Hogg set for rapid return as Warriors face Exeter Chiefs
● Full-back was ‘almost destined’ for Champions Cup reunion with Glasgow
There was a sense of inevitability yesterday when the Heineken Champions Cup draw set Stuart Hogg on course for a swift return to Scotstoun after Glasgow were paired with Exeter Chiefs.
The star Scotland full-back completed his nine-year stint with the Warriors after last month’s Guinness Pro14 final loss to Leinster at Celtic Park and, after World Cup duty, will begin his lucrative three-year contract with the English giants in Devon.
Glasgow will also face French side La Rochelle, who finished fifth in the Top 14 last season and recently appointed former Ireland and Lions stand-off Ronan O’gara as their coach, and Sale Sharks, who sneaked into the elite competition with a seventh-place finish in England’s Gallagher Premiership.
The matches against English runners-up Exeter, who lost their domestic final to European champions Saracens, will be formidable tests but, overall Glasgow should be fairly happy with the pool and be confident of making the quarter-finals – a stage they have reached twice before, losing at Saracens both times. Glasgow assistant coach Kenny Murray, pictured, said it was a pool they would be “targeting to qualify from” and added: “With Hoggy playing for Exeter next season it brings an extra sense of sentiment to the game, he’ll be keen to come back to Scotstoun and play well.
“We know Stuart’s strengths andweknowwhattodotoput him under pressure. He’s a world-class player and we’ll need to be very aware of him.”
The Warriors and Chiefs met in the pool stage in 201718 when Exeter won 24-15 at Sandy Park, before going down 28-21 at Scotstoun in the final round, meaning the already eliminated Scots also denied Rob Baxter’s side a place in the knockout stages.
They also clashed in the 2013-14 season, where the Warriors won both fixtures, 20-16 at Scotstoun, before then picking up a 15-10 win at Sandy Park.
Exeter director of rugby Baxter said: “It was almost destined that with us having signed Stuart from Glasgow Pool 1
Leinster Lyon Northampton Benetton
Pool 2
Exeter Chiefs GLASGOW La Rochelle Sale Sharks
Pool 3
Clermont Auv Ulster Rugby Harlequins Bath Pool 4
Saracens Munster Racing 92 Ospreys Pool 5
Toulouse Gloucester Connacht Montpellier
Final in Marseille on 23 May 2020
this season that he would end up facing them in Europe. I think he even predicted it himself in an interview last week! Having played Glasgow in the past, we know they will pose a tough challenge to us. They have a team packed with Scottish internationals and are a team, a bit like ourselves, who really like to attack. A couple of years ago we got the better of them here in the early rounds, but then they got their own back on us by beating us in that final round game up in the snow.”
Due to the World Cup in Japan (which runs from 20 September to 2 November) European competition starts later with the first rounds on theweekendof15/16/17november. Fixtures will be released at a later date.
Next season’s final will take place at Stade de Marseille on Saturday 23 May 2020.
Glasgow’s meetings with Sale could see another veteran of Glasgow’s historic Pro12 title win, back-rower Josh Strauss, facing his former team. Coincidentally, the Greater Manchester side owe their Champions Cup return to pool rivals La Rochelle following the convoluted set of rules for determining how many places go to the English Premiership, Top 14 and Pro14. In a nutshell, Challenge Cup runners-up La Rochelle finishing in their top six after the Sharks had agonisingly slipped out of their top six on the last day of the regular Premiership season meant, when Saracens won the trophy, beating Leinster at St James’s Park in Newcastle, it opened up a seventh English spot in the tournament.
Elsewhere in the draw, Toulouse, who Richie Gray helped win the French championship at the weekend, are in the same pool as Danny Cipriani’s Gloucester, Connacht and Montpellier. FOUNDED: 1861
STADIUM: Salford City AJ Bell Stadium (12,000)
DIRECTOR OF RUGBY: Steve Diamond
EURO HONOURS: European Challenge Cup winners 2002 and 2005
STAR MAN: Faf du Klerk (scrum-half )
Premiership rivals Bath and Harlequins will contest Pool 3 with Greig Laidlaw’s Clermont Auvergne and Ulster, while four-time European champions Leinster are joined in Pool 1 by Northampton, Lyon and Benetton.
Holders Saracens, with Scotland backs Sean Maitland and Duncan Taylor, will face a tough pool in defence of their crown after being drawn in the same group as Munster – the team they beat in last season’s semi-finals – Finn Russell’s Racing 92 and Ospreys.
Meanwhile, in other Exeter Chiefs news, England utility back Jack Nowell has undergone ankle surgery. Baxter said the operation was successful, and “at this stage we see no reason” why his World Cup should be jeopardised.