Alongside the Romanians Dragons were drawn alongside two European heavyweights, Top 14 outfit ASM Clermont-Auvergne and Gallagher Premiership side Northampton Saints in Pool One of the competition.
Fixture dates and kick-off times have now been confirmed for all six rounds of the competition’s group stage, with the Dragons hoping to make Friday nights on Parade an intimidating environment for opposition teams.
After visiting Romania in Round One, Dragons take on Northampton Saints at Rodney Parade on Friday 19th October (7.30pm).
Then in a break from the normal back-to-back double-header pre-Christmas fixtures, the Dragons will face two away clashes in December, playing Northampton for a second time in Round Three (Saturday 8 October), before heading out to take on Clermont the following Saturday.
Dragons will finish with two home games in January to round off the group stages both on Friday nights at Rodney Parade, first with Timisoara Saracens heading to Newport on Friday 11 January, and Clermont coming to south Wales on Friday 18 January.
European Challenge Cup Fixtures
Sat 13th October Timisoara Saracens v Dragons 2.30pm
Fri 19th October Dragons v Northampton Saints 7.30pm
Sat 8th December Northampton Saints v Dragons 3pm
Sat 15th December Clermont v Dragons 2pm
Fri 11th January Dragons v Timisoara Saracens 7.30pm
Friday 18th January Dragons v Clermont 7.45pm
Did you know?
Dragons will play the Saracens of Romania at the Dan P?ltini?anu Stadium, a 33,000 seated capacity multi-purpose stadium, in Timi?oara, Romania. It is currently used mostly for football matches by the local team, Poli Timi?oara. The stadium is named after Politehnica Timi?oara's centre half legend Dan P?ltini?anu who played 271 matches in 10 years for the club and scored very important goals, including the qualification goal in UEFA Cup against Celtic and Atlético Madrid.
The home of ASM Clermont-Auvergne, Stade Marcel-Michelin, opened in 1911 is named after Marcel Michelin, manager of the Michelin tire group and founder of the sports club "Association Sportive Michelin" (ASM). Aaron Jarvis joined the Dragons from Clermont this season after spending two years with the Top 14 club, winning the league championship in his first season and just missed out on a Champions Cup winning medal as Saracens defeated Clermont 28-17 to lift the title in Edinburgh in the 2016/17 season final.
Northampton Saints’ home ground Franklin Gardens, were originally known as Melbourne Gardens, and were created by John Collier. They were bought by John Franklin, a successful hotelier, who renamed them Franklin’s Gardens the following year. In 1888 the Gardens were sold for £17,000 to the Northampton Brewery Company who started making extensive improvements, with new features including sporting facilities along with a bear pit, a large ornamental lake, an improved monkey house and a larger zoological garden. Franklin’s Gardens was described as the "Champs Elysees of Northampton" and trams ran from the town centre every few minutes for a penny. Former Dragons scrum half Charlie Davies joined the Saints this summer.
