The pool draw for next season’s Champions Cup was made this morning.
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.
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.
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 .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.
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.
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.Pool 4: Glasgow Warriors, Racing 92, Sharks, Stormers, Toulon, Harlequins
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.
Luck Of The Draw Connacht Leinster Munster Ulster
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