Rugby Digest: Michael Carroll, the former Blackrock and Connacht lock-cum-number eight, has become the first non-Frenchman to be made captain of the illustrious Racing Club de Paris, writes Gerry Thornley.
The 24-year-old, who captained the Irish schools on their successful tour of Australia in 2000, will lead Racing in their 30-game Pro D2 campaign in just his second year with the Parisian club.
Carroll also captained the Blackrock College Senior Cup team six years ago and represented Ireland at under-21 level before spending two years with Connacht prior to his move to France on a full-time contract for two years, with an option on a third.
"It is a huge honour, there's no doubt about it, to be the first non-French player to captain such a great club," he said.
Now more commonly known as Racing Metro 92, the Parisian outfit won the last of their five French championship titles in 1990, but after a fresh injection of funds they are making a concerted push for promotion after finishing a relatively lowly 13th in the Pro D2 last season.
However, Racing are in a particularly competitive second tier this season given the summer spending spree of relegated and cash-rich Toulon (where Tana Umaga, Rob Henderson, Dan Luger, Gonzalo Quesada, Yann Delaigue, Jean-Jacques Crenca and others have pitched up) and Lyon.
Connacht's difficult start
Connacht open their European Challenge Cup with one of the most difficult fixtures of the round, against NEC Harlequins, writes Johnny Watterson. The first day of competition will kick off with five games on Friday, October 20th, with the clash of double European Challenge Cup champions Harlequins against Connacht one of the feature matches. Connacht can take some comfort from the home draw with the match taking place in the Sportsground in Galway.
Michael Bradley's team has been drawn in Pool 4 of the competition and must also face Bath and French Club, Montpellier. All of the fixtures, dates and kick-off times for Rounds 1 to 4 of the Pool stages of the 11th edition of the competition were released yesterday. The competition now features 20 professional clubs from seven countries.
Pool 1: Newport Gwent Dragons, Bayonne, Bristol Rugby, Bucuresti. Pool 2: Glasgow Warriors, Narbonne, Saracens, GRAN Parma.
Pool 3: Newcastle Falcons, Brive, Petrarca Padova, Montauban.
Pool 4: Connacht Rugby, Montpellier, Bath Rugby, NEC Harlequins.
Pool 5: ASM Clermont Auvergne, Worcester Warriors, Arix Viadana, Albi.
Round 1: Oct 20th - Connacht v Harlequins, 6.30.
Round 2: Oct 28th - Bath v Connacht 7.15.
Round 3: Dec 8th - Connacht v Montpellier 6.30.
Round 4: Dec 15th - Montpellier v Connacht.
Round 5: Jan 12th/13th/14th - Connacht v Bath
Round 6: Jan 19th/20th/21st - Harlequins v Connacht.
Quarter-finals: March 30th/31st/April1st. Semi-finals: April 20th/21st/22nd. Final - May18th/19th/20th.
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