Toulouse may be leading Harlequins by two points in Pool 6 in the Heineken Cup, but unless they win at Kingsholm against Gloucester on Friday night they could possibly find themselves heading into the Amlin Challenge Cup last eight.

The five Pool winners in the Amlin Challenge Cup earn quarter-final places, and going into the final round, the winners of all five Pools have yet to be decided. The final three places in the knockout stages are filled by the third, fourth and fifth best Pool runners-up from the Heineken Cup.

Only Munster and reigning champions Leinster are so far guaranteed Heineken Cup quarter-final tickets, so there will be the usual number of twists and turns to come in the over the next few days.

There will also be plenty of drama from Thursday onwards in the Amlin Challenge Cup with two clubs in each of the five Pools still in contention for top spot. The most dramatic weekend of action in European rugby will kick-off at Edgeley Park on Thursday night when two-time tournament winners Sale Sharks host former Heineken Cup holders Brive.

That will be the first of 22 fixtures across the two tournaments that will determine which 16 clubs move forward to chase the top two titles in northern hemisphere club rugby.

As well as Toulouse, two more Heineken Cup winners, Ulster Rugby (1999) and Leicester Tigers (2001, 2002), as well as the Ospreys, could conceivably make their Amlin Challenge Cup debuts depending on results.

“Since we launched the system of three Heineken Cup runners-up joining the Amlin Challenge Cup Pool winners in the quarter-finals the quality has certainly risen. To add to that, the winners of the Amlin Challenge Cup are assured of a place in next season’s Heineken Cup,” said ERC Chief Executive, Derek McGrath.

AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP POOL BATTLES

Pool 1 – Stade Français Paris or Worcester Warriors
Stade Français Paris lead Worcester Warriors by four points. Warriors must win and deny Stade anything to bring the equation down to tries or aggregate points in their two games, or they must win with a try bonus point and once again deny Stade a losing bonus.

Pool 2 – Toulon or Newcastle Falcons
Toulon have a two point advantage over Falcons and lead them in the head-to-head. Toulon host Petrarca Rugby in Round 6 and Falcons travel to Lyon. A Toulon win will be enough to secure the Pool winners spot, as will be a draw if Falcons don’t earn a bonus point victory in Lyon.

Pool 3 – London Wasps or Bayonne
London Wasps lead by two points from Bayonne, but are down 2-1 on tries in the head-to-head. That means they need to beat Bordeaux-Begles at home in Round 6 to guarantee a quarter-final place. Bayonne host Rovigo and can go through with a draw or a win, as long as Wasps fail to earn any points.

Pool 4 – Exeter Chiefs or Perpignan
Exeter Chiefs are one point ahead of Perpignan and have a precious losing bonus point from their game there in France in Round 1. They host the French side in a winner-takes-all clash at Sandy Park.

Pool 5 – Brive or Sale Sharks
Brive head to Edgeley Park on Thursday night knowing they need to get at least a losing bonus point to top the Pool. A win or draw will send them into the last eight, while two-time winners the Sharks need to go for broke and win without conceding a bonus point to overcome the three point gap at the top.

Defending champions Crosshaven, the first Munster club to win the title, have been drawn away to Ulster side Cooke in the opening round. Last season’s beaten finalists Monivea will make the trip to Skerries while previous winners Tullamore have been drawn at home to Kilfeacle.

The Ulster Bank Junior Cup has proved hugely popular with clubs and supporters and the cup finals have provided some dramatic rugby action since the competition began.

A number of previous winners have gone on to gain promotion to the Ulster Bank League including Rainey OB, Seapoint, Navan and City of Derry.

Ulster Bank Junior Cup 1^st Round, Saturday October 22nd
Tullamore V Kilfeacle
Portadown V Westport
Coolmine V Tralee
Coleraine V Tuam
Skerries V Monivea
Academy V Richmond
Cooke V Crosshaven
Dundalk V Ballina

2^nd Round – November 26^th
Semi Finals – February 4^th
Final – February 18^th

Batting Esher slipped to a 24-17 reverse at Old Deer Park and have now lost eight successive games in league and cup.

But Director of Rugby Schmid was delighted with the attitude shown in the local derby as they picked up a losing bonus point at fourth-placed Exiles.

Esher fought back from 13-0 down at half-time to score tries through Sam Ulph and Chris York and were unlucky not to salvage a draw.

