• Gloucester 36-36 Bordeaux Bègles

• Will Trenholm makes vital impact off bench for hosts

The new Champions Cup season is only just under way but the defending champions Bordeaux are already having to battle for everything. The French side, chasing a third consecutive crown, were forced to weather a furious effort from a revitalised Gloucester in an outstanding contest and ultimately had to settle for a draw to complete a highly eventful visit to England.

Four visiting players, including Louis Bielle-Biarrey, were held up for four hours on arrival by UK Border Control for failing to have a valid electronic travel authorisation (ETA), but stopping their star winger on the field tends to be slightly harder. The French international, in his familiar red scrum cap, darted over for two sharp tries but could not quite prevent the Cherry and Whites from claiming a share of the spoils.

• SA Rugby said Andrews fell at hotel in tragic accident

• Squad will play on Saturday to honour teammate

Tributes have been paid to Johannesburg Lions’ Hyron Andrews after he died in the team hotel on the eve of their Champions Cup game against La Rochelle.

Andrews, 31, who also played for the KZN Sharks and Sale Sharks, could not be revived by emergency services after the alarm was raised at the Atalante-Relais Thalasso hotel on the Île de Ré. A statement from SA Rugby said the lock forward had “passed away tragically” after an accident in which he fell.

Bath’s co-owner and ‘wily old fox’ on the need for Champions Cup change and the future of the Prem

It doesn’t feel like 16 years since Bruce Craig first shared his vision for Bath Rugby with the Guardian. Back then there were plenty wondering if his extravagant ambitions would be realised and even he describes it as “a long haul” at times. “It has been a lot more difficult than I anticipated. Anyone would have wanted it to happen a lot quicker than it actually has. But anything worthwhile is difficult and takes a long time.”

It has also taught him loads about the inner workings of professional rugby. “I’m not the new young buck on the block I was a few years ago, I’m the old wily fox now.” These days he compares it to a “four-dimensional” puzzle, even for the wealthiest owners. “When you come from business into rugby you probably think there would be a lot of crossovers. But it’s different. In business … it’s a lot easier to get the outcomes.”

• Tweaked hamstring to keep Exeter wing out at Toulouse

• Genge and Lawes want England eligibility rules changed

England’s game-breaking wing Manny Feyi-Waboso should be fit for international duty next month despite tweaking a hamstring playing for Exeter against Newcastle on Sunday. Initial scans have not revealed major damage and Rob Baxter, the Chiefs’ director of rugby, hopes the 23-year-old will be back in action before long.

Medical staff from Exeter and England have assessed Feyi-Waboso’s scan and he will be unavailable for his club’s opening Champions Cup pool fixture at Toulouse on Saturday. The early indications are said to be positive, however, and he is on track to feature in England’s Nations Championship Test against Australia on 8 November.

A seventh consecutive French title looks likely with lopsided odds again favouring Toulouse and Bordeaux-Bègles

The world is currently awash with uncertainty but not, sadly, in the case of rugby’s Champions Cup. This season’s winners will be either Toulouse or Bordeaux-Bègles. Next question? Such is the French stranglehold on the tournament – six consecutive years and counting – that it grows ever harder, given the existing structure and regulations, to see anyone upsetting the increasingly lopsided odds.

Bookmakers are quoting the Top 14 powerhouses at 13-5 each for the title, with Leinster, Bath, Northampton and Montpellier just about visible in the distance behind them. There might be an argument for adding the Stormers and Glasgow to the chasing peloton but that’s about it. A 24-team competition reduced to a handful of serious contenders before a ball is kicked? It is not the greatest of portents.

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• Prem Rugby: Exeter 34-28 Newcastle

• Wade becomes second player to score 100 top-tier tries

Amid the current gushing torrent of Prem tries here was a reminder that winning still trumps all else. Exeter finally have their first, relieving, victory of the campaign but there were times when it seemed Newcastle might conceivably secure a first away league success in almost four years. In the event the Red Bulls fell just short despite Christian Wade running in a hat-trick to become only the second player to score 100 top-tier tries.

Exeter will be suitably relieved to have edged a curate’s egg of a contest, ultimately made safe by a late try from their Georgian prop Bachuki Tchumbadze. The Chiefs’ Italian international back-rower Ross Vintcent also contributed two ­first-quarter tries to steal some of the prolific Wade’s thunder. The 35-year-old retains a poacher’s instinct and is now closing in fast – in every sense – on Chris Ashton’s all-time Prem career haul of 101.

The 27-year-old flanker confounded expectations leaping from Durham university’s fourth XV to Prem rugby captain – don’t bet against his big England ambitions

At the start of every season for the past few years Fitz Harding has written down his goals for the next 12 months on the first page of a crisp new notebook. “You can probably guess what they are,” says Bristol’s impressive captain before his team’s trip to Saracens on Saturday afternoon. “I want to win the Prem, I want to play for England, I want to go to the World Cup.” He makes it sound almost matter-of-fact, like a list of basic groceries to be picked up on the way home.

The longer you spend with him, though, the more you wonder if those lofty ambitions may be realised. Not only is the 27-year-old intelligent and personable but he is not the type to give up easily. Nor does he lack for motivation. “I don’t just want to be in England’s squad. I want to play for England. It sounds silly but just getting a phone call [before the November Tests] wouldn’t mean very much to me. They’re not going to write in my obituary: ‘He made the England squad once.’”