Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Champions Cup draw: Permutations and potential 'pools of death'

2019 Heineken Champions Cup winners Saracens. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

The 2018/19 northern hemisphere seasons may feel as though they have only just finished, but the 2019/20 campaigns will be the focus of the rugby world on Wednesday, as the Heineken Champions Cup draw is made.

ADVERTISEMENT

The draw, which takes place in Lausanne, Switzerland, sees the top 20 sides in European competition last season separated into seven different seedings, which will then be used to organise the teams into four tiers, with each tier consisting of five teams. One team from each tier will then be drawn into the five pools.

Saracens, Leinster and Toulouse, as league winners, are automatically included in the top tier, where they will be joined by two of Exeter Chiefs, Glasgow Warriors and Clermont. One of these three will drop down into tier two, where they will join the three third-seeded teams, as well as the fourth-seeded team from the same league competition as the second seed who drops down.

Champions Cup draw
Will Wednesday’s draw give Mark McCall a good chance of lifting the trophy again? (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

For example, should Clermont not be included in the top tier, they will drop down to tier two with the third-seeded sides – Gloucester, Munster and Lyon – and that will ensure that La Rochelle, the fourth-seeded side from France, are included in tier two also.

The third seeds alongside La Rochelle are Northampton Saints and Ulster, with two of these sides then joining the fifth-seeded sides, Harlequins, Connacht and Racing 92, in the third tier. The fourth tier has already been decided, with sixth seeds Bath, Benetton and Montpellier and seventh seeds Sale Sharks and Ospreys making up the final tier.

Each pool will consist of at least one team from each of the three competing leagues, whilst the duplicate teams from the same league will not occur until the fourth and final tier is drawn. In regard to the Guinness PRO14, no team from the same nation will compete in the same pool in the Champions Cup.

ADVERTISEMENT

The process potentially creates some particularly appetising pools for next season, with the ever-popular ‘Pool of Death’ moniker certainly appropriate for some of the possible combinations.

Reigning champions Saracens could be drawn alongside Munster, Racing 92 and Montpellier, should the balls fall in the right order, creating a pool with zero scope for error or any possibility to take their feet off the gas.

Likewise, Leinster could find themselves in a pool with Clermont, Harlequins and Montpellier, with Montpellier one of the teams that other clubs will be eager to avoid in the fourth tier.

South African rugby fans may not yet be able to enjoy the Cheetahs or the Southern Kings taking part in the competition, but there will be plenty of interest for them in terms of players. Tier two sides Gloucester and Munster, who both boast plenty of South Africans, could face off against Sale Sharks or Montpellier in tier four, who have similar African influence.

ADVERTISEMENT

Inevitably, there are some sides which teams will be hoping to match up with, such as Benetton in tier four. The Italian side have come on significantly over the last few years, but they will still be viewed as an enviable draw in tier four, as could the Ospreys or Sale, who will be bedding in plenty of new players. Connacht could be on certain clubs’ wishlists in tier three, whilst Northampton Saints, still in their infancy under Chris Boyd, could be seen as a nice draw in tier two, should they end up there.

Toulouse could draw a group of Northampton, Connacht and Benetton or Ospreys should the tiers align, something which, whilst still testing, would probably be embraced by the recent French champions.

Rather appropriately, the three most successful sides in the competition’s history, Leinster (4), Toulouse (4) and Saracens (3), are all assured of their top tier status and will be kept separate throughout the pool stage. At the other end of the spectrum, the Champions Cup draw will unlikely put too many smiles on faces in Italy and Wales, with those nations only having one representative apiece and both of those teams guaranteed to be in the bottom tier of teams.

Champions Cup draw tiers and seedings in full:

Tier 1 and 1st seeds – Saracens, Leinster and Toulouse

2nd seeds – Exeter Chiefs, Glasgow Warriors and Clermont

Tier 2 and 3rd seeds – Gloucester, Munster and Lyon

4th seeds – Northampton Saints, Ulster and La Rochelle

Tier 3 and 5th seeds – Harlequins, Connacht and Racing 92

Tier 4 and 6th and 7th seeds – Bath, Benetton, Montpellier, Sale Sharks and Ospreys

Watch: ‘Going Pro’

Video Spacer

ADVERTISEMENT
LIVE

The Classics vs Pasifika Legends

South Africa v Argentina | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

France v New Zealand | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

England v Wales | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

Tattoos & Rugby: Why are tattoos so popular with sportspeople? | Amber Schonert | Rugby Rising Locker Room Season 2

Lions Share | Episode 3

Zimbabwe vs Kenya | Rugby Africa Cup Semi Final | Full Match Replay

USA vs Spain | Men's International | Full Match Replay

Portugal vs Ireland | Men's International | Full Match Replay

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

T
TWAS 8 minutes ago
How the Lions will heap pressure upon Australia's million-dollar man

I’m sorry but this just seems like incredibly selective analysis attempting to blame all team failures on JAS.


