It seems you can press a save get key and re-run the same preview at the start of every Investec Champions Cup season. The identity of the title holders going into each campaign may change, but the nationality remains the same - they’re French.
It’s been thus since the 2019/2020 season, when the English club Exeter Chiefs surprised Racing 92 in the final. Since then Toulouse have won twice, La Rochelle have won twice and it is Bordeaux-Begles who head into this new season as champions and searching for a three-peat.
The only team outside of France that has come close, and they have come tantalisingly close on too many occasions for their comfort, are the Irish giants and reigning Vodacom URC champions Leinster, who have been the losing finalists on four separate occasions in the past six years.
The #InvestecChampionsCup kicks off this week 🏆 Only the top three teams from each pool will automatically qualify 🔒 The remaining four places will go to the four clubs with the highest number of match points across all pools 👀 https://t.co/KP4NrSXvan
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 12, 2026
Some of those losses were very close, and Leinster have won the competition four times, second only to Toulouse, who have six stars on their chests. So maybe they are a good starting point when it comes to the question of the South African chances of ending the French hegemony.
The Vodacom Bulls were comprehensively outplayed by Leinster in last season’s URC final, the second year in a row that happened. But the DHL Stormers pushed Leinster hard in the semifinal in that competition and might well have won it had it not been for a silly card conceded late in the game.
HOME ADVANTAGE IN PLAYOFFS GIVES YOU A CHANCE
And the Bulls smashed Leinster when last they had to travel for a semifinal, which was at Loftus in 2024. Had the Stormers finished in a high enough URC placing to host their semifinal rather than travel for it, they probably would have won.
And there, in a nutshell, is the crux of the matter for the SA teams in the Champions Cup - if somehow they can manage to secure home ground advantage in the initial playoffs, then they may just have a chance.
After all, the Stormers have recorded a win over a full strength La Rochelle team in Cape Town, and La Rochelle were the reigning champions at the time. It was only a missed Manie Libbok conversion after the hooter that denied them a second win in the same season in the round of 16 game.
Last year the Stormers and Bulls came tantalisingly close to winning their first playoff games, both overseas. The Stormers would have beaten Toulon in Toulon if it weren’t for some lamentably poor refereeing and perhaps also some poor decision making on the Stormers’ part - a drop-goal would have won it. The Bulls lost by four away to Glasgow Warriors and had the better of the game.
MAKE NO MISTAKE, IT IS A TALL ORDER
The Bulls then beat Glasgow in an away URC semifinal, and that was a Glasgow team that had pretensions of winning the elite European competition before Toulon, so lucky against the Stormers, beat them in Glasgow. So how far away is it really?
Let’s be honest, the French team are a league above the English and Scots, and Toulouse and Bordeaux are probably well ahead of the rest of the French, so it is a tall order.
However, if the two top SA teams in the Champions Cup, meaning the ones that have been there before (the 10Bet Lions are making their debut in the competition), can do well enough in the Pool phases to secure home ground advantage deep into the playoffs (they can’t host a final as that is already set for Lyon), they might just feature at the business end.
Stormers coach John Dobson has said that in order to safeguard the SA participation in the event, and quiet the clamour overseas for this country’s exclusion from what after all is supposed to be a European competition, a local side must at least make the semifinal round this year. But preferably to a final.
PERFECT RECORD NEEDED AT HOME
In order for that to happen a perfect record is required at home, meaning a win and the bonus point, which now requires the winning team to be three tries ahead of the loser and not just score four tries, and points have to be accumulated away from home too.
That latter task is not easy, particularly when you consider that the Stormers’ next game after their home opener against Bristol Bears on Saturday is against the champions in Bordeaux.
One improvement on past campaigns though is that the Stormers will be going there on a one-off, and won’t be inhibited by the often poor placement of the other game in what used to be a two match sequence.
Playing overseas on a Sunday before a big home game on a Saturday was never conducive to the SA teams going all out in both fixtures and it was responsible for some of the embarrassing humiliations when fielding second string teams in the past.
STORMERS AND BULLS APPEAR TO HAVE MORE DEPTH
It does feel like the Stormers and the Bulls have more depth now, and the Stormers feel they boosted their confidence with their competitive away performance against Leinster in the URC and also with their good showing until the last minutes against the touring All Blacks.
Given that second game was with a much weakened team, it was surely a sign that the Cape side should be able to compete against even the best club opponents.
Ditto the Bulls, but they do need to play their playoff games at Loftus, and the same can be said about the Stormers and DHL Stadium. The competition will be a good measure of the Lions’ growth but given how they struggled in the EPCR secondary competition, the Challenge Cup, in the past, it is hard to foresee them making much impression in terms of challenging for the play-offs.
For them, this season is the start of a learning experience, the beginning of their growth in Europe.
Investec Champions Cup opening round (South African fixtures)
Vodacom Bulls v Stade Francaise (Pretoria, Saturday 2pm)
The Bulls were imperious in smashing the Lions at Loftus last week and the 2pm kick-off will aid them against a team from a country that has just gone into autumn. The bookies expect a comfortable Bulls win and I think they are right to. But the spread isn’t easy to determine.
Prediction: Bulls by more than 10
DHL Stormers v Bristol Bears (Cape Town, Saturday 4:15pm)
The Bears played really well to beat the Bulls in Pretoria last year and perhaps too much is being read into their recent capitulation to Saracens, when they were under-strength. So the bookies’ 18 point winning margin for the Stormers might seem a little OTT, but it would nonetheless be a surprise if the in-form Stormers did not win by more than a score.
Prediction: Stormers by more than 8
La Rochelle v 10Bet Lions (La Rochelle, Saturday 6:30pm)
La Rochelle are no longer the champions and Ronan O’Gara’s men have slipped a bit in recent years. But La Rochelle at La Rochelle is as tough an assignment as you can get, and the Lions are making their debut in the elite European competition. The bookies have the Lions losing by just 14. If they manage better than that they’d have done well. It will be interesting to see if former Stormers captain Salmaan Moerat is in the La Rochelle team set to be named later on Friday.
Prediction: La Rochelle to win by more than 14
The other first round Champions Cup fixtures
Gloucester v Bordeaux-Begles (Gloucester, Friday 9pm)
Sale Sharks v Glasgow Warriors (Manchester, Saturday 2pm)
Clermont-Auvergne v Leinster (Clermont, Saturday 4:15pm)
Connacht v Saracens (Galway, Saturday 6:30pm)
Munster v Racing 92 (Limerick, Saturday 9pm)
Bath v Montpellier (Bath, Saturday 9pm)
Pau v Leicester Tigers (Pau, Sunday 2pm)
Toulouse v Exeter Chiefs (Toulouse, Sunday 4:15pm)
Northampton Saints v Cardiff Rugby (Northampton, Sunday 6:30pm)
EPCR Challenge Cup (SA games)
Lyon v Hollywoodbets Sharks (Lyon, Saturday 2pm)
Bayonne v Toyota Cheetahs (Bayonne, Sunday 3pm)