Now Schmid wants the same commitment in the bottom-of-the-table Championship match against Birmingham at Molesey Road this weekend.

Esher lost 38-16 at Birmingham in October in one of their poorest displays of the season and Schmid insists there must be no repeat.

He said: “We were very poor at Birmingham and that came after a wonderful win against London Welsh, so it was doubly disappointing.

“But if we show the same attitude that we did on Tuesday then I’m sure we can end this run of defeats.

“In both games against Welsh we have shown glimpses of what we can achieve with the right attitude and commitment.

“Now we must make sure we build on that against Birmingham”

“We all know this is a must-win game against Birmingham and it gives us a chance to put distance between us and them.

“Every win will be vital when we go into the play-offs at the end of the season. If we can beat Birmingham then we still have six more games to get into the top eight and that is still our target.”

Esher edged six points clear of rock-bottom Birmingham with the point at Welsh and are now nine adrift of eighth-placed Bristol.

But Schmid added: “We’ve let a few points slip this season and we know we have to be at our best to get something from games.

“If we show any complacency against Birmingham then we will lose, it’s as simple as that.

“But, as we showed at London Welsh on Tuesday, we are capable of producing some good rugby but we must do that for the whole 80 minutes.

“It’s all about consistency and if we find that, then we are capable of getting a good run going. That has to start against Birmingham.”

With a number of forwards taking late fitness tests, Director of Rugby Lynn Howells will select his pack from the following squad:
Shane Cahill, Stuart Corsar, Dan Frazier, Lewis Thiede, Steve Boden, Tom Doughty, Glen Kenworthy, Matt Challinor, Dom Parsons Ed, Jackson, Neil Cochrane, Andy Boyde, Chris Walker and Zack Farivarz

We will attempt a website update as early as possible on Matchday announcing the selected forwards, alongside the backs that have already been given the starting Jerseys.

The backs will be

9 Hallam
10 Roberts
11 Williams
12 Gidlow
13 Briers
14 Flockhart
15 McColl

The backs’ subs will be (21) Peter Jericevich and (22) OliGoss.

At a televised launch event in Sydney, new SANZAR CEO-designate, Greg Peters, unveiled the new name, logo and colours that will underpin the rollout of Super Rugby across all three SANZAR territories and around the world via SANZAR’s broadcast partners.

“For the first time since its inception in 1996, Super Rugby will take on a whole new look in 2011,” said Mr Peters.

“The fifteen teams will take part in a three-conference format which will see all of the teams in each conference tackle each other home and away; supplemented with inter-conference games and culminating in a new, six-team finals series.

“We believe this competition will deliver even more of what our fans in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are telling us that they love about Super Rugby including more local derbies, intense cross-conference competition and the expanded final series with the guarantee of a home final for each of the conference winners.”

Mr Peters was joined for the launch by players from some of the Australian franchises including the new Melbourne Rebels franchise.

And the new-look competition format and the draw for 2011 were revealed underlining the depth and intensity of competition that will take place within the conferences, and across all 15 teams in the new competition window which will reach its peak with the Final in July 2011.

“These changes promise to take Super Rugby to a whole new level. For all of our fans and especially our younger fans who look forward seeing all of their heroes taking the field in their local colours, 2011 will be a big year in prospect.”

New Competition Format

The Super Rugby competition will not only expand to 15 teams in 2011, it will also undergo a significant format revamp.

A new three-Conference system will be in place where the five teams within each country will make up nationally-based Conferences and play their four “local” rivals on a home and away basis (eight games in total).

They will also play four of the other five teams in each of the other two Conferences on a home or away basis (another eight games).

This leads to an overall program of 16 games per team in the regular season, as opposed to the current 13 – and separate Australian Conference, South African Conference and New Zealand Conference tables will chart the fortunes of teams in each country.

A three-week finals series involving six teams – as opposed to the current two-week playoffs for four teams – will further increase the length of the season.

At the end of the regular season matches, the top team in each Conference will qualify for the finals.

The other three teams to qualify will be the sides with the most number of competition points – regardless in which Conference they are based.

The Conference winners are also ensured of a home finals match. Therefore, at least one finals match will be played in each country each year.

