Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Tuesday July 2, 2024 at 1:40 p.m.
The draw for the group stages of the Champions Cup took place this Tuesday. La Rochelle, winner of the Irish province in the final two years in a row, will meet in group 2 (as last year) this Leinster beaten in the final by Toulouse last May. The title holder will, in group 1, face the English from Exeter and Leicester but also the Durban Sharks, winners last season in the Challenge Cup.
Reunion with Leinster for La Rochelle, Toulouse with Exeter, Leicester and the Sharks. The Champions Cup draw, which took place this Tuesday, has once again reserved Leinster for Stade Rochelais. The Maritimes know the Irish province perfectly well, beaten in the final last May by Toulouse (its third defeat in a row at this stage of the competition), having dominated it twice, two years in a row (2023 and 2023), in the final of the competition to offer themselves their first two European titles, knowing that the two teams had also found themselves face to face in the first round last season (Editor’s note: 16-9 defeat of the Rochelais at home). The Yellow and Black, like Clermont, also dropped into this group 2, will also rub shoulders with the English from Bristol and Bath but also with the Italians from Treviso, semi-finalists of the last edition of the Challenge Cup. Toulouse, for its part, will play in Group 1. The title holders were not spared by the draw, which offered in Group 1 to Ugo Mola and his men, authors last Friday of a new double by crushing Bordeaux-Bègles in the final, the English of Exeter and Leicester, the Irish of Ulster but especially the Durban Sharks, the South African franchise titled last season in the Challenge Cup.
Harlequins for Toulon and Racing 92
UBB, pulverized last Friday in Marseille by Toulouse, is also in this group, but it will not find its executioner, since two clubs from the same country cannot face each other. Also in the running this year in the Champions Cup, Stade Français and Castres, in group 3, will not have an easy game there either, with Saracens, Munster, Northampton, semi-finalist of the last edition, or the Bulls, another South African franchise, facing them. Finally, in group 4, Toulon and Racing 92 will challenge Harlequins in turn, who had also been part of the last four last May, but also Glasgow, Sale or even the South Africans of the Stormers. Here again, we have known simpler.
Champions Cup – The composition of the four groups
Group 1: Toulouse, Bordeaux-Bègles, Durban (AFS), Exeter, Leicester, Ulster
Group 2: Leinster, Clermont, La Rochelle, Bristol, Treviso, Bath
Group 3: Northampton, Munster, Bulls (AFS), Stade Français, Saracens, Castres
Poule 4 : Glasgow, Racing 92, Sale, Stormers (AFS), Toulon, Harlequins
