Champions cup 2022

stayback

anyone know when the draws are on for the champions cup 2022

Burkie1203

stayback wrote: »

anyone know when the draws are on for the champions cup 2022

Early August i think

Eod100

Fixture dates out for next season. Starting in December again. https://twitter.com/ChampionsCup/status/1405133025650880514?s=19

thomond2006

Round of 16 over two legs, that will be ticket earner.

Cookiemunster

FFS. A week between the QF and SF just so they can have a 2 leg last 16? There are the same amount of rounds as with the classic groups of 6 format. Why the fuk can't they just go back to that instead of the ridiculous group stage they've come up with?

thomond2006

24 teams with 16 qualifying for the knockouts with no "home" advantage as it's a two leg R16. That's gammy.

Cookiemunster

Cookiemunster wrote: »

FFS. A week between the QF and SF just so they can have a 2 leg last 16? There are the same amount of rounds as with the classic groups of 6 format. Why the fuk can't they just go back to that instead of the ridiculous group stage they've come up with?

And I've just copped that the final is only two weeks after the semi finals. So quarter finals, semi final and final in the space of four weekends in May. Absolutely no thought whatsoever put towards the fans.

Squidgy Black

thomond2006 wrote: »

Round of 16 over two legs, that will be ticket earner.

Makes absolutely no sense from a competition perspective to have two legs so early in the knockouts, the quarters or semis fair enough, this is clearly just a cash grab

Happyhouse22

Haha, what a **** format.

People over in the URC thread worried about Heineken cup qualification but if this countries United rugby could be taking over as the main competition!

Jump_In_Jack

Cookiemunster wrote: »

FFS. A week between the QF and SF just so they can have a 2 leg last 16? There are the same amount of rounds as with the classic groups of 6 format. Why the fuk can't they just go back to that instead of the ridiculous group stage they've come up with?

One reason I can think of is that the bottom 8 teams go into the challenge cup, so the 16 teams remaining probably want to get a guarantee of Home match before exiting, and the Home&Away gives them guaranteed income from a Home match.
Otherwise it could be tempting in the qualifiers to give up early (ruins the qualification stage of the competition) and drop down to the Challenge Cup and try to get a Home match there perhaps.

Cookiemunster

Jump_In_Jack wrote: »

One reason I can think of is that the bottom 8 teams go into the challenge cup, so the 16 teams remaining probably want to get a guarantee of Home match before exiting, and the Home&Away gives them guaranteed income from a Home match.
Otherwise it could be tempting in the qualifiers to give up early (ruins the qualification stage of the competition) and drop down to the Challenge Cup and try to get a Home match there perhaps.

They could have just reverted to the 'classic' format. Three guaranteed home matches for everyone.

Podge_irl

Jump_In_Jack wrote: »

One reason I can think of is that the bottom 8 teams go into the challenge cup, so the 16 teams remaining probably want to get a guarantee of Home match before exiting, and the Home&Away gives them guaranteed income from a Home match.
Otherwise it could be tempting in the qualifiers to give up early (ruins the qualification stage of the competition) and drop down to the Challenge Cup and try to get a Home match there perhaps.

Absolutely nobody is deliberately losing a match to drop into a competition no one cares about just to get a home game.

Anyway, 2-legged games are a terrible idea at the best of times. But this looks particularly crap.

Jump_In_Jack

Cookiemunster wrote: »

They could have just reverted to the 'classic' format. Three guaranteed home matches for everyone.

Assume you mean with 1 extra pool, as 24 teams instead of 20 teams was already agreed.
Only problem with that would be that 8 teams wouldn't have been able to drop down early to the Challenge Cup as early.
At least with this format every team that makes the last 16 has a fair chance of progressing, the fear would have been a few teams sending B teams if the draw didn't suit them.
I also wonder if there were a Covid situation they could just play one instead of two, and the team that caused the first match to be abandoned would have to travel for the second match, and hopefully would send a decent team.

Jump_In_Jack

Podge_irl wrote: »

Absolutely nobody is deliberately losing a match to drop into a competition no one cares about just to get a home game.

Anyway, 2-legged games are a terrible idea at the best of times. But this looks particularly crap.

