Dragons RFC have been drawn to face Wasps Rugby and Section Paloise in Pool B of the EPCR Challenge Cup for the 2022/2023 season.
The Men of Gwent will face English Premiership side Wasps in pre-season (September 2) before facing them again in Europe.
Dragons last tackled Wasps in Europe in December 2020 when they lost out 24-8 in the Champions Cup at Rodney Parade - a game where preparations for the home side were badly disrupted by Covid.
The Rodney Parade club have also faced Section Paloise – known as Pau – twice before in European competition. Dragons secured a 22-0 win on home soil during the 2015/16 season before emerging 34-17 at Stade Municipal de Hameau a week later - on a day when fly half Jason Tovey finished with a 19-point haul.
Dean Ryan, Director of Dragons RFC, said: “We’ve learnt a lot from our European experiences in recent seasons and it’s always interesting to see who you get paired with in the pool stages.
“Wasps are a talented and powerful side who we know well from the Champions Cup fixture in 2020. We’ve already agreed a friendly fixture with them at Rodney Parade in September, so the draw certainly adds an extra dimension to that game.
“Pau are a traditional French side and former winners of the Challenge Cup so they’ll provide a stern test over two games and a big challenge that we will all look forward to.”
The draw - which included the Johannesburg-based Lions and the Cheetahs from Bloemfontein - had 20 clubs in three tiers in order to create two pools of 10 – Pool A and Pool B. Clubs from the same league were not permitted to play against one another during the pool stage.
Now the draw has been concluded, EPCR will prepare the fixture schedules with an announcement of exact dates, venues, kick-off times and TV coverage to follow as soon as practicable.
The 2022/23 season will be played over eight weekends with four rounds of matches in the pool stage starting in December, followed by a knockout stage consisting of a Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, culminating in the Dublin finals at the Aviva Stadium on 19 and 20 May 2023.
Fixture Dates:
- Round 1 – 9/10/11 December 2022
- Round 2 – 16/17/18 December 2022
- Round 3 – 13/14/15 January 2023
- Round 4 – 20/21/22 January 2023
- Round of 16 – 31 March/ 1/2 April 2023
- Quarter-finals – 7/8/9 April 2023
- Semi-finals – 28/29/30 April 2023
- EPCR Challenge Cup final – Friday 19 May 2023 at Aviva Stadium, Dublin
