DEFENDING champions Gloucester have been handed a mouth-watering European Challenge Cup quarter-final Anglo-Welsh derby with Newport Gwent Dragons in April.
And the Cherry and Whites will be hot favourites to defeat the Welsh region, whose home ground at Newport’s Rodney Parade is just fifty miles away, as the match will be played in front of a potentially sell-out crowd of locals and Dragons fans at Kingsholm.
Gloucester, who qualified for a home draw by winning their Pool Four with victory over French outfit La Rochelle, completed the group stage of the tournament on Saturday with a 14-11 win at Italians Zebre.
It means that they finished the group with an unbeaten record of six wins and 25 points. They will be favourites against the Dragons as the Welshmen got through their Pool Two as second qualifiers behind Sale Sharks.
The top sides in Pool Two met last Thursday night with Sale thrashing the Dragons 38-5.
If Gloucester win, they will face either Grenoble, who are currently tenth in France’s Top 14 League – the equivalent of England’s Aviva Premiership – or Irish region Connacht, whom the Cherry and Whites played in the quarter-finals last season and won 14-7.
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