Stuart Lancaster’s side to take on French heavyweights Toulouse and La Rochelle, while Munster face two-time reigning champions Bordeaux-Bègles
Stuart Lancaster’s side to take on French heavyweights Toulouse and La Rochelle, while Munster face two-time reigning champions Bordeaux-Bègles Toulouse’s Carl Axtens is tackled by Connacht’s Caolin Blade and Jake Heenan during the 2016 Champions Cup game at the Sportsground.
Photograph: Billy Stickland/InphoThe ‘group of death’ was first coined by Mexican journalists for the 1970 World Cup, that particular ‘grupo de la muerte’ pitting together reigning world champions England, tournament favourites Brazil, 1962 World Cup finalists Czechoslovakia and Romania in Group Three. Ever since then it has been appropriated by many sports and rugby is no different.
On an annual basis one of the pools in thein Pool Two, it’s Connacht that find themselves pitted alongside clubs with oodles of European bling. Current French Top 14 champions Toulouse lead the way overall with six Champions Cup wins, Saracens have three titles and a third club, Throw in beaten English Premiership finalists Exeter Chiefs and Stuart Lancaster’s charges face a very tough schedule in their four pool games.
Connacht have never beaten Exeter or Saracens , have a 100 per cent win record against La Rochelle, while in eight matches against Toulouse the western province has won twice.
Gordon D’Arcy: This tour could be the most useful thing to happen to Irish rugby in two years‘I’m itching to get back into the green jersey’: Hugo Keenan relishing return to Australia They were victorious 16-14 in a memorable game in Toulouse in 2013 and three years later beat the French aristocrats 23-21 in Galway.could find their way to Pool One opponents Leicester blindfolded at this stage as they have faced the Tigers on 16 occasions in Europe, one of which was beating the English club at Murrayfield in 2009 to lift the trophy for the first time. Clermont's Irae Simone tackles Leinster's Jimmy O'Brien during the Champions Cup match at the Aviva Stadium in December 2024.
Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Imagesside will face the Sale Sharks, whom they have beaten twice in Dublin in recent seasons and won three of four games overall. Clermont Auvergne were perennial European opponents for Leinster at one point, while the Irish province won their only previous encounter with French Top 14 side Pau. Munster will take on Bordeaux-Bègles, conquerors of Leinster in last season’s Champions Cup final in Bilbao.
The French club beat Munster 47-29 at the quarter-final stage of the tournament in 2025. The Irish province have a poignant history with Racing 92 in relation to the late Anthony Foley, while Pat Lam’s Bristol Bears and the familiar cherry and red of Gloucester, whom Munster played as recently as last season, is likely to contain Jean Kleyn, who joined the English club from the Irish province this summer.
The designated Tier One clubs, Champions Cup winners Bordeaux-Bègles, URC victors Leinster, Top 14 champions Toulouse and English Premiership winners Northampton Saints were seeded and therefore drawn into separate pools at the start of the draw, with the other 20 teams placed in the one bowl. The primary stipulation for the URC teams was that no two teams from one of the four shields could be drawn into the same pool.
Teams will play four matches in the pool phase against four different opponents not from the same league.side have a couple of URC rivals Dragons and Zebre as well as South African Currie Cup side the Toyota Cheetahs, who have played their European matches including against Ulster, in Amsterdam. The fixtures schedules for both tournaments including dates, venues, kick-off times and TV coverage will be announced later this month.
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