Talk:European Challenge Cup

Proposals of Enlargement

I think this part should be more developed, since this tourmanent seems more opened to teams outside the Six Nations then the Heineken Cup.Mistico (talk) 22:36, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Return of Teams from Scotland

This should be mencioned, if there are any current proposals for the return of Scottish teams, even semi-professional.85.240.23.57 (talk) 17:30, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Expert Needed

I added the expert tag, because there are some questions I think the article should explain better. First, there was the reference that after the dismissal of their third professional side, Scotland is no longer represented. This means that the European Challenge Cup is now only for professional teams ? The Bucuresti Oaks side, made up from teams in the Romanian Championship, is still, for all purposes, semi-professional. Other questions that need to be better clarified are the presence of teams from Portugal and Spain. Portugal entered two times, the first was in 1997/98, with a team under the name of the country, like the article stated ? Then, it must be a team in the same style of the Bucuresti Oaks. The same goes for the representative side of Spain that entered the same season. According to the French Wikipedia [1], the last time Portugal entered was with an amateur team, Associação Académica de Coimbra. Spain entered then with two teams, Valladolid RAC and El Salvador Rugby. For the European Shield, Associação Académica de Coimbra, who quit, was replaced, as the representative from Portugal, by Lisboa Rugby Club. I think it was a similar made team to Bucuresti Oaks, but I don´t have a source explaining that. Since then, Portugal is been absent but I think probably that would be the better solution for the return of a Portuguese side. I don´t see why the winner of Scotland Scottish Hydro Electric League Championship, a semi-professional league, couldn't represent his country at the competition. I´m from Portugal and I will try to research as well as possible the story of our teams brief enterance at the European Challenge Cup.82.154.82.243 (talk) 17:26, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Scotland only has two professional teams but this does not mean that the Challenge Cup is only for pro sides. AFAIK Scotland could enter a non-pro side but choose not to.

The Spanish and Portuguese sides were the national teams (or at least they are recorded as such in English). To my knowledge there never has been an equivalent of Bucuresti Oaks in either Spain or Portugal.GordyB (talk) 10:38, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Portugal entered the European Challenge Cup only twice. The first time was in 1998/99, with a team that appears simply under the name of Portugal. I doubt that is really the National Team, since it's a very different kind of competition then those for National Teams. More probably it was a representative side from the Portuguese Championship. The most recent appearence was in 2004/05, when Associação Académica de Coimbra was eliminated in the 1st round by The Borders, from Scotland. Portugal entered the European Shield also twice, in 2003/04, with Lisboa Rugby Club and Académica. Lisboa Rugby Club achieved a win over Leonessa Rugby, from Italy, by 25-13, but lost abroad by 18-42. The same season, Académica lost to Petrarca Rugby, from Italy, twice, by 0-45 and 3-83. In 2004/05, Lisboa Rugby Club entered once again the competition, being eliminated by UCM Madrid, from Spain, after a 17-12 win and a 26-40 loss. Académica was to face SKG Gran Parma, from Italy, but quit. These elements were taken from the French Wikipedia. To all my knowledge, Lisboa Rugby Club was really a team selected from the best sides from Lisbon, since I never heard a team with a similar name in Portuguese rugby, and the EEC Official Site points their roster as being made from several different teams [2].83.132.106.151 (talk) 11:45, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Expansion Proposals

The entry refers the possibility of the entrance of teams from Germany and Russia, in particular, at the European Challenge Cup, but they will not be joining for the 2011/12 edition. What is the current state of the proposal of expanding the competition to other countries for now? I didn't find any reference to this at the official site of the European Challenge Cup.Mistico (talk) 00:23, 8 July 2011 (UTC)