I think it could happen.
Teams that lose their first couple of matches, if they see it as a lost cause they'll throw out a B team after that and drop down to the Challenge Cup. Especially if they felt they'd scrape through and face Toulouse away in the round of 16.
If they thought they'd get a home match against Toulouse that might push them on to try harder in their other matches.

Red Silurian

Assuming it's 8 groups of 3 with the top 2 qualifying for the Round of 16 and not the completely ridiculous 2 groups of 12 setup they had last season?

Not too bad if so

Clubs are desperate for a cash injection and Munster in particular always screwed their season ticket holders increased prices for knockout games

Cookiemunster

Red Silurian wrote: »

Assuming it's 8 groups of 3 with the top 2 qualifying for the Round of 16 and not the completely ridiculous 2 groups of 12 setup they had last season?

Not too bad if so

Clubs are desperate for a cash injection and Munster in particular always screwed their season ticket holders increased prices for knockout games

It's not going to be 8 group of three. It's going to be the same idiotic system as last year.

And Munster aren't screwing their ST holders. You pay a flat fee at the start of the season that is cheaper than buying the tickets individually.

Lost Ormond

Red Silurian wrote: »

Assuming it's 8 groups of 3 with the top 2 qualifying for the Round of 16 and not the completely ridiculous 2 groups of 12 setup they had last season?

Not too bad if so

Clubs are desperate for a cash injection and Munster in particular always screwed their season ticket holders increased prices for knockout games

How have Munster screwed ST holders?
Ad its not going to be groups of 3. It will be the 2 groups of 12 as more likelihood of greater competition, going to final round to decide qualifiers for knockout stage which isnt as likely with groups of 3

Red Silurian

Lost Ormond wrote: »

How have Munster screwed ST holders?
Ad its not going to be groups of 3. It will be the 2 groups of 12 as more likelihood of greater competition, going to final round to decide qualifiers for knockout stage which isnt as likely with groups of 3

The 2 groups of 12 we had last year had every top tier side playing the lowest tiered sides resulting in some very one sided match ups with 5 teams coming out with maximum points (4 on merit alone) and some crazy scorelines being racked up

With 8 groups of 3 (Top 2 going to last 16) you would have much more interesting matches and a much more fair way of deciding winners

Lost Ormond

Red Silurian wrote: »

The 2 groups of 12 we had last year had every top tier side playing the lowest tiered sides resulting in some very one sided match ups with 5 teams coming out with maximum points (4 on merit alone) and some crazy scorelines being racked up

With 8 groups of 3 (Top 2 going to last 16) you would have much more interesting matches and a much more fair way of deciding winners

8 groups of 3 with 2 going to last 16 would lead to far more dead rubbers and meaningless games especially if you had 2 of the 3 teams going through to the knockout stages
The groups of 12 at least you had a lot of teams going into final rounds able to qualify..

Cookiemunster

Next years pool stage has been confirmed as the same format as last year. With a return to 9 weekends I think it's ridiculous that they didn't revert to 6 pools of 4 that worked for 15 years and was loved by the fans.

thomond2006

Fair play to them. They are doing their best to ruin it.

awec

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Next years pool stage has been confirmed as the same format as last year. With a return to 9 weekends I think it's ridiculous that they didn't revert to 6 pools of 4 that worked for 15 years and was loved by the fans.

The days of 6 pool fixtures are over.

I expect the tournament will get shorter in future.

crisco10

I don't get it at all.

The "group stage" last year was a bit of a farce, but all understandable in the times of COVID etc etc. But to adopt it as the format going forward just seems insane.

The groups of 4 threw up so many great weekends, from the Christmas back to backs and the mathematically challenging week 6.

I tend to agree with Awec, this to me looks like the start of the erosion of the tournament.

Burkie1203

crisco10 wrote: »

I don't get it at all.

The "group stage" last year was a bit of a farce, but all understandable in the times of COVID etc etc. But to adopt it as the format going forward just seems insane.

The groups of 4 threw up so many great weekends, from the Christmas back to backs and the mathematically challenging week 6.

I tend to agree with Awec, this to me looks like the start of the erosion of the tournament.

https://twitter.com/Overthehillprop/status/1409514687268638731?s=19

awec

Yea this format is a stop gap at the moment IMO. The CC is going to be cut down, the English and French want more focus on their league.

