{"id":580825,"date":"2026-04-02T13:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580825\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T13:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:55:08","slug":"weakened-leicester-show-why-away-sides-need-champions-cup-miracles-champions-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580825\/","title":{"rendered":"Weakened Leicester show why away sides need Champions Cup miracles | Champions Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The odds on multiple away wins in this weekend\u2019s Champions Cup<\/a> last 16 are not terribly good. Since the\u00a0single-leg concept\u00a0was born three years ago there have been 24 matches, with\u00a0the hosts losing only two. If\u00a0that strike rate alters significantly this time it will certainly confound\u00a0the bookmakers.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux B\u00e8gles, the defending champions<\/a>, have even been quoted at 1-100 to beat Leicester on Sunday, a remarkable price for a two-horse race. It might be slightly different if the Tigers were at full strength but, as the bookies are keenly aware, that is very much not the case with, among others, Ollie Chessum, Joe Heyes and Nicky Smith all non-runners.<\/p>\n

There is something seriously awry when a proud club such as Leicester<\/a> find themselves approaching what should be a pivotal game with a weakened team. Their head coach, Geoff Parling, is required to give his key international forward trio a\u00a0mandatory post-Six Nations break\u00a0at some juncture and, accordingly, has chosen to prioritise a top-four domestic finish.<\/p>\n

At this point a year ago it was a similar story: Saracens rested their star men and duly shipped 72 points at Toulon<\/a>. Sarries, Harlequins, Leicester and Sale conceded 215 points between them and bowed out with barely a\u00a0whimper. The ability to fight on\u00a0two fronts has become an English rarity, with the notable exception of Bath, whose squad depth continues to grow.<\/p>\n

Melvyn Jainet (right) celebrates with Jiuta Wainiqolo after scoring the eighth of Toulon\u2019s 10 tries against Saracens in the 2025 Champions Cup last 16. Photograph: David Rogers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Is there a solution? Not a straightforward one, certainly. The current structure is technically set<\/a> until 2030, albeit with a twist in 2028. In that season the eight Champions Cup quarter-finalists will pivot to face seven teams from Super Rugby Pacific and one from Japan, the idea being to anoint a world club champion every four years instead of retaining the traditional format.<\/p>\n

Even then, it is reasonable to ask if all the world\u2019s top players will be available off the back of a demanding year, culminating in the 2027 World Cup in Australia and the 2028 Six Nations. Parling enjoyed the simplicity of the old Heineken Cup pool format but since then the calendar has grown ever more packed and the sport more intense. \u201cI just don\u2019t know how you fit everything in,\u201d said the former England forward this week. \u201cThat\u2019s for the powers that be, but you\u2019ve got to have some form of rest somewhere. The game is very physical now. We all want the best versus the best, but it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge is magnified by the need to win big knockout ties on consecutive weekends to progress to the last four. If Northampton<\/a> can see off Castres under the Friday night lights at Franklin\u2019s Gardens, for example, their prize will be a trip to a fully stacked Bath next week, unless Saracens produce a startling turnaround from their recent 62-15 Prem drubbing at the Rec.<\/p>\n

Likewise Harlequins, if they beat\u00a0Sale at the Stoop on Saturday, would be rewarded with another outing to Dublin, where they went down 45-28 to Leinster with a weakened team in the pool stages and lost 62-0 last April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A penny for Bristol\u2019s thoughts, too, if they somehow pull off a miracle in Toulouse on Saturday only\u00a0to set up a likely last-eight visit\u00a0to Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

Hopefully there will be a joker lurking somewhere in the pack. The\u00a0South African provinces have been gathering momentum lately and, in theory, the Stormers and the\u00a0Bulls are better placed to silence\u00a0the home supporters in Glasgow and Toulon respectively than they would have been in January. Not that John Dobson, the estimable Stormers\u2019 head coach, is getting ahead of himself. \u201cWhat will it take us to win?\u201d he asked wryly this week. \u201cVenus to align with Uranus and Saturn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glasgow have certainly become fiendishly hard to beat at Scotstoun\u00a0and recent history is firmly stacked against every away side. Let\u2019s just say that if any of Northampton, Bath<\/a>, Toulon, Glasgow, Toulouse, Quins, Bordeaux and Leinster fail to reach the last eight then their conquerors will be bucking the trend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The odds on multiple away wins in this weekend\u2019s Champions Cup last 16 are not terribly good. Since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-580825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}