The national champions from each of the Six Nations will contest this year’s Heineken Students European Championship which kicks-off this week.
And the new sponsors, who are heavily involved in European rugby with their backing of the European Cup, are keen to revitalise the flagging tournament which has been scaled back in recent years.
In 1998 the competition incorporated 22 universities from across Europe and Heineken are committed to increasing the number of teams involved over the course of their sponsorship.
"The games to date have been of the highest calibre and we have seen some thrilling finals. This year’s competition looks like being every bit as exciting and the backing from Heineken will add an extra edge to everything," said Bob Reeves, Chairman of the Heineken Student European Rugby Championship.
"Our aim is to increase the competition to 24 teams in forthcoming years. We hope that continued support from Heineken will enable us to do that."
Under the current ‘champions league’ format, six universities from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy will contest two pools of three with the group winners contesting the final in April.
University College Cork, who won last year’s Dudley Cup, represent Ireland and will be hoping to emulate the success of 1999 when they won the competition.
The Leesiders travel to Rome for tomorrow’s opening pool match (1.30 p.m. Irish time) confident of a win. They are likely to face stiffer competition from Welsh champions Swansea when the two teams meet in Cork on February 4th.
Pool 1
University College Cork
University of Rome
University College Swansea
Pool 2
Pau/Bayonne University
Exeter University
Stirling University
