On Tuesday night, while his Bristol team-mates were acclimatising to their South Africa surroundings, Louis Rees-Zammit was in Spain watching his beloved Manchester United fall to yet another defeat, at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
Rees-Zammit is perfectly entitled to do what he likes with his time off. But the fact he has been given a rest for the opening week of the 2026-27 Champions Cup reinforces the notion that rugby’s European competitions are far from the force they once were. And the sport is all the poorer for that fact.
Once one of rugby’s most hotly anticipated tournaments, the Champions Cup has for too long suffered from a bloated pool stage in which too many teams – especially when away from home – field weakened sides to prioritise domestic competition, resulting in one-sided mismatches.
Last season alone, English PREM sides were involved in matches that finished 77-7, 63-10, 68-14, 57-14, 61-10, 50-5, 61-12, 50-28 and – deep breath – 61-49. And that was just the pool stage.
The worrying trend looks set to continue this weekend, as evidenced by the fact that Bristol’s star wing Rees-Zammit is not a part of Pat Lam’s squad in Cape Town ahead of their game with the Stormers on Saturday.
European rugby is not dead, but it is on life support. For its organisers – led by chairman Dominic McKay and chief executive Jacques Raynaud – to get it back to its glory days, they must first accept that things need to be changed. On the face of things, that doesn’t appear to be happening.
Bordeaux are the European Cup’s back-to-back defending champions, extending French rugby’s dominance of the competition
Rather than adding to his four tries already this season for Bristol Bears, Louis Rees-Zammit will be given the week off for the opening round of the Champions Cup
| Pool 1 | Pool 2 | Pool 3 | Pool 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leinster | Toulouse | Bordeaux | Northampton |
| Glasgow | Lions | Stormers | Bath |
| Pau | Saracens | Racing 92 | Cardiff |
| Sale | La Rochelle | Munster | Montpellier |
| Leicester | Exeter | Bristol | Stade Francais |
| Clermont | Connacht | Gloucester | Bulls |
| Top three teams in each pool qualify for last 16, plus the four best fourth-place finishers | |||
The recent messaging from bosses at EPCR’s Swiss base has been focused on greater digital engagement, the defence of Premier Sports as the tournament’s UK broadcaster and interest in holding the finals of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, the second-tier competition, in far-flung destinations such as the United States, Singapore or Hong Kong in the early 2030s.
Growing rugby’s appeal in areas where it is not a traditional passion is to be applauded. But for the Champions Cup right now it is purely a fanciful notion. Let’s not run before we can walk.
Less can sometimes be more. The current format of four pools of six teams makes the Champions Cup far too unwieldy. It is not an elite competition in its guise today. For example, eight of PREM Rugby’s 10 teams qualify for it each year as things stand. That cannot be right.
It would also be of overall benefit if what has become a French domination of the competition was ended. The past six Champions Cup winners have come from the Top14, predominantly because their teams have big budgets and squads to compete on multiple fronts. The last English winner was Exeter in the Covid final of 2020 – which made it four wins in five years for PREM sides – and as things stand, a repeat of that success for a PREM team looks unlikely.
This season, European rugby begins with just one round of matches before domestic action returns. It does not help the Champions Cup or Challenge Cup to build up a sense of continuity. Europe seems to operate in isolation. Any sporting competition will struggle to sell its narrative when in that position.
So, what to do? Here, Daily Mail Sport looks at how it can be revitalised…
It’s now six years since a PREM Rugby side won the Champions Cup – when Exeter beat Racing 92 behind closed doors at Ashton Gate in 2020
| Top 14 teams have won the last six Champions Cups, after a run of PREM domination | |
| 2026 Bordeaux-Begles (Fra) | beat Leinster 41-19 |
| 2025 Bordeaux-Begles (Fra) | beat Northampton 28-20 |
| 2024 Toulouse (Fra) | beat Leinster 31-22 |
| 2023 La Rochelle (Fra) | beat Leinster 27-26 |
| 2022 La Rochelle (Fra) | beat Leinster 24-21 |
| 2021 Toulouse (Fra) | beat La Rochelle 22-17 |
| 2020 Exeter Chiefs (Eng) | beat Racing 92 31-27 |
| 2019 Saracens (Eng) | beat Leinster 20-10 |
| 2018 Leinster (Ire) | beat Racing 92 15-12 |
| 2017 Saracens (Eng) | beat Clermont 28-17 |
| 2016 Saracens (Eng) | beat Racing 92 21-9 |
1. Get rid of eight teams
Cutting from 24 to 16 would improve the quality of matches, ensure fewer dead rubbers and therefore make clubs play their full-strength teams.
Playing fewer games would also come with a player welfare benefit, even if it might not be as an attractive proposition commercially.
Still, there can be no doubt that fewer, better games is better than more, poorer ones.
Thankfully, there seems to be an appetite for this to happen with both PREM Rugby bosses and the powerful Top14 keen to head in that direction.
Can it be soon, please? Four pools of four and no more needless last 16.
2. Bye bye, Boks
There have been rumours recently that the four leading South African sides who have been in European competition for the past four years have been threatening to walk away. Please do so!
When the Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Lions head to the UK, Ireland or France, they often bring weakened sides. The same is true the other way, as whatever the direction of travel, matches involving South African sides always involve one team having to take on an epic, expensive journey.
The weaker sides are clearly having an impact – in the four years they have been in the Champions Cup, a South African team has only made the quarter-finals three times, and they have never won an away knockout match.
The only positive South Africa brings is an increase in television money, but it’s hard to escape the feeling the Champions Cup would be better if it stayed to what it says it is – European.
Northampton thumped an under-powered Bulls side 50-5 in last season’s pool stage
3. Bring back double headers
One of the things that made the old Heineken Cup so good was that in pools of four, each team would play the other twice, with home and away double-headers over Christmas and New Year.
In the past, these were often epic occasions, attracting large numbers of travelling fans – something which has been lost.
4. Work with the calendar
For the Champions Cup to thrive, it has to be given structure. One round of matches in October, one in December and two in January does not help that, making it so hard to build a narrative around the competition.
And then there’s the scheduling. Cardiff travel to Northampton on Sunday for a 5.30pm kick-off and then have just five days before their next United Rugby Championship game with the Sharks the following Friday.
It doesn’t give Cardiff any chance at all to compete at their best in both matches and is a significant player welfare issue.
Rugby fans long for the halcyon days of the Heineken Cup, when this competition was once the jewel in the sport’s crown. It’s time to act to save what we once had
One positive for this season is the introduction of a new European bonus-point system.
Try bonus points in the pool stage will be awarded only to teams who cross at least three more times than their opponents – rather than for simply scoring four or more tries. Such a concept is used in the Top14 and aims to keep matches competitive for longer.
In addition, only three teams from each of the four pools will go through automatically (down from four in each pool) plus the four best fourth-placed teams.
But this is minor tinkering. As rugby fans prepare for a weekend of European rugby once again, it’s clear its competitions need major surgery. Now is the time for action, or the previously unthinkable concept of European rugby ceasing to exist could well become a reality.
