European Champions Cup Preview: Pool 2

In Pool 2 Leinster and Harlequins are the runaway leaders after winning both their opening games and go into this weekends games level on 8 points each. Wasps and Castres complete the group with Wasps in third having picked up two losing bonus points with Castres at the bottom with only 1 point to show for their opening two games.

Three time European champions Leinster travel to Twickenham Stoop on Sunday having avoided defeat in their last two visits to the Stoop. The last meeting ended in a draw in 2010 and  Few fans will forget the meeting in 2009 when Leinster defeated Harlequins in a Heineken Cup Quarter final. A match that will not be remembered for the expansive game of Rugby played but instead was marked by controversy with Tom Williams faking an injury late in the game. in what was later called the Bloodgate scandal. With home games so precious in European Rugby Harlequins will know how important a win will be against a Leinster side who have won on their last 4 visits to England.

In the other game in the pool Wasps travel to France to take on Castres with both sides needing to win their remaining four games if  they are to have any hopes of making it through to the quarter finals. Things could have been different for Wasps who performed well against Leinster and Harlequins but in the end lost both games and now find themselves on the brink of elimination from the competition. As for Castres they go into this game occupying bottom spot in the Top 14 and with little chance of making it through the quarters they are expected to name a second team for the game against Wasps.