Hi Jeff Pagano here from Harpin On Rugby.  

The draw for the pool stages of the 2023/24 Champions Cup was made at lunchtime on Wednesday, June 21st which is the longest day of the year and given all the confusion surrounding the format being used for next year’s competition, if I try to explain it here I might end up making it seem even longer.

But I still think it’s important to do a video to try and put this whole format debate into the proper context since there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding surrounding the reasons for doing it this way, and possibly, in my opinion anyway, maybe also a misunderstanding as to the merits of the way things used to work.

First a quick look at the history of the competition format.  After the first few Heineken Cups saw varying numbers of teams and thus varying formats, the six pools of four everyone wants the competition to return to was first used in the 1999-2000 season, when Northampton Saints went on to beat Munster in the final.   

This method was used all the way through to the 2013/14 season, when the whole governance of the competition was restructured mainly due to complaints coming from the Premiership clubs about meritocracy.  But although the number of participants was reduced from 24 clubs to 20, the format was pretty much the same only now three runners-up made the quarterfinals instead of two.   This remained in place up to and including the 2019/2020 competition, which as we all know got disrupted by COVID meaning the knockouts couldn’t take place until the autumn.

For the next Champions Cup, they went back to 24 teams, and this was the official reason given by the governing body European Professional Club Rugby :

I take that to mean that more clubs were given the chance to avail of Champions Cup money in an attempt to make up for what was lost during COVID, but this way also allowed for an equal allocation of clubs across the three main domestic competitions.  Now here is where all the confusion was to begin, since the tournament now seemed to be adopting a version of what is known in soccer as “The Swiss model”.  For this method we now had two pools of 12 clubs, with the top 8 in each pool qualifying for the knockout rounds.

But for me the critical change here is not in the number of clubs. it’s not in the number of pools. and it’s not even in the number of teams that qualify from those pools.  It’s in the number of weekends available to the competition for the pool phase.  All of a sudden this was reduced from six weekends to four.

Why was this?  I can only assume it partly had to do with demands from the unions for test rugby windows during November, but more importantly from the domestic leagues, the newly-formed URC being one but I reckon the bulk of the pressure came from the more established Premiership and Top 14, with of course companies who have heavily invested in the game like CVC also having a big say.

For me, the significance of this switch from six weekends to four cannot be ignored, and those who think the EPCR can just snap their fingers and switch back to the old pool method aren’t fully aware of who is actually doing the decision making.

Anyway, this format got something of a free pass the first season because there were so many matches cancelled due to COVID that we didn’t really get a chance to see how the pools played out in real time.  But the next two seasons were nothing short of a PR-disaster.  You know something is wrong when there seems to be more online comment about a tournament format than about the actual rugby happening out on the pitch.

And so the EPCR decided to listen and make a change for 2023/24.  But again it has to be pointed out that they still only had four weekends to work with, plus they seem determined to make sure teams from the same league won’t face each other in the pool phase, which to be fair does make some sense as it avoids teams facing each other as many as four times over the course of a season.

Which leaves us with the new format.  Four pools of six clubs, with two from each league in each pool and everyone playing each other within the pool apart from that team from the same league.   And they added one extra twist to the draw – while the four major  trophy winners from the season just gone were kept apart, the remaining 20 were left unseeded which has resulted in a classic Pool of death involving both of last year’s Champions Cup finalists La Rochelle and Leinster as well as Leicester Tigers and the Stormers who won their domestic tiles the previous season.

Here’s my take on the whole thing – yes I agree this new way creates as many problems as it solves, especially what with the unfortunate financial demise of three Premiership clubs meaning a team finishing 3rd from the bottom qualifies for something known as a Champions Cup.  There is no disputing that of all the formats this competition has used over the years, the six pools of four was definitely the best, especially with the back-to-back matches in December which was always an exciting spell on the calendar just before Christmas.

But as far as I’m concerned, even that was far from perfect.  Like I’ve already said, it’s not ideal to be in a pool with a team you’re already up against in the domestic league, but another thing I didn’t like about the six pool format was that it was possible to face a team in the quarterfinals that you already met in the pool phase.

Still, those are just superficial things, and my biggest problem with the old way wasn’t actually the format rather how it played out on the European calendar.  Imagine being coach of any team, knowing that once you’ve gotten your squad out of the pool phase of a major competition, the bulk of your best players would be taken from you to play for a completely different team in one of the most attritional tournaments the sport has to offer and, well, you’re just going to have to hope and pray that you’ll get them all back fit in time for the knockout phase.

No matter what way we slice the format of what is meant to be Europe’s elite club competition, the fact that the more important Six Nations takes place slap bang in the middle of the season is always going to have an effect whether we talk about it or not, and given things have been this way ever since the game went pro frankly I’m surprised that we’re only complaining about nonsensical formats now.

Anyway…that’s my two cents…this weekend sees the Irish Men’s 7s looking to qualify for the Olympics, the Irish Under 20’s kicking off their World Championship campaign and there’s also the Super Rugby final and we’ll be covering all of that in our pod recording this Sunday evening so please like, share, and subscribe to all our social media channels and in the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are, stay safe everyone, slán.