Champions Cup rugby returns with new format and old feuds

European Champions Cup rugby returns this weekend again experimenting with a new format and with several clubs noisily nursing grudges.

The pool stage was again disrupted by Covid.

That led to a string of cancellations, two of which involved Toulouse who were so aggrieved by the decision to award Cardiff a walkover that they are taking European Professional Club Rugby to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

To squeeze in more matches, organisers have adopted a two-legged knockout format, but only for the Round of 16 which opens with Connacht hosting Leinster on Friday. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will both be a single leg.

Clubs go into the first legs this weekend wrestling with what tactics to use.

"We're preparing for the win," Ulster lock Alan O'Connor told the competition website.

But, he added, "if there's a situation late on when we have to be smart and go for points in the last five minutes, who knows? We will be thinking about that."

Henry Chavancy, a centre for Racing 92 who face Parisian rivals Stade Francais, told AFP he is sceptical.

"I like the straight knockout matches, because there is a bit more smell of blood. They are exciting matches."

The grudge game in France is between Bordeaux Begles and last year's losing finalists La Rochelle, which is the second leg of a triple header. Already familiarity is breeding contempt.

Last Saturday, as La Rochelle won 16-15 in Bordeaux to vault past the hosts into second in the Top 14, the two coaches had a confrontation on the sidelines at Stade Chaban Delmas.

'We do not respect each other'

Bordeaux-Begles coach Christophe Urios, angry at the noisy antics of La Rochelle's Ronan O'Gara, walked up to the Irishman for a nose-to-nose exchange of opinions.

"That bloke is