The Investec Champions Cup format has come under fire after the confirmation of the fixtures for the round of 16.
After the final round of pool action, the four highest-ranked clubs in each group qualified for the last-16, along with the sides finishing in second, third and fourth.
The teams were then seeded from one to 16, with Toulouse ultimately taking the top spot and Racing 92 filling the final position, .
This format meant that the teams that faced off during the pool stages could well meet each other in the first knockout game, which has occurred. In fact, five of the eight matches will be repeats of pool-stage encounters.
v Leicester Tigers, v Munster, Bordeaux-Begles v Saracens, the Bulls v Lyon and the Stormers v La Rochelle will all be repeated in the round of 16, having already occurred in the pool stages.
Understandably, this has not gone down well with fans and pundits.
“Will be some great contests in the last 16, but only the could contrive a farcical situation where 5 of 8 knockout games were pool games already,” EK Rugby wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
One fan noted that they enjoyed this season’s Investec Champions Cup but said that the format is ‘insanely stupid’ and they were not alone in feeling that way.
“Group stage round 5 basically. Rubbish fixture list,” another added.
The overall feeling was that it is a ‘ridiculous format’ and ‘the tournament is becoming a joke.’
The Rucked Over podcast was far more damning in their reaction to the fixture list.
Their post read: “You guys couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. All but one of these fixtures are between teams in the same pool. It was so, so obvious this would happen. Seriously, who is in charge of organising this and what was the thought process?!”
While another fan wrote: “Just my annual check-in tweet to tell you that your tournament formatting is a shambles and a detriment on the sport.
”
And one begged the EPCR to change the format for upcoming seasons.
“Please do something about the format. Bring back the old pool system. It’s so disappointing having group matches repeated in the knockout stage. This used to be a magnificent competition with a format fans could understand, and you’ve ruined it in recent years,” they wrote in a reply to one of the Champions Cup posts.
Meanwhile, TNT Sports commentator Nick Mullins did have an intriguing alternative to the current way the knockout matches are decided, taking inspiration from the FA Cup.
“Mentioned this earlier when we had some time to fill.
Let’s ditch seedings for the knockouts & have an FA Cup-style live draw. 16 teams, the old velvet bag, deep breath, see who you get. Ditto the quarters & semis. Probably good reasons why we shouldn’t, but let’s do it anyway.”
The fixtures are set to take place during the first weekend of April after the upcoming Six Nations.
Toulouse (1) v Racing 92 (16)
Leinster (2) v Leicester Tigers (15)
Northampton Saints (3) v Munster (14)
Bordeaux-Begles (4) v Saracens (13)
Harlequins (5) v Glasgow Warriors (12)
Bulls (6) v Lyon (11)
Stormers (7) v La Rochelle (10)
Exeter Chiefs (8) v Bath (9)