The Pro16 unions need to take steps to ensure they are not overly reliant on european games for money. With the new league structure it seems they are starting to head in this direction, overdue but very welcome.

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/Overthehillprop/status/1409475571826966532?s=19

Eod100

Draw on 21st July. https://www.epcrugby.com/2021/07/02/2021-22-heineken-champions-cup-pool-draw/

yerrahbah

https://www.epcrugby.com/champions-cup/

Draw is on now

Thrashssacre

Gotta say all the Irish clubs can be happy enough with that, all four have a great shout to make it though based on that.

bilston

What a grim format.

Those behind it have managed to destroy the Champions Cup.

When are we expecting fixtures -> weekends?

Red Silurian

With all COVID restrictions being eased in England now is it possible for us to get tickets I wonder... I see they were using an NHS app yesterday at Tottenham/Arsenal in the soccer will that be a feature going forward do we think?

Eod100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117716228#Comment_117716228

Think it was mid November last year but might be bit more in advance this year. No official word yet though.

Sheep Shagger

Tick tock....as we continue to wait for fixtures or even a social media update on approximate timing.

Was hoping when the USC fixtures came out there ones would follow, earlier than November....

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117855065#Comment_117855065

Murmurings of the Cheetahs making a comeback to European rugby in this seasons Challenge Cup... Could be slowing the process down if true

Cookiemunster

Fixtures, but not dates and KO times have finally been released.

https://twitter.com/ChampionsCup/status/1436329530763972617?s=19

https://twitter.com/ChampionsCup/status/1436330363022872577?s=19

Sheep Shagger

So long to wait and not even an actual KO time yet....comical.

Eod100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117873040#Comment_117873040

Hopefully they will be out soon. Guess handy to know what matches will be home and away to plan ahead but without days and kos fairly limited alright

icdg

The European Challenge Cup is getting a new identity (and an awful garish looking logo) as the newly rebranded “EPCR Challenge Cup”.

OldRio

Why? Tinkering all the time.

https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella/status/1445679250380509188?s=20

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117982580#Comment_117982580

Dreadful idea.

icdg

The EPCR proposal is effectively that the Pool Stage of the Heineken Cup would be played, and the top eight teams in the previous seasons Super Rugby would enter the competition at the last-16 stage, playing the teams who would have been the Heineken Cup quarter finalists.

Dont see when they’d fit it in tbh, while it obviously doesn’t mean any extra games for the NH teams given theres a last 16 in the Heineken Cup now, it would mean the Super Rugby teams effectively having to find four extra weeks in their calendar (while effectively handing bye weeks to their weaker opponents who failed to finish in the top eight the previous year). If the winner was an SR side they’d effectively have played four extra knockout games than a non-participating SR team, during SR’s regular season.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/united-rugby-championship/2021/1006/1251034-epcr-working-on-club-world-cup-for-rugby/

Cookiemunster

They latter stages of the European seaosn also clashes with the Super Rugby (or what ever it's called these days) season.

Larbre34

Usual poxy EPCR tinkering. Bit of a grenade from the outgoing CE, mightn't be anything much to it in actuality.

But, if there is, it must be resisted by the fans with their purchasing power. The Heineken Cup is sacrosanct and it should be played out in full every year till the last ball is kicked. The earning potential and silverware for clubs is far too prestigious to be watered down or devalued by truncated competition.

The FIFA World Club Championship doesn't take away from any UEFA Champions League programme and neither should this, if it is agreed at all.

Eod100

Don't have fixture details for this season so seems bit premature of them to be flying a kite about a competition next year or 2024.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117983096#Comment_117983096

Tepid Rugby, I suggest.

Eod100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117984359#Comment_117984359

Champions Cup saying on twitter that fixtures are due out tomorrow. Great timing!

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117984162#Comment_117984162

The Heineken Cup is only sacrosanct to the Irish teams.

For English and French clubs it absolutely plays second fiddle to their league, as we have seen numerous times over the years.

molloyjh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117984743#Comment_117984743

Thats to be expected. But I know from the (small) number of supporters I know in both countries that the general sentiment is the same. It was a great competition that’s fast losing its appeal.

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117984663#Comment_117984663

Are you sure? There's nothing on their twitter feed about it.

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117985096#Comment_117985096

https://twitter.com/ChampionsCup/status/1445769552382492686?s=20

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