It may only be July but the Investec Champions Cup season got underway on Tuesday with the pool draws in Cardiff.
The 24 clubs taking part – who qualified through their league position or by winning the second tier EPCR Challenge Cup – will compete across four pools of six in December and January before knockouts lead to a finals weekend in the Welsh capital.
Each team has been placed in a group of six featuring two teams from each of Europe’s big three leagues – the French Top 14, the English Premiership and the multi-national United Rugby Championship.
Teams cannot play teams from their own league and will face two of the remaining four sides at home and the others away.
The Champions Cup algorithm
How EPCR, European rugby’s governing body figures that out, however, is a little more complicated.
The organisation gathers information from clubs regarding venues and restrictions – such as concerts or clubs that share their ground with football teams – and combines it with league calendars – any team playing on a Sunday before European weekends is unlikely to play on the following Friday.
Throw in the broadcast requirements and the information is fed into the system with the pool draw, and potential fixture outcomes, and the schedule is produced.
Take London club Harlequins, who are in Pool 4. They cannot play fellow Premiership side Sale Sharks but will be home to two and away to two of the following: Glasgow Warriors, Racing 92, Stormers and Toulon.
The algorithm could be the difference between away days to URC champions Glasgow and South Africa’s Stormers and home trips to big clubs with reduced travel.
It is important.
Londoners on the charge
Harlequins Head Coach Danny Wilson told City A.M.: “It’s an exciting pool for us. We know Glasgow and Racing 92 well from last season and have recent history with the Stormers. Toulon will be another exciting challenge for our group.
“Our supporters travelled in huge numbers last season and we look forward to receiving the confirmed fixture dates and venues to commence our planning.”
Fellow London club Saracens could also find themselves in South Africa – against the Bulls – with potential trips to Stade Francais, Castres and Munster.
Exeter Chiefs and Leicester Tigers are in Pool 1, Bath and Bristol are in Pool 2, Northampton join Saracens in Pool 3 and Harlequins are with Sale in Pool 4.
Last season Sale Sharks got a brutal duo of away trips, having to travel to Irish giants Leinster and the South African Stormers.
It left them stuck in a situation whereby away wins were very unlikely given the travel and quality of the opponents.
But the Champions Cup is all about that; it is supposed to be the best of the best versus the best of the best. It is the pedigree club competition of world rugby.
And if last year’s final is anything to go by – where Toulouse beat Leinster in extra time at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – we could be in for a real treat this year.
2024 final
Champions Cup: Best of the best
The South African sides have bedded in well and will now be looking to turn home form into consistency across the competition while those from England, Ireland and France will be looking to challenge the giants of the game both at home and abroad.
For Glasgow, who have seen this competition as a bogey trophy, they now have the chance to expand on their United Rugby Championship triumph last season and really charge into the Investec Champions Cup.
For Benetton, too, this is an opportunity to put Italy on the map and it’s probably about time too given the history that the club has across the continent going back decades.
The only let down this season is the lack of a Welsh region. None of the four were good enough to qualify through the URC or by winning the Challenge Cup last season and will therefore linger in the second tier competition this time around.
The quality of rugby on show in the Champions Cup has arguably never been higher.
Yes there are historic fixtures bound into the hippocampus – the part of the brain most associated with memory – involving the likes of Brive, Munster and Toulon, but the quality is exceptionally high now.
Last season, heading into the final round of the group stages, every team except one could qualify for the last 16.
Some suggest it is too easy to qualify when 16 of the 24 teams progress but, like Euro 2024, it allows for surprises to be sprung across the board.
So back again after a small hiatus, in a second season under Investec’s banner, the Champions Cup bandwagon has left the station.
Next up the algorithm will do its thing and fans will be able to start booking in their much anticipated away days.