The newly titled Investec Champions Cup gets underway this weekend with all four Irish provinces in action.
The tie of the round is a replay of the last two year’s finals with La Rochelle hosting Leinster Rugby in France on Sunday afternoon.
Thankfully the experiment with two groups and seemingly random home and away matches has ended and there is a return to four groups of six teams.
That does not mean home and away fixtures against each team though as one might expect for that would be too many games to fit in.
Instead the teams from each of the United Rugby Championship, the Gallagher Premiership and the French Top 14 have been ranked based on their last season’s performance and placed into tiers.
The draw placed the teams into ‘pools’ on an almost open draw basis but with the restriction that teams from the same tier and the same league could not be in the same pool.
Connacht were drawn in Pool One, Ulster in Pool Two, Munster in Pool Three and Leinster in Pool Four.
Each of the teams will play against English and French opposition, home and away but not with return fixtures. They avoid playing other teams from their own league, a similar restriction applies to the French and the English teams.
So Connacht play Bordeaux and Bristol at home, either side of away trips to Saracens and Lyon.
Ulster travel to Bath and Harlequins and entertain Racing (2, with Stuart Lancaster in charge, and Toulouse.
Munster entertain Bayonne and Northampton and travel to Exeter and Toulon.
Leinster play away in La Rochelle and Leicester with Sale and Stade Francais coming to Dublin.
At the end of all these games the field will be reduced from 24 to 16 teams where things move to a knock- out stage.
Even then though there is a twist. Each of the sides will be ranked in terms of the points won (four for a win, bonus points for four tries or staying within seven points) followed by points difference, tries scored, and disciplinary record.
The top four teams from each group will go forward into this ranking with 1st playing 16th, second playing 15th and so on. The highest ranked team will have home advantage. The team that comes fifth in each group will play in the Challenge Cup and the team that comes sixth will be eliminated from European action for this season.
There are all sorts of calculations that could come into play for the final rounds.
Home advantage carries through for the team ranked highest from the pool stages. The two semi finals will be played in Europe and the final in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on May 25th.
Let the games commence…
