Champions Cup pool guide: Leinster, Munster and Connacht’s opponents reviewed and rated

The Champions Cup is back this weekend, if not with a whimper then not with the bang of its halcyon days either. In a tacit acceptance that the tournament’s profile suffered for its delayed December start since the pandemic, the first round has been brought forward to its traditional October slot of yore for the first time since 2018 and the tweaks don’t stop there.Previously, the top four teams in each of the six-team pools qualified for the Round of 16, but this season the top three teams will advance, with the top two earning a home draw. The remaining four places will go to the next four teams with the highest number of match points, regardless of their pool.Furthermore, the bonus-point system will mirror that of the Top 14, with teams only securing a try bonus point if they score three or more tries more than the opposition. This has changed from the four-try system used since the 2003-2004 season.It seems fitting that the scoring system copies the Top 14, given the tournament has been largely amended to their liking. And in an unprecedented era of French dominance they have won the last six Champions Cups.READ MOREThe odds are also on this being extended at the end of the final in Lyons next May, with six-time winners Toulouse and the reigning back-to-back champions Bordeaux Bègles the 13/5 joint favourites. [ Champions Cup has a jeopardy problem: can anyone stop France’s Top 14 giants? ]Leinster are once again regarded as the biggest threat at 9/2, followed by Bath at 9/1 and Northampton at 10/1, with Montpellier the dark horses at 14/1.It will be close to a sensation if the winners come from outside those six, and it would be no surprise if Toulouse, who are also seeking a fifth successive Bouclier de Brennus, do not regain the trophy after a two-year absence – a relative famine for them.Clermont's scrumhalf Baptiste Jauneau runs with the ball past Stade-Francais centre Alivereti Duguivalu during the Top 14 match last month. Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/Getty Pool 1: Leinster, Glasgow, Pau, Sale Sharks, Leicester Tigers, Clermont AuvergneThe URC’s top dogs in this competition, Leinster (last season’s beaten finalists) and Glasgow (last season’s beaten semi-finalists) appear to have avoided the French and Premiership heavyweights in this season’s draw. Leinster begin away to Clermont, who have had a little bit of a resurgence under Christophe Urios.The Clermont team is admittedly in the lower half of the Top 14 table with two wins out of six, but the margins have been tight, as was the case last Saturday when losing by a point to Bordeaux at home thanks to a late Maxime Lucu penalty. But if anything, that could make them more dangerous in Saturday’s opening game in the atmospheric Stade Marcel-Michelin.This rebuilt Clermont team is a younger side than the one Leinster faced a couple of seasons ago, and is built largely around their brilliant young scrumhalf Baptiste Jauneau, a modern-day Morgan Parra. He’s a classy player, has all the skills, generates the tempo and orchestrates their game and it would be no surprise if he’s not soon putting pressure on Nolann Le Garrec and Lucu for that role as understudy to Antoine Dupont at international level.Pau are a fascinating case, and their opening selection away to Leicester Tigers, and indeed the result, will inform us as to how seriously they will go after this competition.They have been the coming force in the last two years in the Top 14, also supplying the French team with a gifted crop of talented and exciting young French backs from the Olympic Sevens winning team. The shining light is Théo Attissogbe, who has largely vindicated his selection on the French team ahead of Damian Penaud. If he plays and Pau turn it on against Leicester, that would be a statement of intent and make them intriguing visitors to the RDS.The Tigers do not look quite the force of old. They have had a little bit of a rebuild under a new coaching ticket, but are missing their man mountain George Martin, who has joined Saracens, and their Lions lock/flanker Ollie Chessum, who is injured. So they’re lacking a little bit of ballast up front, as the traditional Tigers packs had in the past. Again, their opening game against Pau looks to be quite pivotal.Leicester could be good enough to make the knock-out stages, but unlikely again to make another deep run in the knock-out stages, as has been their lot lately. The same applies to the Sale Sharks, if slightly less so, although Joe Marchant and Courtney Lawes, and their win away to Saracens a fortnight ago was eye-catching. But the Prem is likely to be their priority.Saracens’ Noah Caluori, right, collides in the air with Jack Bates of Bristol Bears on Saturday. Photograph: Nick Elliott/INPHO Pool 2: Toulouse, Lions, Saracens, La Rochelle, Exeter, ConnachtConnacht are back in the big time, and how. They drew the short straw, but a glamorous one all the same, with home games