Champions Cup draw 17/18

By Mark Stevens
8/6/17

Exeter Chiefs will have an exciting European Champions Cup campaign to look forward to after they were drawn in Pool 3 at today's draw in Neuchatel.

Rob Baxter's side, who were classed as one of the Tier One sides, will tackle Leinster Rugby, Montpellier-Herault and Glasgow Warriors in European rugby's premier cup competition.

Now entering into their eighth year of European competition, the Chiefs will come up against opposition they have faced previously in either the old Heineken Cup or Challenge Cup.

French rivals Montpellier provided the Devon's club first-ever European opponents in October 2010, winning 20-13 at Sandy Park, before then edging Baxter's side out 32-30 in the return leg in January 2011.

Current Chiefs stars Phil Dollman and Ben Moon featured in both those games, while long-serving fly-half Gareth Steenson was an unused replacement in the latter fixture, which saw the Chiefs come within a whisker of claiming a famous win.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs kicked off their first-ever appearance in the Heineken Cup with a trip to Dublin to face Leinster in October 2012, narrowly going down The RDS 9-6 that day.

The two sides met again later in the season at Sandy Park with the Irishmen claiming a cup double thanks to a 29-20 victory, which included tries on the day for international stars Gordon D’Arcy, Rob Kearney, Brian O’Driscoll and Jamie Heaslip. Fly-half Jonathan Sexton weighed in with the remainder of the points for the three-time champions.

Glasgow Warriors also have form over the Chiefs having come up against the newly-crowned English champions in the 2013/14 Heineken Cup campaign.

The rivals first locked horns at Scotstoun in October 2013 when the Warriors netted a 20-16 victory in which the Chiefs replied through a converted Dave Ewers try and three penalties from Steenson.

In the reverse fixture in January 2014, the Chiefs stormed into a 10-0 lead at Sandy Park thanks to a Fetu'u Vainikolo try and five points from Henry Slade only to be hauled back in on their way to a 15-10 loss.

Details of fixture dates and kick-off times will be announced at a later date.
Round 1: 12/13/14/15 October 2017

Round 2: 19/20/21/22 October 2017

Round 3: 7/8/9/10 December 2017

Round 4: 14/15/16/17 December 2017

Round 5: 11/12/13/14 January 2018

Round 6: 18/19/20/21 January 2018

Quarter-finals: 29/30/31 March / 1 April 2018

Semi-finals: 20/21/22 April 2018

Champions Cup final: Saturday, 12 May 2018 (San Mamés Stadium, Bilbao)