Saracens eye last 16 as English clubs mount a French resistance December 15, 2024 Saracens took another major stride towards the last 16 on Sunday with a hard-fought win at Stade Francais as English clubs put on a much-improved showing in round two of the Investec Champions Cup pool stage. After Premiership sides mustered a feeble two victories from eight games in round one of European rugby’s premier club [...]
Quins boss reveals he almost didn’t pick star man in thrashing of Stormers December 15, 2024 Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson admits he almost scuppered Alex Dombrandt’s man-of-the-match display in their 53-16 win over the Stormers in the Investec Champions Cup. England No8 Dombrandt ran in three of Quins’ eight tries at the Stoop but Wilson revealed afterwards that he considered leaving him out of the team over fitness concerns. “I [...]
Glasgow Warriors shining light for Scotland in Champions Cup December 14, 2024 North of Hadrian’s Wall there’s a proud rugby nation in Scotland. Their two flagship clubs, Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh, host the majority of the national team and the nation’s biggest overseas stars ply their trade in the country. But the Investec Champions Cup and its predecessor top level competitions have never been a happy hunting [...]
Leinster, Clermont, Tigers and Sharks to serve up Champions Cup delight December 13, 2024 Set an alarm for 5:30pm on Saturday, settle in, pour yourself a brew or glass of wine, put on the dual screens and enjoy what will be the standout matches of the second weekend of Investec Champions Cup action. Because Leicester – having been forced to rest a number of players for their huge clash [...]
Premier Sports hit Champions Cup targets, says broadcaster chief December 11, 2024 Investec Champions Cup broadcaster Premier Sports insisted they hit viewership targets across the opening weekend of action. The Irish broadcaster has taken over the broadcast rights from TNT Sports for Great Britain as part of a three-year deal with the competition’s governing body EPCR. Despite concerns over the coverage, which featured some technical glitches and [...]
Top 14 comes up trumps again in as Investec Champions Cup kicks off December 8, 2024 Anyone hoping for an end to the dominance of French clubs in the Investec Champions Cup, look away now. Holders Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles both won their opening pool games on Sunday, making it six wins out of a possible eight from representatives of the Top 14 over round one of the competition. The league that [...]
Tom Willis makes mockery of England omission as Saracens bludgeon Bulls December 8, 2024 Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall urged England to take note after No8 Tom Willis burnished his growing reputation with a man-of-the-match display in Saturday’s 27-5 Investec Champions Cup win over the Bulls. Willis was surprisingly omitted from Steve Borthwick’s 36-man England squad for last month’s Autumn Nations Series but made a mockery of that [...]
Why doesn’t Saudi Arabia sponsor rugby when it invests everywhere else? December 7, 2024 If you were going to have a gander through the list of sports sponsorship deals related – directly or indirectly – to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you’d be scrolling for a good while. Because research by Play the Game reports that there’s a total of 910 deals between Saudi Arabia or Saudi companies/individuals and [...]
Can English clubs mount an Investec Champions Cup charge? December 6, 2024 If you were to list the last five English appearances in an Investec Champions Cup final you’d find Exeter there once and Saracens the other four times. Before that it was Northampton Saints in 2011 and before that London Wasps and Leicester Tigers in 2007. But if you were to ask me to predict which [...]
Premier Sports boss on Champions Cup, 24/7 rugby channel and rights December 5, 2024 Ahead of the Investec Champions Cup, Morning Wire sat down with Richard Sweeney of Premier Sports as the broadcaster takes on European rugby’s rights. When the Champions Cup TV deal between TNT Sports and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) came to an end, many assumed a copy-and-paste agreement would see the partnership continue. But the [...]