Super Rugby Snapshot

An increase in overall matches from 94 to 125 (an increase of 33%)

A 50% increase in the length of the season in non-World Cup years – from 16 weeks to 24 weeks

A 31% increase in the length of the season in World Cup years – from 16 weeks to 21 weeks

40 Super Rugby regular season matches played in each country each season as opposed to 26 in Australia under the Super 14 structure and 32 or 33 in South Africa and New Zealand

There will be 20 regular season local derbies in each country as opposed to six in Australia, 10 in South Africa and10 in New Zealand under the Super 14 format

Half of all regular season matches will be local derbies

Each team will play 12 of its 16 regular-season games within its own country – with only four matches overseas

Finals Series

The top team in each Conference will automatically advance to the finals in positions 1, 2 or 3 (depending on their individual competition points totals)

The other three teams to advance will be those with the highest number of competition points outside of the Conference winners

The teams qualifying in 4th, 5th and 6th can come from any Conference – they could all come from one Conference

Meanwhile wins for London Welsh, Nottingham, and Doncaster, together with an away draw for Cornish Pirates at Mosely shook the table up, although Birmingham and Solihull remain fixed to the foot of the table.

England's Tom Varndell in action at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne

England will face Australia in the pool stages of the Rugby Sevens at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi in what coach Ben Ryan describes as “the tastiest match in the qualifying round”. The 2006 silver medallists have been placed in Pool D with the Wallabies, Namibia and Sri Lanka for the tournament that takes place on October 11 and 12 this year. England were beaten 29-21 in the Melbourne final four years ago when New Zealand claimed their third gold medal following their wins at Manchester (2002) and Kuala Lumpur (1998).

“It brings it all to life now the draw has been made and it will concentrate our minds on the task in hand and what we need to do over the two days to finish top of the pile at the Commonwealth Games,” said England Sevens head coach Ryan.

“Over the years we’ve had the upper hand against Australia but this season just gone they’ve put together a side equal to any in the world. The scoreline from the last IRB Sevens World Series reads won two, lost two, drawn one which shows you how tight it’s been. It’s going to be an absolute ding-dong in Delhi and it’s the tastiest match-up in the qualifying round.

“It’s also good to be playing sides we haven’t met before in the pool stages. We’ve never played Namibia before as far as I know and last played Sri Lanka a couple of years ago in Hong Kong.

“One of the most exciting things is being part of a larger Team England. Building relationships, seeking advice and sharing knowledge with other sports is something we’ve been doing for a while and to be able to go to the Commonwealth Games with them all will be a great experience.”

New Zealand are in Pool A, where they will face opening matches against World Series regulars Scotland and Canada as well as Caribbean champions Guyana.

South Africa, the 2002 bronze medallists, head Pool B and face opening ties against Wales, Tonga and the host nation India.

IRB Sevens World Series champions Samoa top Pool C and take on Kenya, Uganda and Papua New Guinea.

England will announce their training squad for the Commonwealth Games later this month.

Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens, October 11-12

• Pool A: New Zealand, Scotland, Canada, Guyana
• Pool B: South Africa, Wales, Tonga, India
• Pool C: Samoa, Kenya, Uganda, Papua New Guinea
• Pool D: England, Australia, Namibia, Sri Lanka

Craig Hill raced over in the first half and Lee Rees scored in the second period to lead Wales’s charge to a 14-5 victory over Russia in a hard fought final. Gareth Rees banged over two conversions to complete the scoring for Wales.

Russia rallied late on to score through Lev Sleptsov but it proved too little too late as Wales picked up their second title in two weeks.

En route to the final Wales swept aside the challenge of Tunisia 33-0 in the quarter-final before brushing aside the rapidly improving Portugal 24-7 in the semis.

After being knocked out of the main draw after finishing their pool in third place behind New Zealand and Samoa, Wales were looking to assert their authority in the Bowl competition.

In the quarter-final bowl against Tunisia there was only one side in it. Wales led 19-0 at the break thanks to tries by Justin Tiperic, Ashley Beck and Ifan Evans.

Wales suffered a setback when Chris Davies was sin binned in first minute of second half but tries by Alex Cuthbert and Gareth Davies ensured passage through to the semis.

Portugal put up a tougher fight in the semi-final and held Wales to a 5-0 lead after a Cuthbert try. But Wales stepped up a gear in the second spell and got the perfect start when Davies scampered over. Goncalo Foro hit back with Diogo Miranda adding the extras but Justin Tiperic put the issue beyond doubt with two smartly taken tries.

