Heineken Champions Cup: Pondering the Pool Two permutations

CJ Stander is not the only one pondering the potential Heineken Champions Cup implications for Munster from the other game in Pool 2 this weekend.

All eyes will be on Kingsholm tonight when Gloucester welcome English Premiership rivals Exeter Chiefs for round four. Last week Gloucester upset the odds at Sandy Park, which blew the group wide open in the chase for a coveted quarter-final berth.

Munster, who go to Castres tomorrow evening, start the weekend at the top of Pool 2, three points clear of Gloucester, whom they must visit in round five on Friday, January 11 before closing out their qualifying campaign eight days later at Thomond Park against Exeter.

That round-six finale was envisaged as the decisive fixture in the pool when the draw was made but the Chiefs have forgotten their impressive domestic form and stuttered in Europe, drawing at home to Munster, losing at Castres and then going down at Sandy Park last weekend to Gloucester.

A second successive defeat tonight will not only end their already faint hopes of making the last eight but also push Gloucester to the top of the pool, applying pressure on Munster as they go into the lion’s den at Stade Pierre Fabre tomorrow.

With a trip of their own to Kingsholm in the new year, Stander knows everything is still to play for.

You can’t get comfortable in this competition,” said Stander. “A lot of people think that Gloucester and Exeter game is going to be an interesting one again. A lot of people think Gloucester are going to come away with it but you never know, Exeter might rip it away and then it’s open again.

Nor are Castres out of the equation.

A win over Munster would make it a three-horse race to get out of the pool with two rounds to play and give the French champions plenty of impetus going into 2019, with a trip to Exeter in round five before a finale at home to Gloucester.