LET’S GET THE obvious out of the way early. The Champions Cup remains a flawed tournament, one in which too many off the early-season games can be painfully one-sided in a structure that takes too long to discard the fat.
If you were to pick out five or six of the front-runners now, there’s a fair chance you could ignore the pool stages, check back in for the knockouts in April, and find the contenders exactly where they would expect to be. And tuning out will be easier than ever before as this time around the competition will not be on free-to-air television. If you are planning to watch the games this weekend, make sure that Premier Sports subscription is up to date.
April is when this competition really takes shape but there will hopefully be enough unexpected turns on the road to keep things interesting before we reach that stage.
24 teams Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Take Munster’s pool opener in Bath tonight [KO 8pm], a matchup which looked a nice test of where Clayton McMillan’s men stand as they try build on their promising URC start, but one that may be a step too far without the injured Jack Crowley.
Former Munster boss Johann van Graan has the English side in fine health. Last season Bath ended a 29-year wait for a Premiership title and were Challenge Cup winners, and six rounds into the new Prem campaign they top the league table by three points. Finn Russell adds the flashes of quality but a more pressing concern for Munster might be the one-two punch of tightheads Will Stuart and Thomas du Toit.
On the face of things, losing at the Rec would not be a disaster for Munster, but when you consider their run of fixtures there is a sense they need to scrap for every point possible. Home games against Gloucester and Castres either side of Christmas look more winnable, but the round three visit to a resurgent Toulon, less so. If the province can win their home games, and get a result in one of Bath or Toulon, they will be in a strong position to kick on in the knockouts.
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Bath won the Premiership and Challenge Cup under Johann van Graan last season. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
Leinster’s route to those knockouts is far more inviting. It starts against a struggling, depleted Harlequins in Dublin today [KO 5.30pm], before a Friday night assignment in Leicester next week.
Those games would feel like two bankers for Leo Cullen’s side in previous seasons but their stuttering start to this season, coupled with a disappointing November for their Ireland contingent, ensures nothing can be taken for granted. Post-Christmas Leinster host La Rochelle and visit Bayonne. Not the choppiest waters, but a schedule that demands Leinster be better than what we’ve seen so far.
When it all settles they should safely be through to the round of 16, but given their ambitions the logistics will be equally important. Leinster desperately want to put themselves in a position where they can enjoy home advantage along a potential journey to the Bilbao final.
Year on year, those home comforts always serve as a big driving motivation, even if they couldn’t make it count in last season’s home semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints. Some Leinster fans found that loss more difficult to stomach than the series of gut-wrenching final defeats to La Rochelle and Toulouse.
You might take the view a team of Leinster’s resources have underachieved in this competition since that last win in 2018, but there’s also a lot to be said for how they’ve continually managed to stay in the hunt, year after heartbreaking year. It’s also fair to wonder if they’ve missed their best chance at ending that drought.
Northampton stormed to a famous semi-final win in Dublin last season. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
For all the aforementioned flaws, the Champions Cup might actually be getting harder to win. Flick back through recent season previews and you’ll find Leinster, Toulouse and La Rochelle widely accepted as the most likely champions, but that net spreads wider now. Last year the competition had new winners in a brilliant Bordeaux-Begles team. They haven’t started this season with the same verve but have the quality to be back in the mix come the business end of the season.
Their success came against a Northampton Saints team who were also semi-finals 12 months previously. If the Saints – who rotated their team and saw their winning start to the new season broken by Bristol last weekend – can build on last year’s impressive progress they can be a sticky opponent in the knockouts again.
So too Bath, who are keen to properly attack this competition haven finally gotten over the line in the Premiership. Throw in Saracens, who have a great history in Europe but unfortunately, decided to prioritise their league commitments when it came to the crunch last season, and perhaps Exeter – winners as recently as 2020 – and a greater spread of English teams might be ready to have a more meaningful say this time around. Maybe not winners, but teams that can knock a Leinster or a Toulouse off course come the brighter spring evenings.
