PROVINCES SET TO FACE SOME FAMILIAR FOES IN NEXT SEASON'S CHAMPIONS CUP

THE DUST HAS barely settled on the 2023/24 club year but already we know how next season is shaping up following this morning’s draws for the 2024/25 Champions Cup and Challenge Cup pool stages.

The bloated Champions Cup format continues to frustrate – 24 teams will be split across four groups of six (there are no pool matches between clubs from the same league), with 16 teams making it through to the knockout rounds.

The four-pool format also means the competition throws up some very familiar ties year-on-year, and it will be no different next season with the likes of Ulster and Toulouse, Leinster and La Rochelle and Munster and Northampton all set to face off again after a number of recent battles still fresh in the memory.

Pool 1: Toulouse, Bordeaux-Begles, Sharks, Exeter Chiefs, Leicester Tigers, Ulster 

Ulster look to have the most difficult draw of the provinces, and Richie Murphy’s first taste of leading a team in a Champions Cup campaign will see him come up against some serious European heavyweights.

Champions Cup and Top 14 double winners Toulouse top the billing in Pool 1, and the French giants will be no strangers to Ulster. Ugo Mola’s side thumped Ulster 48-24 in Belfast back in January and knocked the province out in the round of 16 stages in the 2022/23 season.

Beaten Top 14 finalists Bordeaux-Begles will also represent a tricky assignment on the back of a highly encouraging campaign, while 2020 champions Exeter Chiefs and Leicester Tigers – who recently hired Michael Cheika as their new head coach – will be targeting Ulster as a game they can take points from, home or away.

Ulster made a bright start to life under Murphy but as the province look to lift themselves from a largely difficult season, this is a testing pool draw.

Pool 2: Leinster, Clermont Auvergne, La Rochelle, Bristol Bears, Benetton, Bath 

Pool 2 carries the eye-catching Leinster-La Rochelle rematch, and is where the real sense of déjà vu kicks in, with the province also set to play Clermont, Bristol and Bath.

The Leinster v La Rochelle rivalry has become one of the most fascinating in European rugby but they are now set to face each other for the fifth consecutive season, having already played each other twice in the season just gone – Leinster winning a tight pool game at La Rochelle before storming to a dominant quarter-final victory in Dublin.

It would be a shame to see the rivalry grow stale but at this point, another knockout tie meeting between the two would certainly be more appealing than a pool stage clash. The importance of that tie will lie in the scheduling, which is to be confirmed later this month (last season La Rochelle v Leinster provided a blockbuster matchup on the competition’s opening weekend). 

Leinster have a long history with Clermont in European Cup rugby, but they haven’t come up against each other since the French side won a 2017 semi-final 27-22 in Lyon.

Leo Cullen’s team last faced Bath in the 2020/21 season, picking up comfortable wins home (45-20) and away (64-7) in the pool stages, but the English side have been revitalised since former Munster boss Johann van Graan took the reins. There will at least be something different in their meeting with Bristol, with the two sides last playing each other way back in the 2002/03 season. 

After a third straight trophyless season, the pressure is rising at Leinster and while they will be as keen as ever to earn as many match points as possible from their pool, there are a few potential stumbling blocks here.

Pool 3: Northampton Saints, Munster, Bulls, Stade Francais, Saracens, Castres

Premiership champions Northampton are the headline name in Pool 3, and will have recent history on their side ahead of their own rematch with Munster, having faced them in each of the last two seasons.

The two sides played each other twice last season, with the Saints winning on both occasions – recording an impressive 26-23 win in Limerick in the pool stages before beating the province 24-14 at Franklin’s Gardens in the round of 16. Munster came out on top when they went to Northampton in the 2022/23 pool stages.

Munster will also face Stade Francais, who had a strong domestic season (finishing second in the Top 14 table) and Saracens, who are preparing for life without their talisman Owen Farrell.

Castres have also been drawn in Pool 3, having last played the province in the 2020/21 pool stages, where Munster won home and away. The two teams have a rich history against each other, and next year’s pool game will be their 19th meeting in the European Cup. It’s already the most played fixture in the competition’s history.

There are tough games here but the draw could have been more difficult for Munster.

Pool 4: Glasgow Warriors, Racing 92, Sharks, Stormers, Toulon, Harlequins

There is no Irish involvement in Pool 4, but it has the potential to provide the most entertaining match-ups. URC champions Glasgow will be aiming to build on their league progress with a better European showing – they lost to Harlequins in the round of 16 this season – while Racing will hope the arrival of Owen Farrell can spur them on in their second season under Stuart Lancaster.

Sale Sharks will be ambitious having reached the Premiership semi-finals and won the Challenge Cup, while the Stormers can take some scalps, having come agonisingly close to upsetting La Rochelle in the round of 16.

Beaten semi-finals Harlequins were one of the competition’s great entertainers this year while Toulon had a season to forget, losing all four pool games.

There’s no Champions Cup for Connacht next season but a good Challenge Cup run would give the province a real lift after an underwhelming campaign.

They’ll play the Cheetahs, Perpignan, Lyon and one of Cardiff or Zebre. A potential trip to see Connacht play the Cheetahs in their ‘home’ base of Amsterdam would be a nice novelty for the province’s supporters.

There’s certainly a feel of ‘here we go again’ to many of next year’s fixtures, but by the time the opening round rolls around in December the start of a new European campaign will no doubt carry the usual sense of excitement.

2024-07-03T06:36:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd