Champions Cup explained as European rugby's finest return alongside South Africa's best

Champions Cup explained as European rugby's finest return alongside South Africa's best

The most prestigious competition in European club Rugby will once again get underway this weekend. This time, rerturning for its 28th season. 

Of course, one of its most notable parts with the return of the Champions Cup is the switch back to a more recognisable four-pool format that harkens back to what many Rugby fans recognise as the best understandable layout. 

Investec who are a bank and wealth management company with operations in both Europe and South Africa, join the competition as the brand new title sponsor. 

This will also be the second tournament that is set to feature the four United Rugby Championship (URC) sides from the world cup winning nation, as the competition continues its evolution. 

In total, the tournament will feature 24 teams from European Rugby’s three biggest leagues, the URC, Gallagher Premiership and French Top 14. Each league will have eight representatives split among the four pools. 


For the pool stage, teams are placed into pools via a draw. The teams are ranked based on domestic league performance the previous season and arranged into four tiers. Teams are then drawn from the tiers into pools at random, with the restriction that no team will be drawn in the same pool as another team from the same league and tier. 

Teams will play two other teams in their pool from a different league twice, at home and away, and match points will be awarded depending on the result of each game, with teams receiving four points for a win and two for a draw. Teams can also earn bonus points for scoring four or more tries and/or for losing a match by seven points or fewer. 


Following the completion of the pool stage, 16 teams qualify for the knock-out stage of the Champions Cup, with a further 6 of the remaining eight dropping into the Challenge Cup. 

The eight winning teams from the round of 16 will progress to a quarterfinal, with teams ranked 1 – 4 during the pool stages, each receiving home-field advantage. 

From here, the four winners from the quarterfinals will play in the semi-finals, which will then confirm the finalists, who will play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on May 25th.   

North American and US Territories Rugby fans can catch every Investec Champions Cup and Challenge Cup fixture live and exclusively on FloRugby.



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