Champions Cup kicks off with re-run of final
EUROPEAN champions Saracens will resume battle with Top 14 winners Clermont Auvergne in next season’s Champions Cup pool stages.
Sarries beat Clermont 28-17 in last month’s final at Murrayfield to become the fourth side to win back-toback titles. They will meet again in a highly competitive Pool 2 along with Northampton Saints and Ospreys.
Director of rugby Mark McCall said: “It’s a tough pool and there’s teams we haven’t had in our pools before – we had Clermont a couple of years back.”
Northampton qualified for the competition via the Champions Cup play-offs but McCall said: “It’s always a close fixture in the Premiership against them, and it’s a club we respect enormously.
“It shows the quality of the competition when a side like Northampton are in the group as fourth seed, it’s going to be very tough.”
Premiership champions Exeter Chiefs also face a tough draw against Montpellier, Glasgow and three-time winners Leinster in Pool 3.
Wasps and Harlequins do battle in Pool 1, along with La Rochelle and Ulster, while for the second successive season Munster, Racing 92 and Leicester will meet in the pools, with Castres completing Pool 4.
PRO12 winners Scarlets have been drawn with Toulon and Bath, as well as Treviso in Pool 5.
In the Challenge Cup, Edinburgh and London Irish will face defending champions Stade Francais in Pool 4.
Five-time European Cup winners Toulouse are in Pool 2 along with Cardiff Blues, Sale Sharks and Lyon, while Challenge Cup runners-up Gloucester will play Pau, Zebre and Agen.
Next season’s Challenge and Champions Cup finals will be played at Bilbao’s Sam Mames Stadium on May 11 and 12 respectively.