Glasgow Warriors face Toulon rematch in Champions Cup as Edinburgh learn Challenge Cup opponents
- Published
Toulon lifted the Challenge Cup by beating Glasgow Warriors in May
Glasgow Warriors face a rematch with European Challenge Cup final victors Toulon in the pool stage of next season's European Champions Cup.
United Rugby Championship winners Munster, Champions Cup semi-finalists Exeter Chiefs, their Premiership rivals, Northampton Saints, and French side Aviron Bayonnais complete Pool 3.
Edinburgh are in the second-tier Challenge Cup with French teams Castres and Clermont Auvergne, England's Gloucester, Wales' Scarlets and an as yet unknown invitee club.
The two competitions will return to a multi-pool format for the 2023-24 season.
Franco Smith's Glasgow, who were swept aside 43-19 by Toulon in May's final, qualified for the top-tier tournament by finishing fourth, above 12th-placed Edinburgh, in the URC.
The Champions Cup has 24 teams split into four pools of six, with the 18-team Challenge Cup divided into three pools of six, but each side will only play four games as they will not face opponents from their same nation or league.
The first round of fixtures will begin on Friday, 8 December, six weeks after the final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
The 2024 finals will take place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium over 24-25 May.
Glasgow will have to come through a tough pool stage if they are to get anywhere near the London venue.
Although Munster finished a place below Warriors in the URC table, they beat Smith's side 14-5 in Glasgow in the quarter-finals before defeating Stormers in the final.
Northampton finished fourth in the Premiership, three places above Exeter, while Bayonnais scraped into the Champions League for the first time by finishing eighth in the Top 14 ahead of Edinburgh's future opponents, Castres, on points difference.
Joining them in Challenge Cup Pool 3 are Clermont, who finished a place below Castres, Gloucester, who were 10th in the Premiership, and Scarlets, who finished two places below Edinburgh in the URC.