The pool draws for the 2026-27 Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup tournaments will be staged in Dublin on Wednesday, 1 July.
Both draws at the Premier Sports studios will be streamed live on epcrugby.com from 1:30pm (SA time).
The 24 Champions Cup clubs which have qualified from the French Top 14, English Premiership and Vodacom URC will once again compete in four pools of six.
The key principles of the Champions Cup draw are as follows:
- Each pool of six will contain two clubs from each of the leagues.
- Clubs from the same URC Shield cannot be in the same pool. Therefore, the South African qualifiers – the Bulls, Lions and Stormers – will each be drawn or allocated into separate pools.
- There will be no matches between clubs from the same league, so in order to create the pool stage fixtures, each club will play four matches against four different clubs who are not from the same league, either home or away.
2026-27 Champions Cup qualifiers
Top 14: Toulouse, Montpellier, Stade Français, Racing 92, Pau, La Rochelle, Clermont, Bordeaux Bègles.
Premiership: Northampton Saints, Exeter Chiefs, Bath, Leicester Tigers, Saracens, Bristol Bears, Sale Sharks, Gloucester.
URC: Leinster, Bulls, Glasgow Warriors, Stormers, Munster, Cardiff, Lions, Connacht.
DOBBO: Champions Cup ‘massive’ for Stormers
2026/27 match weekends
Round 1: 16/17/18 October 2026
Round 2: 11/12/13 December 2026
Round 3: 8/9/10 January 2027
Round 4: 15/16/17 January 2027
Round of 16: 2/3/4 April 2027
Quarter-finals: 9/10/11 April 2027
Semi-finals: 30 April / 1/2 May 2027
Lyon 2027 Finals Weekend, OL Stadium
EPCR Challenge Cup final: Friday, 21 May 2027
Investec Champions Cup final: Saturday, 22 May 2027
