Munster To Discover Champions Cup Opposition On Tuesday

Munster will play two French teams and two English teams in the Pool stages with one game against each opposition. Munster will have two home games with one at Thomond Park and one at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Champions Cup tickets are available with all season membership offerings which are now on sale here. See more details on our season memberships here.

Last season, Munster beat Stade Francais (33-7) and Saracens (17-12) in the Champions Cup Pool stages but just missed out on a home knock-out after narrow away losses to Castres Olympique (14-12) and Northampton Saints (34-32).

A thrilling 25-24 win away to two-time champions La Rochelle at Stade Marcel Deflandre in the round of 16 earned a place in the quarter-finals with eventual winners Bordeaux-Begles knocking out Munster at Stade Chaban-Delmas (47-29).

Possible Pool Opponents For Munster Rugby

The 24 Investec Champions Cup clubs which have qualified on merit from the TOP 14, Gallagher Premiership and United Rugby Championship (URC) will once again compete in four pools of six – Pool 1, Pool 2, Pool 3 and Pool 4.

The key principles of the Investec Champions Cup draw are as follows:

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, and 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. If Union Bordeaux Bègles win the TOP 14 title, then the Investec Champions Cup final runners-up, Northampton Saints, will be included in Tier 1.

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.