Wales coach Paul John was a delighted man after guiding his young side to their second success within seven days.

“Let’s be realistic, we’ve got eight brand new players in the squad. Eight players who have not played sevens tournament rugby before. But this bunch of youngsters have grown and grown tremendously on and off the field.

“They have pushed all the sides really close over the first two tournaments. We’ve played all the big teams over the past couple of weeks except for Kenya and England and to be fair, they have done themselves proud.

“We’ve got a lot more points than we did this time last year, so we’ve exceeded expectations from the first two tournaments so they can take confidence from what they have achieved.

“They have won both Bowls comfortably and two win two Bowls is difficult. They’ve shown they have the potential to get into the semi-finals of the main draw.”

The premier 15-aside tournament in the women’s game, which will be played from next August 20 to September 5, will feature three pools of four teams with defending champions New Zealand, hosts and 2006 runners-up England and 2006 bronze medalists France all ranked top seeds in their pool.

The unprecedented qualification process, which saw 16 teams compete for the six places available outside the automatically qualified teams, was completed when Kazakhstan defeated Japan 43-5 to claim a place in Pool B, while Sweden join Pool C in their first appearance on the Women’s Rugby World Cup stage since 1998.

New Zealand, England, France, Canada, USA and South Africa all qualified directly, with Wales and Ireland qualifying through the Six Nations, Sweden and Scotland from the European qualifiers in May, Australia as the Oceania qualifier and Kazakhstan from Asia.

Newly appointed Scotland Women’s coach, Gary Parker, has just completed the first of the season’s training camps with the Scotland squad.

He said: “It’s a tough draw but there are no easy games in the World Cup competition.

“Fortunately we have a good opportunity to analyse each of our pool opponents by revisiting our 6 Nations preparation fixture against Sweden, which we won 32-0, while Canada’s match against France this week will also provide some useful footage.

“We have just completed an excellent two-day training camp where the intensity of the players was superb. We have a few adjustments to make to improve a few things but I’m confident in the players and the time we have that we will be able to challenge and develop the players for the 6 Nations, first and foremost, and the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup after that.

“The 6 Nations is the immediate challenge and priority for us which starts against France at home in February. All of our efforts and concentration will be geared towards that as it’s important that we get our preparation and performances right.”

• Pool A: New Zealand, Wales, Australia, South Africa
• Pool B: England, USA, Ireland, Kazakhstan
• Pool C: France, Canada, Scotland, Sweden

The Scots will play Argentina in the first game of day one before lining up against Tunisia and ending their day one campaign against England.

The last time Scotland faced England was in the opening game of the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens at Murrayfield back in May. In the soaring heat at Murrayfield, Scotland scorched to a 33-17 win and will now hope to rediscover some of that magic in South Africa.

Speaking shortly after the team’s return from a training camp in Delhi, where they were not only preparing for the IRB Sevens World Series, but familiarising themselves with the weather conditions and surroundings ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, coach Stephen Gemmell said: “The draw just illustrates the nature of international sevens. It not only shows how well we performed in London and Edinburgh, but reflects on how competitive the World Series is.

“Both England and Argentina won tournament titles last year so it’s an indicator of how far we’ve come to be top seeds for this Tournament.”

The draw for South Africa is based on performances from the last two tournaments to be played – in London and Edinburgh. But despite the Scots enjoying their first ever Cup semi-final places in both tournaments, a tough pool lies in wait.

“Supporters will no doubt focus on the England game,” Gemmell continued, “but it’s got to be just another game for us. Tunisia have been quarter-finalists in South Africa before and Argentina were runners-up at the World Cup.

“All three sides will pose three very different threats so it’s key that we really impose ourselves, retain the ball and stop the opposition from playing.

“We made great progress at the end of last season and the only way for us to build on that is to take advantage of being top seeds.”

Pool D: Scotland, England, Argentina, Tunisia

Scotland 7s’ Pool D fixtures on day one (Friday 11 December) of the Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens (11 & 12 December):

• Scotland v Argentina, 11:42am local time, 12:42pm GMT
• Scotland v Tunisia, 2:48pm local time, 3:48pm GMT
• Scotland v England, 7:32pm local time, 8:32pm GMT