What’s happening?
Final round of pool fixtures in both the Champions and Challenge Cups.
Who, where, when?
All four Irish provinces are in action on Saturday, with Leo Cullen’s Leinster being the only side of the four with an away fixture to see out their pool campaign.
Champions Cup
Bayonne v Leinster, Stade Jean Dauger, Bayonne – 3.15pm
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Munster v Castres, Thomond Park – 5.30pm
Challenge Cup
Ulster v Stade Français, Affidea Stadium – 1pm
Connacht v Montauban, Dexcom Stadium – 8pm
Where can I watch the games?
Premier Sports will televise all four games on Saturday, starting with Ulster v Stade Français on Premier Sports 2, where coverage starts at 12.45pm, followed by Bayonne v Leinster from 3pm. Premier Sports 1 will show Munster v Castres from 5.15pm, before Connacht v Montauban from 7.45pm.
How did Leinster pull off their win against La Rochelle?
What’s at stake?
The final pool standings determine what teams will proceed to the knockout stages of each competition. In addition, the top two teams from each pool in the Champions Cup play at home in the Round of 16, while the third and fourth-place pool finishers will play away.
Champions Cup teams who finish fifth in their pool drop to the Challenge Cup Round of 16, where they will be joined by the top four finishers from each of the three Challenge Cup pools. The first, second and two highest ranked third-place pool finishers get home advantage for the Round of 16.
And the impact of the pool rankings doesn’t end there, with the higher ranked teams also enjoying home draws for the quarter and semi-finals.
How’s it looking for the provinces?
Leinster
Top of Pool 3 on 14 points, three points ahead of second-place Harlequins. Their weekend opponents Bayonne are last in the pool without a single points and a -106 scoring differential.
Munster
Munster are currently fourth in Pool 2, level on six points (but 10 ahead on scoring differential) with Gloucester in fifth. Saturday’s visitors Castres are also last in the pool, but have five points to their credit, claimed in their 33-0 win over Edinburgh last month.
Ulster
Ulster are in fine form and are in a strong position going into the last pool game, sitting second in Pool 3 on 12 points, but face a more pronounced challenge than the other provinces. Richie Murphy’s side welcome Stade Français to Belfast, with the Top 14 side currently atop the pool on maximum points after three bonus-point victories.
Connacht
Fourth in Pool 1, Connacht need a win to ensure they’re not at the mercy of results elsewhere. Stuart Lancaster’s team, with eight points, sit one adrift of third-place Zebre, who go to second-from-the-bottom Black Lion to wrap up their pool campaign on Saturday afternoon. Connacht’s opponents, Montauban, are bottom on the pool on two points, three off Black Lion.
How are the permutations looking?
Leinster
Leinster look in fairly good fettle to top the group given their opponents this weekend. Should Bayonne pull off a miracle to beat them and leaving them pointless from the last round, bonus-point wins for both Harlequins and the Stormers would drop Leinster to third, giving them an away Round of 16 draw, but that’s the worst- (and extremely unlikely) case scenario.
Leinster will be more focused on finishing in getting in the top 2 for most points accumulated in the pool stage, which would ensure home advantage all the way to the final. Their main rivals there are Glasgow (15), Bordeaux Bègles (14) and Bristol (14). However, Bordeaux play Bristol, so that rules out one of those teams getting top 2 and Glasgow do not have the easiest game against Saracens. It could go down to the wire.
Munster
Clayton McMillan’s charges have a bit more to do to achieve safe passage to the knockout stages, but again, their opposition is in their favour. With Pool 2 more closely packed, results elsewhere may well have a say in where Munster end up.
First plays second in the pool as Bath welcome Edinburgh, the winner of which will likely top the group (certainly if they bag a bonus point). Sitting three points ahead of Munster after last weekend’s late win, Toulon are away to Gloucester, where a win could catapult them to second.
Munster need a win to guarantee they make it to the Round of 16 in any form. Make it a bonus-point win and they could even be looking at a home draw if results go their way in Bath and Gloucester.
Disaster would take the form of losing to Castres and Gloucester beating Toulon, which would sink Munster to the bottom of the table and out of European rugby for the remainder of the season.
Ulster
The northern province have the luxury of being less concerned with matters elsewhere. They know a win over Stade will see them top the pool, end of story. Lose and they know they’ll finish second or third, depending on how things go between Exeter and Cardiff. Either way, they’re in the last 16, so they’re playing for home advantage.
Connacht
Similar to Munster, there’s more moving parts to how the westerners might remain on their way. Again, there’s a 1v2 matchup between Montpellier and Ospreys, where even a win without a bonus point may not be enough to boost the Welsh side to the top spot. A win for Connacht would deliver them to the Round of 16, regardless of the final score between Black Lion and Zebre, and could even push them up to second if the other results fall well for them.
As with Munster, a loss could spell the end of Connacht’s European season, but only if Black Lion pick up a win to knock them down to fifth. Barring that, defeat to Montauban would leave them fourth, with an away draw for the knockout stages.
Have we any news on the teams?
We sure do. Here’s how the provinces line out...
LEINSTER (v Bayonne): J O’Brien; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Kenny; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; J Boyle, R Kelleher, T Furlong; RG Snyman, J Ryan; M Deegan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt).
Replacements: D Sheehan, J Cahir, T Clarkson, J McCarthy, S Penny, L McGrath, S Prendergast, R Ioane.
[ Jean Kleyn to leave Munster in favour of GloucesterOpens in new window ]
MUNSTER (v Castres): S Daly; T Abrahams, T Farrell, A Nankivell, B O’Connor; J Crowley, C Casey; J Loughman, N Scannell, M Ala’alatoa; J Kleyn, F Wycherley; T Beirne (capt), J O’Donoghue, G Coombes.
Replacements: L Barron, M Milne, O Jager, E Edogbo, B Gleeson, E Coughlan, JJ Hanrahan, D Kelly.
ULSTER (v Stade Francais): J Stockdale; R Baloucoune, J Hume, S McCloskey, Z Ward; J Murphy, N Doak; A Bell, T Stewart, T O’Toole; I Henderson (capt), H Sheridan; D McCann, N Timoney, B Ward.
Replacements: R Herring, E O’Sullivan, S Wilson, M Dalton, S Reffell, C McKee, J Flannery, J Postlethwaite.
CONNACHT (v Montauban): S Gilbert; S Jennings, H West, C Forde, F Treacy; J Carty, M Devine; B Bohan, D Heffernan, S Illo; D Murray, J Murphy; C Prendergast (capt), P Boyle, S Jansen.
Replacements: D Tierney-Martin, D Buckley, J Aungier, J Joyce, S O’Brien, B Murphy, S Naughton, S Walsh.
Are tickets still available?
Tickets remain available for the Munster, Ulster and Connacht games and can be purchased via Ticketmaster or through the provinces’ websites. Tickets for Leinster’s game at Bayonne have sold out.
