Champions Cup 2023

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120163245#Comment_120163245

I think you can add the english clubs to that, not the RFU but the clubs.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120162993#Comment_120162993

I wonder could something like a festival weekend work twice in the group stages Where all teams go somewhere like Paris / london or barcelona with its many stadiums and play a group game at a neutral venue. Friday / sat / sun games for all teams in two venues.

No, the teams would never accept losing a round of revenue, even ignoring the impracticality of trying to organise 12 matches with 24 sets of fans in one city for one weekend.

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120163687#Comment_120163687

Its unlikely alright, but they need to be creative arranging fixtures, maybe drawing the groups earlier and fixing the group game dates faster and in collabration to allow teams play league and cup fixtures in the opposite hemisphere on consecutive weekends

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120163743#Comment_120163743

At the very least the EPCR and URC need to coordinate to avoid the SA teams having away-home-away type setups.

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120163783#Comment_120163783

Yea. You would imaging the clubs will be saying the same because its never been taken into consideration what the fans think.

Exclamation Marc

Champions Cup Final confirmed for a 4.45pm kick off which is lovely.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120264244#Comment_120264244

Looks like I'll be doing early drinking that day

sydthebeat

challenge cup final KO at 8pm

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120264932#Comment_120264932

Going to be a long few days for change over of stadium between the 2 games. will be mad if Connacht or sides who will bring very big crowdarechallenge cup final

Sheep Shagger

Anyone know of the final is sold out already except for the final is allocation (that used to be 7.5k each on the old ERC days)?

I know they sold the final weekend packs but they havnt been available for a while. TM shows you can buy the Sat tickets only but actually havnt seen them on sale (Sat only) only the weekend packs last year.

PMC83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120264975#Comment_120264975

Look to be gone, I bought a set mid December and there were still a few 100 scattered about the place. I'd say if Leinster get knocked out plenty of them will be up for sale on toutless.

Sheep Shagger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120265018#Comment_120265018

As soon as teams start getting knocked out they will come up.

Unfortunately the current hotel price issue will put a lot of the usual neutrals visiting for a weekend on the beer off I think...

OldRio

Thank goodness

https://twitter.com/willgkelleher/status/1640733303543046144?s=20

Dave_The_Sheep

I'm looking forward to them coming up with an even more stupid setup.

Also curious as to how qualification from the URC might be affected given things might be changing next year once the charity slots potentially disappear.

Buddy Bubs

6 pools of 4, pool winner straight through and 2 best 2nd places made for some fantastic matches and final pool weekends.

Possible teams wont agree to it as theres less chance of making knockout stages but those were great days.

Its terrible now with a round of 16 theres very little on the line in too many matches. I much prefer must win rugby rather than drawn out leagues.

icdg

Heineken Cup Free to air picks - Round of 16

Saturday 5:30pm Leinster v Ulster RTE2

Sunday 12:30pm Exeter v Montpellier ITV1

Sunday 3pm Saracens v Ospreys S4C.

Dubinusa

They have destroyed this competition, imo. Edinburgh are involved and they are shyte.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120412442#Comment_120412442

Edinburgh qualified on merit. always is a few sides not great who qualify...

what would you change about the competition?

Boscoirl

Hope it goes back to the pools of 4. selfishly We have 10year tickets for TP. So missed out on a game this year aswell as taking a hit on the Covid years. . Last year we got the Exeter home knock out game replacing the pool game but only when we pointed it out.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120412486#Comment_120412486

I think he means they shouldn’t be in the knock out stages. They won 3 from 4 but having Castres in their group made that a gimmie really. In general though the round of 16 is bollox. Teams getting through with one win is a joke.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120413351#Comment_120413351

Agreed on principle, but picking out Edinburgh is bizarre. Ulster and Montpellier are the ones who don't belong in the knockouts. You can only play who is in front of you and Edinburgh won 3 out of 4 games - better than Munster or Ulster

Jump_In_Jack

Best system would be 32 teams (9 of 11 English, 11 of 14 French, 12 of 16 URC), 8 groups of 4, play 6 rounds of home and away in the group, top team gets a home round of 16, second placed team plays away against a group winner, the third teams in each group drop into the Challenge Cup, the bottom team drops out of both competitions.

