Munster and URC foes the Bulls drawn in same pool for 2024/25 Champions Cup

Munster face URC foes Bulls while the ongoing rivalry between Leinster and La Rochelle is set to continue. 

TOUGH DRAWS: Familiar faces and stiff challenges face all three Irish provinces in next season’s Champions Cup with Leinster, Munster and Ulster all handed tough draws for the 2024-25 pool stages. Pic: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

Familiar faces and stiff challenges face all three Irish provinces in next season’s Champions Cup with Leinster, Munster and Ulster all handed tough draws for the 2024-25 pool stages.

Munster, losing URC semi-finalists last month, were on Tuesday drawn alongside English champions Northampton Saints, their Premiership rivals Saracens and French Top 14 clubs Stade Francais and Castres. Munster’s URC foes the Bulls make up Pool 3, but no team from the same league will face each other during the four-game pool phase, which begins on the weekend of December 6-8.

Leinster’s bid for a fifth European title after three successive final losses will have to go through Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle, the team which beat them in the first two of those deciders in 2022 and 2023, Johann van Graan’s Bath, ASM Clermont Auvergne and Bristol Bears, with Benetton making up Pool 2.

Ulster, meanwhile, must lock horns once more with Toulouse, the reigning Champions Cup and Top 14 champions. Also in Pool 1 are Union Bordeaux-Begles, and English duo Leicester Tigers and Exeter Chiefs with Challenge Cup winners and URC team the Sharks also drawn in that group.

Pool 4 sees URC champions Glasgow Warriors drawn with Racing 92, Harlequins, Sale Sharks and Toulon as well as league rivals the Stormers.

Connacht’s fate on their return to the Challenge Cup lies with Cardiff, Zebre Parma, Lyon, Perpignan and competition invitees the Cheetahs, from Bloemfontein, South Africa.

For Graham Rowntree’s Munster, the prospect of facing Northampton for the third pool season in a row will not fill the head coach with glee after losing at home and away to them in both a pool game at Thomond Park last January and at Franklin’s Gardens in the Round of 16 in April. Saracens, beaten by Saints in the Premiership semi-finals, also represent a tough challenge as they renew hostilities with old foes Munster, while Castres and Stade Francais also share a rich past with the two-time Heineken Cup winners.

La Rochelle will need no introductions for Leo Cullen’s Leinster, having been drawn in the same pool last season, when the Irish province beat O’Gara’s men at Stade Deflandre in round one and then knocked them out at Aviva Stadium in the Round of 16 en route to their May final appearance at Tottenham when they lost to Toulouse after extra-time.

CHAMPIONS CUP

POOL 1: Toulouse, Bordeaux-Begles, Sharks, Exeter Chiefs, Leicester Tigers, ULSTER 

POOL 2: LEINSTER, Clermont, La Rochelle, Bristol Bears, Benetton, Bath 

POOL 3: Northampton Saints, MUNSTER, Bulls, Stade Francais, Saracens, Castres 

POOL 4: Glasgow Warriors, Racing 92, Sale Sharks, Stormers, Toulon, Harlequins 

Challenge Cup 

Pool 1: Cardiff, CONNACHT, Cheetahs, Perpignan, Lyon, Zebre Parma