Full draw:

Pool 1

London Irish (England)

Connacht (Ireland)

Dax or Albi (France)

Rugby Rovigo (Italy)

Pool 2

Northampton (England)

Bristol (England)

Montpellier (England)

Toulon (England)

Pool 3

Bourgoin (France)

Worcester (England)

Petrarca Padova (Italy)

Bucuresti Oaks (Romania)

Pool 4

Newcastle (England)

Brive (France)

Overmach Parma (Italy)

Cetransa El Salvador (Spain)

Pool 5

Saracens (England)

Viadana (Italy)

Bayonne (France)

Stade Montois Rugby (France)

Yes, it's a fourth successive season in which we have been drawn to meet Brive in the Challenge Cup. So far, although we have won five of the six previous meetings, most have been pretty tight, our 51-19 win at KP in October 2005 and Brive's revenge a year later by a score of 41-12 being the exceptions.

In 2007/08 the Falcons defeated Brive twice, with a 25-19 Thursday night home win being backed up by a 12-19 victory in France to secure a home quarter-final, and following a 17-24 success at the Parc Municipal des Sports in January 2006.

Cetransa El Salvador are of course no strangers to Kingston Park, having been beaten 97-0 in the North East in January. This season will see our third trip to Valladolid, following last season's 10-71 win, and a victory over VRAC by the same score at the Campo de Pepe Rojo in 2003. What odds on the same score again this year?

Parma is a place the Falcons have not visited before, but we are no strangers to Italy having lost to Treviso twice in 2000 and 2002, before hammering both L'Aquila and Petrarca Padova in the boot country more recently. It's supposed to be a really nice town, so I'm sure people travelling there will have a great time, especially now it turns out Parma does have an international airport, although it only flies to about eight places.

It's a group that on paper shouldn't hold too many difficulties for the Falcons, with 25 points being the bare minimum we should be expecting, and a win in Brive should get us the possibility of a home quarter-final, although I'm sure Worcester will be expecting the same from their group.

Don't be expecting the actual fixtures to be announced anytime soon though, last season we couldn't plan our trips until September 5^th!

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