against Saracens this coming Saturday, and Toulouse in January – the three-time and six-time winners, respectively, of this competition.Indeed, all Connacht’s opponents are former winners as they are away to Exeter in December, and finish away to La Rochelle in January, when Ronan O’Gara welcomes them to the always-packed Stade Deflandre. This is what Connacht wanted: glamour fixtures against the best which, coupled with the advent of the Dexcom Stadium, has swollen pride and enthusiasm out west.Despite an opening-night loss in La Rochelle to the last kick of the game, Toulouse have hit the ground running and as they seek a record fifth successive French championship are quickly setting the pace again as they invariably do. As well as their unrivalled conveyor belt through their own underage system, the signing of the world-class Tommaso Menoncello has further added to their ridiculous array of imported talent, when one thinks they have the current fullbacks of France, Argentina, Italy and Scotland on their books in Thomas Ramos, Juan Cruz Mallía, Ange Capuozzo and Blair Kinghorn.O’Gara has made some good signings this season, such as Theo McFarland. Their pack has been bolstered. Le Garrec is coming into his prime and they have weapons everywhere.Saracens have had something of a reboot, with Brendan Venter returning to oversee the team and Mark McCall moving upstairs. They’ve signed George Martin and Alfie Barbeary. Maro Itoje has been refreshed by a summer’s respite. The Dexcom is in for a treat, of sorts, if Noah Caluori plays, for his is a freakishly gifted 6ft 4in winger who is awesome in the air. Exeter had a disappointing start to the season when beaten at home by Gloucester, considering they were Prem finalists last season, and then lost to Bath in the Rec before scraping by Newcastle at the weekend. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso would grace any competition, but he appeared to tweak his hamstring last weekend and the Champions Cup may not see too much of him.Racing's Selestino Ravutaumada runs with the ball during the Top 14 rugby union match against Toulon on Saturday. Photograph: Miguel Medina/Getty Pool 3: Bordeaux Bègles, Stormers, Racing 92, Munster, Bristol, GloucesterBordeaux, the back-to-back champions, look a cut above the rest in this group and perhaps the whole tournament given their amalgam of power, skill and pace can hurt opponents in any way and in any conditions. They look much the same, and just as strong, more or less, as last season, and when Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert are firing, and Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey are brought into the game repeatedly, they are almost impossible to contain.Racing do not have the assembly of galacticos of old, and in a crushing semi-final defeat to Toulouse and opening day loss in Bordeaux, when conceding more than 130 points in the two games, they looked like damaged goods. They have since won two of their ensuing five games and will bring a dangerous, Fijian-infused backline to face Munster in Cork on Saturday, with the powerful centre Josua Tuisova and the quickfire Vinaya Habosi and Selestino Ravutaumada on the wings.Rumours that Gloucester might send out a second-string side at home to Bordeaux on opening night are surely misplaced, for this is a marquee game that demands they put their best foot forward. But George Skivington has regarded this competition as an inconvenience in the past and, under pressure to secure a top-four finish in the Prem, may come to the same conclusion before long again.Bristol are another to have had a mixed start to the season and Pat Lam’s side appear to be a little bit more pragmatic than maybe they were in the past, and are kicking the ball a bit more, with even Louis Rees-Zammit not counterattacking at every available opportunity. But they will be dangerous opponents at home to Munster in December.Fin Smith of Northampton in action at the weekend against Bath. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Pool 4: Northampton, Bath, Cardiff, Montpellier, Stade Français, BullsNorthampton and Bath look a class apart in this group, whatever about the defensive shortcomings in Franklin’s Gardens last Saturday when the Saints won the match between the sides by 71-48.Northampton are an unbelievably well coached team under Sam Vesty, which has echoes of Leinster in their pomp under Stuart Lancaster, with everyone knowing their role. They rarely lose their shape and get the ball back incredibly quickly. And in Fin Smith, Rory Hutchinson and Fraser Dingwall, they have three players who excel at the gainline, as well as firepower out wide in Tommy Freeman and Ollie Sleightholme.They still look the real deal, and probably England’s best bet to win the Champions Cup, given Bath appear to be sorely missing Thomas du Toit, a key figure in their treble win two seasons ago.Montpellier, Challenge Cup winners and French finalists last season, will make this a three-way tussle for the first two places.