2023-12-09 02:00:14
We don’t understand anything, and neither do the main people involved! As the first weekend of the Champions Cup season looms this Friday evening, the new format of the competition continues to be debated. On the program, 24 clubs including eight French, four groups of six instead of two groups of twelve, with only four matches per club, without two teams from the same country being able to play each other.
A hell of a headache for the organizers, the clubs, the fans… And the players. Faced in Cardiff this Saturday at 4 p.m., the Toulouse team did not go out of its way against the format, starting with their playing master Antoine Dupont. “To tell you the truth, we don’t understand much about it. We have difficulty finding meaning in this new formula, it changes all the time. Those who organize it must benefit from it,” believes the captain of the XV of France.
“Why are we only playing four matches when we are in a group of six”
The number 9 of the Blues and Stade Toulousain does not bother with these complications. “We just know that it’s a very short format with four matches. You have to win as many matches and points as possible to try to reach the final phase. The main thing is there. We focus on that rather than on the format of the competition,” says Antoine Dupont.
His teammate Peato Mauvaka didn’t understand much either. “I still don’t know why we only play four matches when we’re in a group of six,” says the hooker, who specifies that his manager Ugo Mola “got angry” in training this week about of this format.
In this new version of the Champions Cup, Stade Toulousain will host Cardiff and Bath and travel to Harlequins and Ulster during this group phase. The first French club involved, Union Bordeaux-Bègles will open hostilities against Connacht this Friday at 9 p.m.
The reigning double European champion, La Rochelle, will wait until Sunday (4:15 p.m.) for its entry into contention against the Irish Leinster, their victims in the last two finals. Toulon hosts Exeter on Saturday (2 p.m.) while Bayonne travels to Munster (6:30 p.m.) and Lyon visits Bristol of a certain Virimi Vakatawa (9 p.m.).
The two Ile-de-France clubs will be involved on Sunday with Stade Français traveling to Sale (2 p.m.) and Racing 92 hosting Harlequins (6:30 p.m.) at the Paris La Défense Arena.
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