Champions cup 2022

stayback · 04-06-2021 9:07am #1

anyone know when the draws are on for the champions cup 2022

Burkie1203 · 04-06-2021 9:13am

stayback wrote: »

anyone know when the draws are on for the champions cup 2022

Early August i think

Eod100 · 16-06-2021 1:06pm

Fixture dates out for next season. Starting in December again. https://twitter.com/ChampionsCup/status/1405133025650880514?s=19

thomond2006 · 16-06-2021 1:22pm

Round of 16 over two legs, that will be ticket earner.

Cookiemunster · 16-06-2021 1:32pm

FFS. A week between the QF and SF just so they can have a 2 leg last 16? There are the same amount of rounds as with the classic groups of 6 format. Why the fuk can't they just go back to that instead of the ridiculous group stage they've come up with?

thomond2006 · 16-06-2021 1:42pm

24 teams with 16 qualifying for the knockouts with no "home" advantage as it's a two leg R16. That's gammy.

Cookiemunster · 16-06-2021 1:46pm

Cookiemunster wrote: »

FFS. A week between the QF and SF just so they can have a 2 leg last 16? There are the same amount of rounds as with the classic groups of 6 format. Why the fuk can't they just go back to that instead of the ridiculous group stage they've come up with?

And I've just copped that the final is only two weeks after the semi finals. So quarter finals, semi final and final in the space of four weekends in May. Absolutely no thought whatsoever put towards the fans.

Squidgy Black · 16-06-2021 1:55pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

Round of 16 over two legs, that will be ticket earner.

Makes absolutely no sense from a competition perspective to have two legs so early in the knockouts, the quarters or semis fair enough, this is clearly just a cash grab

Happyhouse22 · 16-06-2021 1:58pm

Haha, what a **** format.

People over in the URC thread worried about Heineken cup qualification but if this countries United rugby could be taking over as the main competition!

Jump_In_Jack · 16-06-2021 2:50pm

Cookiemunster wrote: »

FFS. A week between the QF and SF just so they can have a 2 leg last 16? There are the same amount of rounds as with the classic groups of 6 format. Why the fuk can't they just go back to that instead of the ridiculous group stage they've come up with?

One reason I can think of is that the bottom 8 teams go into the challenge cup, so the 16 teams remaining probably want to get a guarantee of Home match before exiting, and the Home&Away gives them guaranteed income from a Home match.
Otherwise it could be tempting in the qualifiers to give up early (ruins the qualification stage of the competition) and drop down to the Challenge Cup and try to get a Home match there perhaps.

Cookiemunster · 16-06-2021 2:56pm

Jump_In_Jack wrote: »

One reason I can think of is that the bottom 8 teams go into the challenge cup, so the 16 teams remaining probably want to get a guarantee of Home match before exiting, and the Home&Away gives them guaranteed income from a Home match.
Otherwise it could be tempting in the qualifiers to give up early (ruins the qualification stage of the competition) and drop down to the Challenge Cup and try to get a Home match there perhaps.

They could have just reverted to the 'classic' format. Three guaranteed home matches for everyone.

Podge_irl · 16-06-2021 3:07pm

Jump_In_Jack wrote: »

One reason I can think of is that the bottom 8 teams go into the challenge cup, so the 16 teams remaining probably want to get a guarantee of Home match before exiting, and the Home&Away gives them guaranteed income from a Home match.
Otherwise it could be tempting in the qualifiers to give up early (ruins the qualification stage of the competition) and drop down to the Challenge Cup and try to get a Home match there perhaps.

Absolutely nobody is deliberately losing a match to drop into a competition no one cares about just to get a home game.

Anyway, 2-legged games are a terrible idea at the best of times. But this looks particularly crap.

Jump_In_Jack · 16-06-2021 3:09pm

Cookiemunster wrote: »

They could have just reverted to the 'classic' format. Three guaranteed home matches for everyone.

Assume you mean with 1 extra pool, as 24 teams instead of 20 teams was already agreed.
Only problem with that would be that 8 teams wouldn't have been able to drop down early to the Challenge Cup as early.
At least with this format every team that makes the last 16 has a fair chance of progressing, the fear would have been a few teams sending B teams if the draw didn't suit them.
I also wonder if there were a Covid situation they could just play one instead of two, and the team that caused the first match to be abandoned would have to travel for the second match, and hopefully would send a decent team.

Jump_In_Jack · 16-06-2021 3:12pm

Podge_irl wrote: »

Absolutely nobody is deliberately losing a match to drop into a competition no one cares about just to get a home game.

Anyway, 2-legged games are a terrible idea at the best of times. But this looks particularly crap.

