The three-time European champions will be hoping to finally lift the trophy and put the memory of their four final defeats to bed.

They have every reason to feel confident too, with an impressive squad headlined by 2019 EPCR European Player of the Year nominee Cheslin Kolbe and bolstered by new signing Ihaia West, who arrives from 2022 Heineken Champions Cup champions Stade Rochelais.

Lyon, meanwhile, who secured a maiden European trophy with an emphatic victory over Toulon in Marseille three months ago, will be gunning for further success.

But it won’t just be other European sides threatening Toulon and Lyon’s title hopes. For the first time, South African sides will compete in the competition.

11-time Currie Cup winners Lions are one of two outfits entering the 2022-23 EPCR Challenge Cup, having finished 12th in their first season in the United Rugby Championship (URC).

They’ll be joined by Cheetahs, who finished top of the table in the regular season of the Currie Cup Premier Division last campaign. Their squad includes Springboks veteran Frans Steyn, who won the Challenge Cup with Montpellier Hérault Rugby in 2016.

Last season saw Bristol Bears reach the Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16, but this year the 2020 Challenge Cup winners return to try and win the title again.

Wasps, another English side, narrowly lost to eventual winners Lyon in the semi-finals last year and will look to go the whole way in 2022-23.

Bath Rugby have recently brought in Johann van Graan as director of rugby from Munster Rugby and will look to make good headway in the competition, while Worcester Warriors and Newcastle Falcons round out the English contingent.

Connacht Rugby, the only Irish province in the EPCR Challenge Cup, and Stade Francais Paris will both try to build on their success of reaching the Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 last season.

In all, 20 teams will initially compete in the pool stage of the competition. They will be divided up into two pools of ten, with the top six from each pool advancing to the Round of 16.

At that stage, the four teams who finished ninth and tenth in each Heineken Champions Cup pool will drop down to the Challenge Cup.

The winners will then advance to the quarter-finals and semi-finals, before the EPCR Challenge Cup final takes place at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on May 19.

Tickets for the 2023 Dublin finals can be purchased HERE.

Last year’s beaten finalists RC Toulon will fight for the EPCR Challenge Cup title again when the 2022-23 campaign kicks off in 100 days.