EPCR

Munster Learn Champions Cup Opponents

1st July 2025
Munster have been drawn in Pool 2 for the 2025/26 Investec Champions Cup.   Munster will face Bath, Toulon, Castres and Gloucester in the pool stages with fellow URC side Edinburgh also taking their place in Pool 2.   The fixture details for Munster’s pool matches will be confirmed by EPCR in due course. The 2025/26 season will be played over eight weekends with four rounds of matches in the pool stage starting in December, followed by a knockout stage consisting of a Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, culminating in the finals weekend in San Mamés Stadium, Bilbao on Friday, 22 May and Saturday 23, May 2026. 

Champions Cup Draw

Champions Cup Draw - Key Principles

  • Each pool of six will contain two clubs from each of the leagues.
  • Clubs from the same URC Shield cannot be in the same pool. Therefore, the Irish qualifiers – Munster Rugby and Leinster Rugby – will each be drawn or allocated into separate pools. The same principle applies for the Scottish qualifiers – Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby. Similarly, the Vodacom Bulls, DHL Stormers and Hollywoodbets Sharks from South Africa cannot be in the same pool.
  • There will be no matches between clubs from the same league, so in order to create the pool stage fixtures, each club will play four matches against four different clubs who are not from the same league either home or away.
For the purposes of the draw, the clubs will be divided into two tiers, Tier 1 and Tier 2. The four clubs in Tier 1 will be: Union Bordeaux Bègles (2025 Investec Champions Cup winners), Bath Rugby (2025 Gallagher Premiership winners), Leinster Rugby (2025 URC winners), and the TOP 14 winners, Stade Toulousain. To start the process, the four Tier 1 clubs will be drawn with the first club out of the drum going into Pool 1, the second club out of the drum going into Pool 2, the third club out of the drum going into Pool 3 and the fourth club out of the drum going into Pool 4. Adhering to the key principles, the remaining 20 clubs in Tier 2 will then be drawn or allocated into the pools. If a club cannot be drawn into a pool in accordance with the key principles, then the club will be allocated to the next available pool. The process will then re-start at the pool into which the initial club could not be drawn.