The French look best placed to lead that spring charge. Bordeaux have a taste for success now, while Toulouse (this writer’s pick) are currently top of the Top 14 table and recently welcomed Antoine Dupont back after his long lay off. (If all things prove equal, maybe their run to Bilbao is more inevitable than we’d like to admit.) Toulon, unbeaten at home in the Top 14, look in better health than they have in years and although La Rochelle have been trending in the opposite direction, you still wouldn’t back against Ronan O’Gara’s men taking a scalp or two. Speaking of strong home records, keep an eye on Pau, second in the Top 14 with wins over La Rochelle, Toulouse (both home) and Bordeaux (away) to their name, although you suspect the league will remain the priority.
Pau are taking scalps in the Top 14. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Then you have a team like the Stormers, who have a tough pool but appear more determined than ever to leave a mark on this tournament. Unbeaten in the URC, a statement scrum showing in Thomond Park last week was a reminder how far the power in their pack could take them – winning in Limerick without the stardust of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cobus Reinach or Damian Willemse in the backline. The travel and scheduling often works against the South African sides but none of the frontrunners would want to catch John Dobson’s men at the wrong time.
But it’s hard to ignore the faults and messy format, which, if you need reminding, sees 24 teams split across four pools where we spend two months to shed just eight of the runners. Some will be able to afford a few slips and still finds themselves in the knockouts, yet if you want to go all the way, every point in that chase for home knockout games feels vital – away wins have proven remarkably rare when it comes to the do-or-die games over recent seasons, with just three knockout wins on the road last season.
And really, a competition where you don’t play every team in your pool is too complicated. Is it fair that Quins, for example, have to play Leinster, La Rochelle and the Stormers, while the Stormers don’t have to worry about Leinster? Or that La Rochelle have to navigate away days in Dublin and Cape Town in that pool?
It will be a few months before it all falls into place, and while we’ll have to sit through a few turkeys over December and January, there should also be enough twists and turns to keep things interesting before this slow-boil competition heats up.
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Champions Cup is flawed, confusing, but maybe increasingly hard to win
LET’S GET THE obvious out of the way early. The Champions Cup remains a flawed tournament, one in which too many off the early-season games can be painfully one-sided in a structure that takes too long to discard the fat.
If you were to pick out five or six of the front-runners now, there’s a fair chance you could ignore the pool stages, check back in for the knockouts in April, and find the contenders exactly where they would expect to be. And tuning out will be easier than ever before as this time around the competition will not be on free-to-air television. If you are planning to watch the games this weekend, make sure that Premier Sports subscription is up to date.
April is when this competition really takes shape but there will hopefully be enough unexpected turns on the road to keep things interesting before we reach that stage.
Take Munster’s pool opener in Bath tonight [KO 8pm], a matchup which looked a nice test of where Clayton McMillan’s men stand as they try build on their promising URC start, but one that may be a step too far without the injured Jack Crowley.
Former Munster boss Johann van Graan has the English side in fine health. Last season Bath ended a 29-year wait for a Premiership title and were Challenge Cup winners, and six rounds into the new Prem campaign they top the league table by three points. Finn Russell adds the flashes of quality but a more pressing concern for Munster might be the one-two punch of tightheads Will Stuart and Thomas du Toit.
On the face of things, losing at the Rec would not be a disaster for Munster, but when you consider their run of fixtures there is a sense they need to scrap for every point possible. Home games against Gloucester and Castres either side of Christmas look more winnable, but the round three visit to a resurgent Toulon, less so. If the province can win their home games, and get a result in one of Bath or Toulon, they will be in a strong position to kick on in the knockouts.
Leinster’s route to those knockouts is far more inviting. It starts against a struggling, depleted Harlequins in Dublin today [KO 5.30pm], before a Friday night assignment in Leicester next week.