I think it could happen.
Teams that lose their first couple of matches, if they see it as a lost cause they'll throw out a B team after that and drop down to the Challenge Cup. Especially if they felt they'd scrape through and face Toulouse away in the round of 16.
If they thought they'd get a home match against Toulouse that might push them on to try harder in their other matches.

Red Silurian · 17-06-2021 4:57pm

Assuming it's 8 groups of 3 with the top 2 qualifying for the Round of 16 and not the completely ridiculous 2 groups of 12 setup they had last season?

Not too bad if so

Clubs are desperate for a cash injection and Munster in particular always screwed their season ticket holders increased prices for knockout games

Cookiemunster · 17-06-2021 5:20pm

Red Silurian wrote: »

Assuming it's 8 groups of 3 with the top 2 qualifying for the Round of 16 and not the completely ridiculous 2 groups of 12 setup they had last season?

Not too bad if so

Clubs are desperate for a cash injection and Munster in particular always screwed their season ticket holders increased prices for knockout games

It's not going to be 8 group of three. It's going to be the same idiotic system as last year.

And Munster aren't screwing their ST holders. You pay a flat fee at the start of the season that is cheaper than buying the tickets individually.

Lost Ormond · 17-06-2021 5:25pm

Red Silurian wrote: »

Assuming it's 8 groups of 3 with the top 2 qualifying for the Round of 16 and not the completely ridiculous 2 groups of 12 setup they had last season?

Not too bad if so

Clubs are desperate for a cash injection and Munster in particular always screwed their season ticket holders increased prices for knockout games

How have Munster screwed ST holders?
Ad its not going to be groups of 3. It will be the 2 groups of 12 as more likelihood of greater competition, going to final round to decide qualifiers for knockout stage which isnt as likely with groups of 3

Red Silurian · 18-06-2021 12:00pm

Lost Ormond wrote: »

How have Munster screwed ST holders?
Ad its not going to be groups of 3. It will be the 2 groups of 12 as more likelihood of greater competition, going to final round to decide qualifiers for knockout stage which isnt as likely with groups of 3

The 2 groups of 12 we had last year had every top tier side playing the lowest tiered sides resulting in some very one sided match ups with 5 teams coming out with maximum points (4 on merit alone) and some crazy scorelines being racked up

With 8 groups of 3 (Top 2 going to last 16) you would have much more interesting matches and a much more fair way of deciding winners

Lost Ormond · 18-06-2021 12:08pm

Red Silurian wrote: »

The 2 groups of 12 we had last year had every top tier side playing the lowest tiered sides resulting in some very one sided match ups with 5 teams coming out with maximum points (4 on merit alone) and some crazy scorelines being racked up

With 8 groups of 3 (Top 2 going to last 16) you would have much more interesting matches and a much more fair way of deciding winners

8 groups of 3 with 2 going to last 16 would lead to far more dead rubbers and meaningless games especially if you had 2 of the 3 teams going through to the knockout stages
The groups of 12 at least you had a lot of teams going into final rounds able to qualify..

Cookiemunster · 28-06-2021 12:07pm

Next years pool stage has been confirmed as the same format as last year. With a return to 9 weekends I think it's ridiculous that they didn't revert to 6 pools of 4 that worked for 15 years and was loved by the fans.

thomond2006 · 28-06-2021 12:09pm

Fair play to them. They are doing their best to ruin it.

awec · 28-06-2021 12:17pm

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Next years pool stage has been confirmed as the same format as last year. With a return to 9 weekends I think it's ridiculous that they didn't revert to 6 pools of 4 that worked for 15 years and was loved by the fans.

The days of 6 pool fixtures are over.

I expect the tournament will get shorter in future.

crisco10 · 28-06-2021 2:24pm

I don't get it at all.

The "group stage" last year was a bit of a farce, but all understandable in the times of COVID etc etc. But to adopt it as the format going forward just seems insane.

The groups of 4 threw up so many great weekends, from the Christmas back to backs and the mathematically challenging week 6.

I tend to agree with Awec, this to me looks like the start of the erosion of the tournament.

Burkie1203 · 28-06-2021 5:28pm

crisco10 wrote: »

I don't get it at all.

The "group stage" last year was a bit of a farce, but all understandable in the times of COVID etc etc. But to adopt it as the format going forward just seems insane.

The groups of 4 threw up so many great weekends, from the Christmas back to backs and the mathematically challenging week 6.

I tend to agree with Awec, this to me looks like the start of the erosion of the tournament.

https://twitter.com/Overthehillprop/status/1409514687268638731?s=19

awec · 28-06-2021 5:42pm

Yea this format is a stop gap at the moment IMO. The CC is going to be cut down, the English and French want more focus on their league.

The Pro16 unions need to take steps to ensure they are not overly reliant on european games for money. With the new league structure it seems they are starting to head in this direction, overdue but very welcome.