Paddy Jackson set for competitive return to Ireland next season

He will have a game in the Sportsgrounds.

Paddy Jackson's new club Pepignan have been drawn in the same pool as Connacht for the 2018/2019 Challenge Cup, the draw for which took place in Lausanne in Switzerland on Wednesday afternoon. Drawn alongside Pepignan and Connacht were Sale Sharks and French side Bordeaux Begles for the European club rugby second tier competition. Here's the full draw for the competition, won last year by Cardiff Blues. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/1009426185141579776 Connacht turned to Australian Andy Friend to take over as their head coach for next season after Kieran Keane announced his decision to depart the province a couple of weeks ago. Friend has plenty of experience in the game, having worked with the New South Wales Waratahs, the Harlequins and the Brumbies amongst a number of other teams. Connacht will have high hopes to build on their struggles of 2017/2018 - they were beaten in the quarter final of this competition by Gloucester. Paddy Jackson will be restarting his career with the French club Perpignan next season. He hasn't played for province or country at all in 2018 and, in April, he left his club of seven years. https://twitter.com/usap_officiel/status/1004989587440226304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportsjoe.ie%2Frugby%2Fpaddy-jackson-signed-perpignan-162884 The Catalan club were promoted to the top division of French rugby, in the Top 14 last season, so Jackson will now be playing top-flight rugby across the water. Christian Lanta, director of Perpignan spoke highly of Jackson upon his arrival.

"Paddy Jackson, in the tradition of the 10 Irish, knows how to put his individual qualities at the service of the collective; confirmed goal scorer, talented lineman, Paddy has to bring to the team his experience of the international level."

He will be back in Ireland with the group stages of this competition ran on a home and away basis.