The challenge cup would have 2 English, 3 French, 4 URC plus invitational teams such as the Cheetahs, and potentially teams in the second tier of france and England, or other unions could supply a team. The format for the Challenge cup would depend on teams entered but would need a system to arrive at 8 teams left for the knockouts to face the 8 teams dropping down from the Champions Cup.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120414670#Comment_120414670

I wouldnt say that would be best system as could be a lot of one sided games which wouldnt be great though if the second tier allowed for several teams from each of ENC 1A so Georgia, Romania, Spain and more sides from Italys league so Calvisano, Petrarca, Rovigo etc it would be good

OldRio

The English and French teams will decide 'what's best for the competition'.

Then when it doesn't work look at some other way to feck the whole thing over again.

Wash, rinse repeat.

Still waiting for all these sponsors BTW.

Cynical? Me? You bet.

sydthebeat

anyone else think the sharks v munster game is a flip of a coin at this stage?

the bookies have munster +5 which i think is very generous to munster. Ok, the travelling will be an issue, and it will probably be a humid 27 / 28 degrees in the stadium on the day.... but i dont think munster will be as bad again as they were against Glasgow, and the sharks havent exactly been ripping it up even with their big name sback. Plus, add to that the 'Heineken cup' factor to the munster performance which oftens sees them pull out an extra 10% from somewhere.

It will be full first teams versus each other, and if that munster team can cut out the self inflicted errors and silly discipline, then certainly have enough to beat that sharks team, who are coming into the game on the back of 3 consecutive losses.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120414670#Comment_120414670

I like the 8 groups of 4 idea and the top 2 in each group advancing to R16 but you will inevitably end up with more than one team from every league in every group

What if:

8 Groups, each group contains, 1 EP, 1 URC, 1 T14 and one team from a Tier 2 European nation

The Challenge Cup would have the same 8 Group format also, each group contain 1 EP or Championship, 1 URC, 1T14 or Pro D2 and one team from a Tier 2 European nation

Ideally the Tier 2 European Nations would organise a joint 16 Team league similar to the URC. I'm thinking Spain, Portugal, Romania, Georgia, the Netherlands and Germany for example would each provide 2 teams each with the neighbouring countries and Romania/Georgia forming the "Shields"

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120414995#Comment_120414995

I like the way you’re thinking, if only someone in EPCR or such could think along those lines it would be great.

To find 8 teams each year for each level to go in from Tier 2 countries might present a bit of a challenge though.

In a dream format you’d have a national representative team from Canada, the US, Japan, maybe a Currie Cup “select” team, an Argentinian team based in Spain perhaps, and possibly a team from Pacific or Asia.

But realistically that won’t happen without a massive shift in the global rugby setup.

Could alternatively switch the focus from 4 teams in a pool to 3 teams and a team would have a bye each round, which would have to coincide with their league being allowed to play on Euro weekends. The sponsors wouldn’t go along with that I’d imagine.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120415150#Comment_120415150

In a dream format you’d have a national representative team from Canada, the US, Japan, maybe a Currie Cup “select” team, an Argentinian team based in Spain perhaps, and possibly a team from Pacific or Asia.

Can't agree with you there, we have plenty of National team competitions and blurring the lines between them and the club game makes the game too hard to follow. Also while I accept the South Africans make the URC and Champions/Challenge Cup better it should be a European based league to continue growing the game here. If other regions want to to try and start something special let them off

I'd love to see the day when some of the Rugby Europe nations break away from the REC and start their own 6N style competition. Same for Asia/Africa/America

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120414976#Comment_120414976

My worry is Munster have looked porous in defence in each of Glasgow, Scarlets and Benetton games. I think Munster can win, but they'll need to see a huge improvement (and a reaction) from the Glasgow game; a fair share of the team that started that game are likely to feature.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120415222#Comment_120415222

Yeah, but Sharks form and defence has equally looked awful of late - they've lost their last three (12 point loss to Scarlets at the weekend), and have lost 6 of 9 games in 2023 so far, with some heavy defeats in there.

It's set up well to be a cracker on paper, and the fact it's in SA makes it much harder to call, but if this game was in Thomond (even with current form for both sides) I'd have Munster -10.