Parker Pen Shield revamped for 2002/2003

By Jason Harris
April 25 2002

Next season's Parker Pen Shield tournament is going to follow a different format after a huge amount of one-sided group matches in recent years made the competition lose some of its appeal.

The new format, instead of dividing the 32 teams into eight pools of four, will be a knockout featuring 16 seeded teams. The seeds will be made up from the six Zurich Premiership sides that didn't make it into the Heineken Cup, two from Wales, one apiece from Scotland and Ireland and the remaining half dozen from France.

The first round will be the only one with home and away matches and there are potential banana skins in there in the shape of four French sides that will be unseeded. The 16 losing teams will enter a plate competition to keep interest high.

"We were looking to reinvigorate the tournament and with this knockout format there will always be something to play for," said a European Rugby Cup Ltd spokesman.

With a Heineken Cup place at stake for the winners of the competition, this weeks semi-finals are regarded as very important in the eyes of Pontypridd, Gloucester, London Irish and Sale Sharks. Ponty, in particular, will be up for it as they are taking no fewer than 30 coachloads of fans to the Kassam Stadium in Oxford for their match with Irish.

Sarries will, once again, see Shield as a competition they CAN win and hopefully next year this will be the case.