The draw, which will be followed by the pool draw for the 2013/14 Heineken Cup, will be conducted by ERC Chairman, Jean-Pierre Lux, and ERC Chief Executive, Derek McGrath and will be streamed live on www.ercrugby.com.
Key principles
For the purpose of the draw, the 20 clubs are ranked based on their ERC European rankings and are divided into four tiers. Rankings are based on European performance over the past four seasons in the Heineken Cup and knockout stages of the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Each pool will have one club from each of the four tier levels.
No two clubs from the same country will be drawn in the same pool except for France, which has seven representatives, and England, which has six.
Draw format
The draw will have four stages starting with the allocation of five clubs from Tier 1 and then moving to the next tier.
During each tier allocation a club will be drawn and then a pool number for that team will be drawn from the available pool options.
Allocation of Tiers 2, 3 and 4 – for each tier allocation the clubs will be drawn starting with the clubs from the country with the highest representation in the tournament.
Therefore the order of allocation in each tier will be clubs from France, England, Italy and Wales. However, to avoid having two clubs from the same country in the same pool, some clubs may be allocated to available pool spots automatically during the course of the draw.
The invited clubs from Romania and Spain are in the bottom tier and will be drawn last.
2013/14 Amlin Challenge Cup clubs and tiers
Tier 1
Biarritz Olympique PB
Stade Français Paris
London Wasps
Bath Rugby
Brive
Tier 2
London Irish
Sale Sharks
Newport Gwent Dragons
England (TBC)
Rugby Viadana
Tier 3
Bayonne
I Cavalieri Prato
Worcester Warriors
Bordeaux-Bègles
Cammi Rugby Calvisano
Tier 4
Grenoble
Mogliano Rugby
Oyonnax
Bucharest Wolves
Spanish representative
