Leicester handed home Euro match against Connacht

LEICESTER Tigers will face Irish club Connacht at home in the round of 16 stage of the European Challenge Cup.

The match will take place on the weekend of April 2-4 at the Mattioli Woods Welford Road with the winner progressing to the quarterfinals.

If Steve Borthwick’s side are successful, they will again be at home to face the winners of Ospreys v Newcastle Falcons a week later. Tigers booked their place in the revised knockout stages of the competition after defeating both Bayonne and Brive in the pool stages.

Teams from the same league were kept apart in the round of 16 draw, with all clubs placed in an ‘open’ draw for the quarter-final stages.

Connacht are the Challenge Cup’s most experienced team with 126 previous matches in the tournament but have never faced

Tigers. The Irish side lost to Racing 92 and Bristol Bears in the pool stage of the Champions Cup before being placed in the Challenge Cup draw.

But they have had a strong start in the Pro14, sitting second to Munster in Pool B with eight wins from 14 rounds so far.

Tigers reached the semi-finals last season in their first Challenge Cup campaign before being knocked out by Toulon.

Challenge Cup knockout stages Round of 16:

Dragons v Northampton Saints Ospreys v Newcastle Falcons London Irish v Cardiff Blues Harlequins v Ulster Benetton Rugby v Agen Zebre Rugby Club v Bath Rugby

Leicester Tigers v Connacht Montpellier v Glasgow Warriors

Quarter-Finals:

Montpellier or Glasgow Warriors v Benetton or Agen Dragons or Northampton Saints v Harlequins or Ulster

Zebre Rugby Club or Bath Rugby v London Irish or Cardiff Blues Leicester Tigers or Connacht v Ospreys or Newcastle Falcons

THE importance of Leicester City’s victory at Brighton was emphasised by the results of their top four rivals on Monday night, writes Jordan Blackwell.

City had boosted their cushion inside the Champions League places with the late win on the south coast, but Chelsea and West Ham both claimed three points on Monday to tighten up the race again. On Sunday, Manchester United beat leaders Manchester City to move back into second, knocking Leicester down to third, with Tottenham also victorious to keep themselves in the race.

City’s lead over fourth-placed Chelsea, unbeaten in 11 games since Thomas Tuchel took charge, is just three points.

Meanwhile, City’s advantage over fifth-placed West Ham stands at five points, with Everton and Tottenham a further two and three points further back respectively.

However, all three of those clubs have a game in hand over Brendan Rodgers’ side.

The tightness of the race, and City’s fall out of the top four last season, appears to have prompted Rodgers to change how he views the table. Last season, the City boss said he would only look at the table once there were 10 games to go.

At that point in 2019-20, City had an eight-point cushion over Manchester United, but ended up finishing four points behind them.

And so this term, Rodgers is not considering the table at all.

Asked how confident he was of qualifying for the Champions

League, Rodgers said: “I’ll tell you at the end of the season if we’re in the top four or not.

“It doesn’t really matter if you’re in the top four with 10 games to go, it’s when the whistle blows against Tottenham (in the final game of the season), that’s when we’ll be in the top four. Otherwise, we just need to concentrate on our performance level.”