Newcastle Falcons will face two French and one Italian opponent in the pool stages of the 2009/10 European Challenge Cup.

The Falcons will come up against familiar foes in the form of Italian outfit Petrarca and Frenchmen Montauban, who they faced in the 06/07 competition.

The meeting with Albi will be the first time the two clubs have faced each other, with a new tournament format seeing only the five pool winners going through, as well as three sides dropping down from the Heineken Cup.

Falcons director of rugby, Steve Bates, said: "We will be hoping to build on last year's campaign, which saw us reach the quarter-final stages.

"We will know a fair bit about Petrarca with our asisstant coach Stuart Grimes having played for them the year before last, and then two games against French opposition in Albi and Montauban will, I am sure, provide a stern test."

The fixture list for the competition has yet to be finalised, but tournament organisers ERC have announced on which weekends the matches will fall.

EUROPEAN CHALLENGE CUP 2009/10 POOLS:

POOL 1: Bourgoin, Leeds Carnegie, Overmach Rugby Parma, Bucuresti Oaks

POOL 2: Worcester Warriors, Connacht Rugby, Montpellier, Olympus Rugby XV Madrid

POOL 3: Saracens, Castres Olympique, Toulon, Rugby Rovigo

POOL 4: London Wasps, Rugby Calvisano, Bayonne, Racing-Metro 92

POOL 5: Newcastle Falcons, Montauban, Petrarca Rugby, Albi


EUROPEAN CHALLENGE CUP 2009/10 FIXTURES:

ROUND 1 - 8/9/10/11 October, 2009
ROUND 2 - 15/16/17/18 October, 2009
ROUND 3 -10/11/12/13 December, 2009
ROUND 4 -17/18/19/20 December, 2009
ROUND 5 - 14/15/16/17 January, 2010
ROUND 6 - 21/22/23/24 January, 2010

QUARTER-FINALS - 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 April, 2010
SEMI-FINALS - 30 / 1 / 2 May, 2010
EUROPEAN CHALLENGE CUP FINAL - 21 / 22 / 23 May, 2010