Looking through the examples:


Example 1 - long place by JAS, all support overruns the ruck. Pilfer also achieved by a player resting his arms on JAS - so should be a penalty for of his feet anyway. No failure by JAS there failing to secure the ball. By his team mates, yes.


Example 2 - a knock on punched out by the first defender who’s tackle he initially beat, from behind. An error by JAS absolutely. But every player makes the odd handling error.


Example 3 - JAS just beaten to the ruck because defender shoots to make a good tackle He passes and immediately follows. Potentially should have been a penalty to Aus because the tackler had not released and swung around into JAS’s path preventing him securing the ball, and had not released when the jackal went for the pilfer. Tackler prevented a clean release by Potter and if there was any failure, it was the ball carrier who got into a horrible position.


I am struggling how you try and blame 1 on JAS and not support, but then blame JAS when the tackler fails to make a good placement.


Example 4 - JAS flies into this ruck out of nowhere, seemingly runs past the 12 to get there. Also did you miss McReight and Williams just jogging and letting JAS run past them? Anyway he busts a get to get there but was beaten to the contest. Any failure here is on the supporting players, McReight and Williams and JAS showed great instinct to charge in to try and secure.


Example 5 - JAS is following the lead of players inside him. How this is his fault I don’t know what you are thinking


Example 6 - Gleeson misses a tackle so JAS has to drift in off his man to take the ball carrier, leaving a larger overlap when he offloads. Failure by Gleeson not JAS


Examples 7 and 8 - Wallabies defensive line isn’t aggressive. But noting to do with JAS. Fisher has actually said he is not coaching a fast line speed. To try and blame JAS is again selective.


Seems like an agenda in this rather than the genuine, quality analysis I’ve come to expect from the author.

37 Go to comments
J
Jfp123 39 minutes ago
France push All Blacks to 80th minute in narrow Dunedin defeat

So, you think top rugby players’ wages ought to be kept artificially low, when in fact the forces of “demand and supply” mean that many can and indeed are commanding wages higher than you approve of, and even though players regularly get injured, and those injuries can be serious enough to cut short careers and even threaten lives, e.g. Steven Kitshoff.

.

As far as I can make out your objections amount to

1) they’ve sent a B team, which is not what we do and I don’t like it. Is there more to it than that? You haven’t replied to the points I made previously about sell out Tests and high ticket prices, so I take it reduced earnings are no longer part of your argument. Possibly you’re disappointed at not seeing Dupont et al., but a lot of New Zealanders think he is over rated anyway.


2) The Top 14 is paying players too much, leading to wage inflation around the world which is bad for the sport.

Firstly, young athletes have a range of sports to choose from, so rugby holding out the prospect of a lucrative, glamorous career helps attract talent.

Above all, market forces mean the French clubs earn a lot of money, and spend a large part of that money on relatively high wages, within a framework set by the league to maintain the health of the league. This framework includes the salary cap and Jiff rules which in effect limit the number of foreign stars the clubs employ and encourage the development of young talent, so there is a limit on Top14 demand. The Toulon of the 2010s is a thing of the past.


So yes, the French clubs cream off some top players - they are competitive sports teams, what do expect them to do with their money? - but there’s still a there’s a plentiful supply of great rugby players and coaches without French contracts. The troubles in England and Wales were down to mismanagement of those national bodies, and clubs themselves, not the French


So if you don’t want to let market forces determine wage levels, and you do want to prevent the French clubs from spending so much of their large incomes on players, how on earth do you want to set player wages?


Is the problem that NZ can’t pay so much as the Top 14 and you fear the best players will be lured away and/or you want NZ franchises to compete for leading international talent? Are you asking for NZ wage scales to be adopted as the maximum allowed, to achieve this? But in that case why not take Uruguay, or Spain, or Tonga or Samoa as the standard, so Samoa, a highly talented rugby nation, can keep Samoan players in Samoa, not see them leave for higher wages in NZ and elsewhere.

Rugby is played in lots of countries, with hugely varying levels of financial backing etc. Obviously, it’s more difficult for some than others, but aside for a limited amount of help from world rugby, it’s up to each one to make their sums add up, and make the most of the particular advantages their nation/club/franchise has. SA are not the richest, but are still highly successful, and I don’t hear them complaining about Top14 wages.


Many, particularly second tier, nations benefit from the Top14, and anyone genuinely concerned about the whole community of world rugby should welcome that. England and NZ have laid down rules so they can’t make the most of the French competition, which is up to them. But unlike some NZ fans and pundits, the English aren’t generally blaming their own woes on the French, rather they want reform of the English structure, and some are calling for lessons to learned from their neighbours across the channel. If NZ fans aren’t satisfied, I suggest they call for internal reform, not try to make the French scapegoats.


In my opinion, a breach of standards would be to include on your team players who beat up women, not to regularly send a B team on the summer tours for reasons of player welfare, which in all the years you’ve been doing this only some of the pundits and fans of a single country have made a stink about.


[my comments here are, of course, not aimed at all NZ fans and pundits]

266 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ How the Lions will heap pressure upon Australia's million-dollar man How the Lions will heap pressure upon Australia's million-dollar man