New Europe Tournament is a hit!

All the fiasco that was last season in formulating a new European tournament has paid off. The new condensed format of the pool stage with a much more intense and concentrated draw of the teams lead to a thrilling final weekend of games as teams fought hard in high quality games for the spaces in the knock-out stages. The game of the final weekend was by far: Bath vs. Glasgow as both teams strived for the top place in the pool. Glasgow scored the try of the tournament potentially with excellent offloading and team play but it wasn't enough as the Bath pack asserted their dominance over their Scottish counter-parts.

It wasn't just the final weekend that should be commended; the entire tournament week in, week out has been superb. Every team went into the tournament knowing that every game counted with each pool containing potentially three teams that could qualify for the knock-out stages. Drama filled each round, with Northampton Saints shooting themselves in the foot in the first round, before an extermination of the top PRO12 team a week later as former European greats Leicester lost to the Scarlets in Wales. Tigers then bounced back against reigning champions Toulon, and the Ospreys and Racing Metro battled it out in their double header with some superb displays of test match intensity. These sort of games were a constant occurrence in the tournament, and confirm that the effort that was taken to reorganise the format was totally worth it.

Perhaps the only really downside of the new format is that the second tier tournament - at the point that the pool stages took place - did not provide qualification into the Champions Cup. So the Challenge Cup has led to one sided games, but it has still led to the rise of certain players and teams most impressively of which is the Dragons. They have played some superb rugby against quality opposition, Stade Francais are no pushovers. The real story of the Challenge Cup pool stages has to be Gloucester, having a complete clean sweep of six wins from six games, and a total of 29 points from a possible 30 is ridiculous. Dropping only one bonus point, in the second round against Brive, has to be commended on their attacking flair and belief in their skills and team play.

Looking ahead to the knockout games of both tournaments has thrown up some seriously interesting games. Many of them are practically impossible to really decide who will progress to the semi-finals, but when you're faced with a Welsh Derby, and a mouth watering fixture like Clermont vs. Saints you know you're going to want to watch the games.

Champions Cup Predictions
Racing Metro vs. Saracens - Saracens (Racing's inconsistent form gives Saracens hope)
Toulon vs. Wasps - Toulon (Champions elect at home)
Clermont Auvergne vs. Northampton Saints - Clermont Auvergne (Home advantage wins - just)
Leinster vs. Bath - Leinster (Bath attack lethal, Leinster know how to win though)

Challenge Cup Predictions
Gloucester vs. Connacht - Gloucester (Form team, at home)
Exeter Chiefs vs. Newcastle Falcons - Exeter Chiefs (Home advtanage, and Gareth Steenson's goal kicking)
Newport Gwent Dragons vs. Cardiff Blues - Newport Gwent Dragons (Packed stadium and the backline talent wins it)
London Irish vs. Edinburgh - Edinburgh (Neither screams success but recent form in the PRO12 supports the Scots)