Champions Cup revamp leads to exit for Ulster

THE final rounds of this season’s Heineken Champions Cup pool stages are to be scrapped, confirming Ulster’s exit from the competition.

Originally set to conclude over the next two weekends, the games were postponed after the French government advised their teams not to take part in cross-border action thanks to the new strain of the coronavirus.

That left Ulster idle when they had been due to play Gloucester tomorrow and Toulouse next Sunday, and those fixtures will now not be rearranged.

Having already lost to both this season, the hopes of Dan Mcfarland’s men for a third consecutive quarter-final were always slender.

But with confirmation coming that the competition will proceed straight to the knock-out stages in April, likely in a last-16, Ulster will miss out, having effectively been ranked number 17 when the tournament was suspended.

With only four more weekends in an already packed season allocated for European action, there is little other choice for tournament organisers.

“We have a tough season. There’s no space at the end of the season because of the Lions and we have no spare weekends in our season once we resume,” Premier Rugby’s chief executive Darren Childs said.

“To play European rounds when the Lions is taking place would have been very damaging to the European tournament. So it was decided very quickly by all three leagues CEOS that we would complete the tournament in the four remaining weekends.”

Therecouldbeaformofreprieve for Ulster should the second-tier Challenge Cup adopt a last-16 too.

That would see the eight teams knocked out of the Champions Cup join the eight highest ranked clubs in that competition after the first two rounds of the pool stages.