European Professional Club Rugby is somewhat of a misnomer these days with the addition of the African teams from the United Rugby Championship (URC). The competition continues to evolve. This season’s tournament features four, six-club pools. Each pool contains two clubs from the three professional leagues that do rugby business either side of the Prime Meridian: Gallagher Premiership (GP), Top 14 (T14), and the URC. For example, Pool 1 is comprised of: Saracens and Bristol Bears from GP; Bordeaux Beglès and Lyon from T14; and Connacht and Bulls from URC. Each club plays a pair of home matches and a pair of aways against clubs in their pool not in their leagues, ensuring the matches feature action between leagues in the round robin stages. Then it’s the playoff rounds: knockouts (eighths), quarters, semis and finals. Fixtures live on FloSports. Double-digit table points should see extra time. The pools, the clubs in the pools, and those clubs’ current positions in their respective leagues: Pool 1 Friday: Connacht v Bordeaux, 1pm MT at Clubs (league pos.) won lost drawn table points Galway Sportsgrounds: home team Bordeaux Bègles (7) have one win and two losses in Bulls (3) their last trio of matches, two close results, 13-12 and 22-24, on either Bristol Bears (8) side of a beating, 27-53, from Bulls Connacht (8) in Pretoria; visitors are two and Lyon (12) one, and on a pair of wins running Saracens (4) after a four-point loss to the Champions Cup titleholders, La Rochelle, in mid-November; Prediction: Connacht 25 – 22 Bordeaux Saturday: Bulls v Saracens, 10:30am MT at Loftus Versfeld: homeys are two and one in their last three, counting nearly 100 points in the two matches at home after a close loss at Edinburgh; same record for travelers though they’ll be weathering almost half a day in the air en route the contest; Prediction: Bulls 35 – 14 Saracens Bristol v Lyon, 1pm MT at Ashton Gate: Bears are one and two, scoring better than half century last time out over Gloucester, 51-26; guests have gone one and two since middle of last month with both losses coming on the road; Lyon have not won on the trot this season; Prediction: Bristol 21 – 17 Lyon Pool 2 Clubs (league pos.) Bath (2) Cardiff (12) Harlequins (3) Racing 92 (1) Toulouse (6) Ulster (7)
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Saturday: Bath v Ulster, 8am MT at the Rec: home side is two and one with the loss a 2-pointer at Sale, while the Irish Province have lost two straight after topping the Lions; Russell will work it out! Prediction: Bath 31 – 22 Ulster;
Toulouse v Cardiff, 8am MT at Ernest-Wallon: two losses and a lone win for home team which one might think unlike the French Giants, and the Blues have only drawn on the road; big numbers will be put up by a home side thirsty for the claret here after an RWC hangover. Prediction: Toulouse 55 – 10 Cardiff;
Sunday: Racing 92 v Harlequins, 10:30am at La Defense: homeboys are two and one with their loss coming away; Quins’re one and two in their last threesome, though they’ve won a brace of fixtures on the trot in the Gallagher thus far this year; this one will absolutely sizzle, Prediction: Racing 31 – 29 Harlequins;
Pool 3 Clubs (league pos.) won lost drawn table points Bayonne (10) Friday: Glasgow v Northampton, 1pm Exeter Chiefs (6) MT at Scotstoun: Warriors are Glasgow Warriors (2) two and one, though they were Munster (4) pasted by their opponents last time out; Saints have already Northampton Saints (5) won a brace away; Prediction: Toulon (2) Glasgow 30 – 29 Northampton; Saturday: Toulon v Exeter, 6am MT at the Mayol: home XV are on four-match joy and have not lost at the their rugby palace since May, ’23; Los Jefes have only beaten cellar-dwelling Newcastle Falcons on the road this season, so this’ll be a tough ask; quite possible Match of Weekend; Prediction: Toulon 33 – 22 Exeter; Munster v Bayonne, 10:30am MT at Thomond Park: Munster have not lost at home this season, Aviron Bayonne have not won on the road; expect those trends to continue; Prediction: Munster 20 – 9 Bayonne Pool 4 Clubs (league pos.) won lost drawn table points Saturday: Sale v Stade Français, 6am MT at Salford City: home team lead their La Rochelle (9) league and are on a four-match win Leicester (7) streak and haven’t lost at their pitch Leinster (1) since mid-September; Stade have a Sale Sharks (1) pair of road wins which’re Stormers (10) exceedingly difficult to obtain in the Stade Français (5) French French League, so they’re not afraid of travel; Prediction: Sale 25 – 26 Stade Français; Leicester v Stormers, 8am MT at Welford Road: Tigers boast a quartet of Springboks on their side, including the King Cannon of Rugby World Cup(s), Prince of the Pivot, Handre Pollard, and they’re squaring off with an SA club, nine of XV who last saw the Big Cats flyhalf when they were onfield countrymen winning the Webb Ellis trophy; Pollard to prevail yet again: Leicester 21 – 7 Stormers; La Rochelle v Leinster, 8am at Marcel Deflandre: last time these crews saw each other, homeside returned from 0-17 early and nine down at the break, to record a famous single-point victory in the greatest club fixture on the planet these days at the RDS; both are in form just now, so it’ll be a banger; the Irish Province has no Sexton this time around, no problem: La Rochelle 28 – 30 Leinster in the barnfire you’ll see on the eastern horizon Sunday morning. With 2023 Rugby World Cup in recent memory and Champions and Challenge Cups on the near horizon, this now is truly a blessed and HAPPY time!