France in quest for quarter-finals
Warriors have a big weekend of European Challenge Cup action ahead, as they chase a place in the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since 2009.
On Saturday, Carl Hogg’s side face French Top 14 outfit Brive, knowing a win will guarantee them a place in the knockout stages (kick-off 3.30pm CET, 2.30pm GMT).
As things stand, Warriors do qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition but it all hinges on this weekend’s action.
Newcastle Falcons, Cardiff Blues, Edinburgh Rugby and Connacht Rugby have all qualified for the quarter-finals as winners of their respective pools, while Pau and Gloucester Rugby have also qualified due to the amount of points they’ve already picked up – although the top of their Pool 3 is still to be decided.
Warriors must now finish on more points than two other second-placed teams in other pools if they are to progress to the next stage of the competition.
That means finishing on more points than two of the sides that finish in second place from Pools 1, 2 and 4.
The teams that can still qualify in second place are: Bordeaux-Begles (16 points) and Dragons (11) who come up against each other in the final game of Pool 1, Sale Sharks (11) and Lyon (ten) of Pool 2, and also Stade Francais (13) and London Irish (11) of Pool 4.
Brive (12 points) themselves are still in the hunt for the quarter-finals but must beat Warriors and hope other results go their way.
There are a lot of possible outcomes from the weekend’s games but you can keep you up-to-date following us throughout the weekend on Twitter (click here to follow us).
European Challenge Cup Pools and Round 6 Fixtures (all games Saturday 20 January unless stated and times in GMT):
POOL 1
Enisei-STM vs Newcastle Falcons (10am)
Dragons vs Bordeaux-Begles (3pm)
POOL 2
Lyon vs Cardiff Blues (5pm)
Toulouse vs Sale Sharks (5pm)
POOL 3
Gloucester Rugby vs Pau (Friday 19 January, 7.45pm)
Zebre vs Agen (2pm)
POOL 4
Krasny Yar vs London Irish (1pm)
Stade Francais vs Edinburgh Rugby (8pm)
POOL 5
Brive vs Warriors (2.30pm)
Connacht Rugby vs Oyonnax (2.30pm)
Should it come down to it, the teams to progress from second-place will be decided on the following order:
a) The pool winner will be the club with the highest number of match points in each pool. The best-placed runners-up will be the three clubs with the highest number of match points out of the five clubs that finish second in their respective pools. For the quarter-finals, the pool winners will be ranked 1 to 5 and the best-placed runners-up 6 to 8 by reference to the number of match points earned.
(b) If two clubs in the same pool are equal on match points at the end of the pool stage, their ranking will be determined by the results of the two matches played between the relevant clubs as follows:
(i) the club with the greater number of match points from those matches; or
(ii) if equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches: or
(iii) if equal, the club that scored the most tries in those matches.