Those games would feel like two bankers for Leo Cullen’s side in previous seasons but their stuttering start to this season, coupled with a disappointing November for their Ireland contingent, ensures nothing can be taken for granted. Post-Christmas Leinster host La Rochelle and visit Bayonne. Not the choppiest waters, but a schedule that demands Leinster be better than what we’ve seen so far.
When it all settles they should safely be through to the round of 16, but given their ambitions the logistics will be equally important. Leinster desperately want to put themselves in a position where they can enjoy home advantage along a potential journey to the Bilbao final.
Year on year, those home comforts always serve as a big driving motivation, even if they couldn’t make it count in last season’s home semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints. Some Leinster fans found that loss more difficult to stomach than the series of gut-wrenching final defeats to La Rochelle and Toulouse.
You might take the view a team of Leinster’s resources have underachieved in this competition since that last win in 2018, but there’s also a lot to be said for how they’ve continually managed to stay in the hunt, year after heartbreaking year. It’s also fair to wonder if they’ve missed their best chance at ending that drought.
For all the aforementioned flaws, the Champions Cup might actually be getting harder to win. Flick back through recent season previews and you’ll find Leinster, Toulouse and La Rochelle widely accepted as the most likely champions, but that net spreads wider now. Last year the competition had new winners in a brilliant Bordeaux-Begles team. They haven’t started this season with the same verve but have the quality to be back in the mix come the business end of the season.
Their success came against a Northampton Saints team who were also semi-finals 12 months previously. If the Saints – who rotated their team and saw their winning start to the new season broken by Bristol last weekend – can build on last year’s impressive progress they can be a sticky opponent in the knockouts again.
So too Bath, who are keen to properly attack this competition haven finally gotten over the line in the Premiership. Throw in Saracens, who have a great history in Europe but unfortunately, decided to prioritise their league commitments when it came to the crunch last season, and perhaps Exeter – winners as recently as 2020 – and a greater spread of English teams might be ready to have a more meaningful say this time around. Maybe not winners, but teams that can knock a Leinster or a Toulouse off course come the brighter spring evenings.
The French look best placed to lead that spring charge. Bordeaux have a taste for success now, while Toulouse (this writer’s pick) are currently top of the Top 14 table and recently welcomed Antoine Dupont back after his long lay off. (If all things prove equal, maybe their run to Bilbao is more inevitable than we’d like to admit.) Toulon, unbeaten at home in the Top 14, look in better health than they have in years and although La Rochelle have been trending in the opposite direction, you still wouldn’t back against Ronan O’Gara’s men taking a scalp or two. Speaking of strong home records, keep an eye on Pau, second in the Top 14 with wins over La Rochelle, Toulouse (both home) and Bordeaux (away) to their name, although you suspect the league will remain the priority.
Then you have a team like the Stormers, who have a tough pool but appear more determined than ever to leave a mark on this tournament. Unbeaten in the URC, a statement scrum showing in Thomond Park last week was a reminder how far the power in their pack could take them – winning in Limerick without the stardust of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cobus Reinach or Damian Willemse in the backline. The travel and scheduling often works against the South African sides but none of the frontrunners would want to catch John Dobson’s men at the wrong time.
But it’s hard to ignore the faults and messy format, which, if you need reminding, sees 24 teams split across four pools where we spend two months to shed just eight of the runners. Some will be able to afford a few slips and still finds themselves in the knockouts, yet if you want to go all the way, every point in that chase for home knockout games feels vital – away wins have proven remarkably rare when it comes to the do-or-die games over recent seasons, with just three knockout wins on the road last season.
And really, a competition where you don’t play every team in your pool is too complicated. Is it fair that Quins, for example, have to play Leinster, La Rochelle and the Stormers, while the Stormers don’t have to worry about Leinster? Or that La Rochelle have to navigate away days in Dublin and Cape Town in that pool?
It will be a few months before it all falls into place, and while we’ll have to sit through a few turkeys over December and January, there should also be enough twists and turns to keep things interesting before this slow-boil competition heats up.
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Champions Cup Leinster Munster Opening Weekend Rugby