The marksman, the strike runner and the hot favourites: 14 Champions Cup factoids
Be it the tournaments leading strike runner or the most accurate boot in comp, the return of the Champions Cup provides a much-needed dose of normality in an increasingly unpredictable sporting world.
Leinster enter the quarter-finals fresh from securing the PRO14 title, defeating Ulster in what was largely a bloodless coup in Dublin on Saturday night. They face European nemesis, Saracens, who are keen on what head coach Mark McCall has described as the first ‘meaningful’ match for some time. For their troubles, Ulster face a tough assignment away to Toulouse, while Exeter Chiefs and Northampton Saints face off in an all-English showdown at Sandy Park on Sunday. Clermont and Racing, just a handful of weeks after returning to competitive rugby, will duke it out at the Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin.
Ahead of the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals, the ECPR have published their previews statistics and facts, 14 in total.
14 CHAMPIONS CUP FACTOIDS
Five tournament winners with 13 Heineken Champions Cup titles between them remain in contention for silverware this season.
On the only other occasion in 2017/18 that Leinster qualified as the No 1-ranked club from the pool stage they went on to lift the trophy, defeating Racing 92 in the final in Bilbao.
Exeter and Northampton are going head-to-head for the first time in the tournament. Sunday’s all-Premiership showdown at Sandy Park will be the Chiefs’ second quarter-final appearance and their first at home.
Ulster, who travel to Toulouse, have won one of their four away quarter-finals when they famously defeated Munster 22-16 at Thomond Park in 2012.
Exeter’s Joe Simmonds has a 93% goalkicking success rate from 27 attempts during his six pool stage appearances.
Toulouse have qualified for the knockout stage for the 18th time, equalling Munster’s tournament record.
The Leinster-Saracens clash is a repeat of the 2018 quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium won 30-19 by Leinster, however, Saracens exacted revenge with a victory in last season’s final in Newcastle.
Virimi Vakatawa of Racing 92 has the highest total of defenders beaten from the pool stage with 39.
The only time ASM Clermont Auvergne lost a home quarter-final match was in 2018 against Racing 92 who are back at Stade Marcel-Michelin on Saturday looking for a repeat of that impressive 28-17 success.
The only previous meeting in the knockout stage between Toulouse and Ulster was in Belfast in the 1998/99 season when Ulster pulled off a famous 15-13 quarter-final victory before going on to win the competition. Current Toulouse president, Didier Lacroix, and High Performance Manager, Jerome Cazalbou, played in the match.
Home clubs have a 76% success rate in the 92 tournament quarter-finals played to date.
If selected, Courtney Lawes of Northampton Saints and Exeter’s Ian Whitten will make their 50th tournament appearances on Sunday.
Leinster’s quarter-final will be the club’s 175th tournament match.
Racing’s Teddy Thomas, Sam Simmonds of Exeter and Leinster’s Garry Ringrose are this season’s joint top try scorers with six apiece.
CHAMPIONS CUP MATCH KICK OFF TIMES:
Leinster v Saracens (Saturday, 16.00)
Clermont Auvergne v Racing 92 (Saturday, 18.30)
Toulouse v Ulster (Sunday, 13.30)
Exeter v Northampton (Sunday, 18.30)
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments