Everyone out of the Pool

At the start of the weekend, only 7 of the 24 competing teams in the Investec Champions Cup had secured a spot in the last 16 and of the remaining 17, all but 2 or 3 had a mathematical chance of qualifying for the knockout phase. Union Bordeaux-Begles, Stade Toulousain and Leicester Tigers in Pool 1; Leinster in Pool 2; Northampton Saints in Pool 3; and RC Toulon and Glasgow Warriors in Pool 4 were guaranteed a spot but had home field advantage to play for - an appetizing prospect.

By Sunday night on January 19, 3 teams remained unbeaten after the 4-game pool stage: Union Bordeaux-Begles; Stade Toulousain and Leinster. RC Toulon won Pool 4 losing, surprisingly, to Sale Sharks who by virtue of that victory made the last 16. But in an emphatic demonstration of who the favorites are for the title, UBB put up 66 points against the South African Sharks, Toulouse beat the Tigers 80-12 at home and Leinster beat Bath 47-21 at the Aviva. And emphasizing the flourishing state of rugby in Ireland and France, the top 2 teams in the English Premiership (Bath and Bristol) were eliminated and none of the 3 South African teams in the competition made the last 16 either.

There is a big break until the knockout round starts April 4, 5 and 6. The top 2 teams in each Pool have home field advantage and the match-ups are as follows: UBB vs. Ulster; Leinster vs. Harlequins; Saints vs. ASM Clermont; RC Toulon vs. Saracens; Stade Toulousain vs. Sale; Castres Olympique vs Benetton; Glasgow Warriors vs. Leicester Tigers; and Stade Rochelais vs. Munster. (6 French; 3 Irish; 5 English; 1 Scots; 1 Italian team.)

Note: the teams that didn’t make the knockout stage were: Exeter Chiefs; DHL Stormers; Racing ‘92; Stade Francais Paris; Vodacom Bulls; Bristol Bears; Bath; Hollywoodbets Sharks.

Meanwhile, the English Premiership (R11), URC (R10) and Top 14 (R15) get back to business on January 24 but just for a week until the 6 Nations competition kicks off. The recent results in the Investec Champions Cup illustrate a huge gap between Ireland and France on the one hand, and everyone else. Leinster, almost the Irish national team in club colors lead the URC by 10 clear points and UBB and Stade Toulousain, similarly stacked with international representatives, are on top of France’s Top 14. So Ireland and France will start out as favorites for the 6N crown but Scotland are not without a chance and even England might pull a rabbit out of the hat especially if they start strong against Ireland in Dublin on February 1.

Live-streaming of the Premiership on the Rugby Network; URC and Top 14 on Florugby.com.