By Jason Harris
June 24 2004

ERC Rugby has announced that Saracens are among the seeded teams for the 2004-05 Parker Pen Challenge Cup which kicks off on the weekend 22/23/24 October with the first leg likely to be away from home against an unseeded team from France, Italy or Spain. With a similar set-up to the 2003-04 competition, the losing teams in the first round will compete for the Parker Pen Shield while the winners go on to contest the Cup competition.

The French league has provided the bulk of the quantity - 10 teams - and quality with the likes of Agen, Montferrand and Brive all in the draw and a couple of first round banana skins in the shape of non-seeded Narbonne and Grenoble.

Should Sarries make it through the first round and get into the last eight, then one of their fellow Zurich Premiership teams could be the opposition, however this won't be confirmed until the draw is made.

PARKER PEN CHALLENGE CUP 2004 / 2005 SEEDINGS

Seeds:

ENGLAND: Leeds Tykes, London Irish, Sale Sharks, SARACENS

FRANCE: Brive, Beziers, Montferrand, Montpellier, Agen, Pau

ITALY: Viadana, Rugby Parma

IRELAND: Connacht

SCOTLAND: Borders

Non-seeds

ENGLAND: Worcester Warriors

FRANCE: Auch, Bayonne, Grenoble, Narbonne

ITALY: Rugby Rovigo, Petrarca Padova, GrAN Parma, L'Aquila, Leonessa, Amatori Catania

PORTUGAL: RC Coimbra

SPAIN: Centrasa El Salvador, UC Madrid