European Champions Cup: betting preview and free tips

Rugby tips, best bets and team analysis for the 2020-21 European Champions Cup.

Best bets

Racing 92
2pts 11-2 BoyleSports
Clermont
1pt each-way BoyleSports

Champions Cup preview

There was a new name on the European Champions Cup last season as Exeter claimed their maiden title, and there’s a new format as the competition kicks off again on Friday.

The top eight finishers from the Premiership, Pro14 and Top 14 go to post, divided into two carefully structured pools of 12.

Each team plays four matches, home and away against two clubs from outside their own league, and the seeding of opponents is weighted to favour the higher-ranked teams.

Thus Exeter and Leinster, the top two teams in the betting and the Premiership and Pro14 champions, take on the sides who finished seventh or eighth in the other domestic leagues.

It looks a carefully judged system to meet the demands of a much shorter timeframe, but if there’s an anomaly, it’s with the French clubs.

The Top 14 rankings are based on position when the season was curtailed in March, two-thirds of the way through.

French clubs are known for their inconsistency, not just from season to season but within a single campaign, and while the ranking of the British and Irish teams is a pretty fair reflection of where they stand, that doesn’t look to be the case for the Top 14.

The outright betting reflects that. The three lowest-ranked teams in Pool A are Gloucester and Glasgow, both 200-1 shots, plus Toulouse, who are 7-1 fourth-favourites.

Because of their lowly seeding four-time European champions Toulouse take on Exeter home and away in the pool and that's far from an easy ride for the holders, who are happily swerved at 4-1.

Tournament favourites Leinster should have an easier ride, and although their Top 14 opponents Montpellier are again a cut above the lower-ranked British and Irish sides, they have made a poor start to their domestic campaign.

But the French sides who stand out in the betting thanks to their mid-ranked status are Racing 92, beaten finalists in three of the last five campaigns, and Clermont.

Star-studded Racing find themselves classed as a tier-two side in the seedings but their European pedigree is far greater than some of the sides who finished above them and the upshot is they face fairly modest opposition in Harlequins and Connacht, who each went out at the group stage last year.

The task for Clermont is tougher - they face old-stagers Munster and European Challenge Cup holders Bristol - but 14-1 looks a generous price.

Leinster look worthy tournament favourites having won the Pro14 last season with a 100 per cent record. They last lifted the European crown three seasons ago but since then only Saracens have stopped them - in the quarter-final last term and in the final before that - and the relegated former Premiership side are out of the picture now.

They certainly look a better investment than Exeter, who face a tricky Glasgow side as well as Toulouse in their forthcoming fixtures, but 5-2 is not the most generous price given the short format, in which one slip could end a team's qualifying hopes.

The action begins on Friday night (BT Sport, 5.30pm) as Northampton host Bordeaux, who are the highest-ranked French side thanks to their position at the top of the table when the plug was pulled last season. They are just eight in this season's table with a record of five wins and five defeats but are narrow favourites against a struggling Saints side still looking for their first win three weeks into the Premiership season.

There's a heavyweight contest later on as Ulster host Toulouse (BT Sport, 8pm). The French side are second in the Top 14 and are five-point favourites.

Tournament format

The top 24 teams in last season's three main leagues - the Premiership, Pro14 and Top 14, all qualify and each nation's teams are ranked one to eight according to finishing position.

The 24 teams are split into two pools of eight, and each pool of 12 teams is divided into four tiers according to each nation's ranking. Therefore each tier will have one English, one Pro14 and one French team in it, all of equivalent seeding.

In each pool, the teams in tier one play the teams in tier four, while tier two take on tier three. They do not play against teams from their own league, so each team is left with a pair of opponents who they face home and away.

At the end of the four-match round robin, the top four teams in each pool go on to the quarter-finals, while the teams ranked fifth to eighth go into the European Challenge Cup.

The first phase of the Challenge Cup is played alongside the Champions Cup featuring the remaining 14 teams from the three European leagues who did not finish in the top eight. They play four matches against two clubs from outside their own league on a similar seeded basis, and the top eight go on to the knockout stages.

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