Sharks drawn in same Champions Cup pool as Toulouse

The Hollywoodbets Sharks will face a tough baptism on their return to the Investec Champions Cup as they have been drawn in the same pool as Toulouse as well as the Bordeaux Begles side that Toulouse beat in the Top 14 final last weekend.

The six time European champions are in Pool 1 following the draw that was done in Cardiff earlier on Tuesday. The pool phase could be a quite daunting one for the Sharks, who did beat Bordeaux away in their 2022/23 Champions Cup campaign.

However, Bordeaux have improved significantly since then and in the recently completed season, apart from being runners up in France, they were considered to be the strongest challengers outside of the top-rated triumvirate of Toulouse, Leinster and the then reigning champions La Rochelle in the Champions Cup.

The Sharks, who were knocked out by Toulouse in a quarterfinal played in Toulouse in the 2022/23 Champions Cup season, did not make it into the Champions Cup for this past season. They also failed to make it this year through the conventional route of finishing in the top eight of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, and made it by winning the EPRC Challenge Cup.

It looks like a tough pool, with the two English teams Leicester Tigers and Exeter Chiefs being the other Sharks opponents in the initial stage of the season. URC rivals Ulster are the other team but teams from the same league competition don’t play each other in the pool phase.

On the plus side, Toulouse have a significant number of French internationals playing for them and the Sharks also have several World Cup winning Springboks, so a clash between the two sides will add interest to the group stages.

EASIER DRAW FOR STORMERS THIS TIME

While the Sharks have had a tough draw in their return to the Champions Cup, the DHL Stormers can feel a bit relieved at the way the draw went this time around. Last season they were drawn in the same pool as La Rochelle and Leinster, a group that was rightly dubbed the group of death as it also included another previous winner in the Leicester Tigers, as well as the Sale Sharks.

The Stormers are in Group 4 alongside newly crowned Glasgow Warriors, who of course they won’t play against because of the ruling about teams from the same league not clashing in the group stage. The other teams in the pool are the English clubs Harlequins and Sale Sharks, both of whom they have beaten in the Champions Cup in the first two seasons of South African participation, Siya Kolisi’s French team Racing 92 and Toulon.

The Stormers beat Harlequins in the round of 16 game in Cape Town in 2022/23 and Sale Sharks, also at DHL Stadium, this January in their third pool game.

BULLS V SARACENS REPEAT


The Vodacom Bulls made the quarterfinal round for the first time last season, thus emulating what the Sharks and Stormers had managed the year before and will have to deal with the challenges of newly crowned Gallagher Premiership champions (England) Northampton Saints, URC top of the log finishers Munster (who they won’t play against), Stade Francais, Castres (returning to Champions Cup after being in the Challenge Cup the last few seasons) and Saracens in their quest to get into the knockout rounds.

The Bulls beat Saracens in Pretoria in last year’s competition so there will be some familiarity there, although Saracens have of course lost a few players, including Owen Farrell to Racing 92. The top four in each group of six advance to the round of 16 with opponents determined according to rankings determined by the number of points accumulated in the pool phase.

Pool stage matches will take place on the weekends of 6/7/8 December, 13/14/15 December, 10/11/12 January and 17/18/19 January.

Meanwhile the Toyota Cheetahs and Emirates Lions will be hoping to emulate the Sharks by becoming South African winners of the Challenge Cup, which is divided into three pools. The Cheetahs are in Pool 1 with Cardiff, Connacht, USAP, Lyon and Zebre Parma.
The Lions have been drawn in Pool 2 alongside Montpellier, Pau, Newcastle Falcons, Dragons and the Ospreys.

Investec Champions Cup Pools 2024/25

Pool 1: Stade Toulouse, Bordeaux Begles, Hollywoodbets Sharks, Exeter Chiefs, Leicester Tigers, Ulster.

Pool 2: Leinster, Clermont-Auvergne, La Rochelle, Bristol Bears, Benetton, Bath.

Pool 3: Northampton Saints, Munster, Vodacom Bulls, Stade Francais, Saracens, Castres.

Pool 4: Glasgow Warriors, Racing 92, Sale Sharks, DHL Stormers, RC Toulon, Harlequins.

EPCR Challenge Cup

Pool 1: Cardiff, Connacht, Toyota Cheetahs, USAP, Lyon, Zebre.

Pool 2: Montpellier, Pau, Newcastle Falcons, Dragons, Emirates Lions, Ospreys.

Pool 3: RC Vannes, Black Lion (Georgia), Bayonne, Scarlets, Edinburgh, Gloucester.