OPINION: Champions Cup format needs a shake up

The European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) Champions Cup competition is supposed to be the pinnacle of franchise rugby, with the best club teams from around the world taking part in the competition.

It spans seven different countries, with France, England, Ireland, South Africa, Scotland, Wales and Italy all fielding teams in the competition, dependent on where teams finish in their domestic English Premiership and French Top 14 competitions or the United Rugby Championship.

It is thus the best of the best franchise sides going head-to-head in the Champions Cup, but under its current format it leaves a lot to be desired.

The pool phase sees four groups of six teams in each, with the top four teams in each pool progressing to the knockouts, which starts with the last 16.

The problem with this is that it allows teams that don’t particularly perform well to sneak into the playoffs, and from there anything can happen.

Pool one

For example, in this season’s competition in pool one, the Sharks, Ulster and Exeter Chiefs can all still qualify for the last 16, despite them having won just one game out of nine between the three teams over three rounds so far.

The Sharks are the only team to have won a game, beating Exeter in their first game, before going down to Leicester Tigers and Stade Toulousain (Toulouse).

Exeter have also lost to Union Bordeaux-Begles and Toulouse, who both sit top and second in the pool after winning all their games so far, while Ulster have lost to Toulouse, Bordeaux and Leicester.

The Sharks thus sit fourth on the log with five points, while Ulster and Exeter sit fifth and sixth on zero points, with just points difference splitting them.

The bottom two sides face each other in their final pool game on Friday night, and if neither is able to clinch a bonus point win, the Sharks will progress having just won once and with a game in hand.

However if one of them can get the bonus point win and the Sharks lose against Bordeaux on Sunday without picking up a losing bonus point, then it will go down to permutations to see who progresses.

The fact that a team could qualify for the knockouts with just one win from four games takes a lot of sting out of the pool stages, and allows teams to send weakened sides on tour and still have a good chance of qualifying.

So it would do the EPCR to relook at their format and maybe make it the top two teams moving straight into the quarterfinals, which would add a lot of excitement and make the pool stage more important.