Format confirmed for SA teams' entry into European Cup competitions

European rugby's governing body, the EPCR, has confirmed the formats and qualifiers for next year's expanded Champions and Challenge Cup competitions, which include five South African franchises.

The Bulls, Sharks and Stormers will play in the top-tier Champions Cup, while the Lions and Cheetahs will contest the Challenge Cup.

There will be 24 clubs in the 2022/23 Champions Cup - eight teams from the United Rugby Championship, eight from the English Premiership and eight from the French TOP 14.

The clubs will be divided into two pools of 12 - Pool A and Pool B - and the tournament will be played over eight weekends with four rounds of matches in the pool stage starting next December when La Rochelle begin their title defence.

The eight highest-ranked clubs from each pool will qualify for the knockout stage which will consist of a Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the showpiece final at Dublin's Aviva Stadium on 20 May 2023.

The EPCR said in a statement that the draw for the Champions Cup pools, which will be live-streamed from the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, 28 June, will be carried out on the same lines as last season with the clubs separated into four tiers based on their rankings, while clubs from the same league in the same tier will not be drawn into the same pool.

The number 1 and number 2 ranked clubs from each league will be in Tier 1, the number 3 and number 4 ranked clubs will be in Tier 2, the number 5 and 6 ranked clubs will be in Tier 3, and the number 7 and number 8 ranked clubs will be Tier 4.

The Tier 1 and the Tier 4 clubs which have been drawn in the same pool, but which are not in the same league, will play one another home and away during the pool stage, as will the Tier 2 and Tier 3 clubs which