Champions Cup permutations ahead of final pool games

Champions Cup permutations.

While many have been lamenting the slow decline of the Investec Champions Cup, this is the weekend when interest starts to pique.

The final round of pool games brings the usual permutations scramble as those involved work out what they need to qualify for the Round of 16, to secure home advantage, or in Leinster's case simply finish as high in the seedings as possible.

Along the weekend, the prospective Round of 16 match-ups get pieced together like a jigsaw. A bonus-point here or there can have implications for a handful of clubs.

The qualification process works as follows: The top four teams from each Champions Cup pool go through to the Round of 16, while the teams who finish fifth drop down to the Challenge Cup knockouts.

After qualification, the seedings are broken down in blocks of four. The four pool winners take the first four seeds, ranked by their points total. Up next are the teams who finish second in their groups, and they fill in seeds five through eight, and so on.

Leinster, Munster and Ulster all have something to play for across the weekend, as do Connacht in the Challenge Cup.

Here’s what the outlook is like for the four provinces this weekend.

Leinster (home v Bath, Saturday 5.30pm)

Already qualified for the next round, Leinster are in their usual position heading into the final round of the pool stage where they are simply jostling for position, and trying to lock in as high a seed as possible.

Leo Cullen’s side are unlikely to finish as the number one seed, which would require both Bordeaux and Toulouse to suffer surprise defeats. However, the number 2 seed would serve much the same purpose, and give them home advantage for as long as they remain in the competition until the final