New PRO14 entrants ‘not on agenda’ for Champions Cup

Champions Cup boss Vincent Gaillard may be keen to take European club rugby’s showpiece finals into new markets, but he made it clear yesterday the competition will not go looking for additional teams.

Tournament organisers EPCR, of which Gaillard is director general, will stage this season’s final of the Champion Cup, as well as the Continental Shield and Challenge Cup, in the Basque city of Bilbao, in northern Spain, next May.

Newcastle will host the 2019 finals, but the current bidding process for the 2020 stagings has attracted 18 expressions of interest from cities in eight countries, four of which are first-time applicants.