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The marksman, the strike runner and the hot favourites: 14 Champions Cup factoids

(Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)

Be it the tournaments leading strike runner or the most accurate boot in comp, the return of the Champions Cup provides a much-needed dose of normality in an increasingly unpredictable sporting world.

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Leinster enter the quarter-finals fresh from securing the PRO14 title, defeating Ulster in what was largely a bloodless coup in Dublin on Saturday night. They face European nemesis, Saracens, who are keen on what head coach Mark McCall has described as the first ‘meaningful’ match for some time. For their troubles, Ulster face a tough assignment away to Toulouse, while Exeter Chiefs and Northampton Saints face off in an all-English showdown at Sandy Park on Sunday. Clermont and Racing, just a handful of weeks after returning to competitive rugby, will duke it out at the Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin. 

Ahead of the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals, the ECPR have published their previews statistics and facts, 14 in total.

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Le French Rugby Podcast | Episode 2 | Steffon Armitage

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      Le French Rugby Podcast | Episode 2 | Steffon Armitage

      14 CHAMPIONS CUP FACTOIDS

      Five tournament winners with 13 Heineken Champions Cup titles between them remain in contention for silverware this season.

      On the only other occasion in 2017/18 that Leinster qualified as the No 1-ranked club from the pool stage they went on to lift the trophy, defeating Racing 92 in the final in Bilbao.

      Exeter and Northampton are going head-to-head for the first time in the tournament. Sunday’s all-Premiership showdown at Sandy Park will be the Chiefs’ second quarter-final appearance and their first at home.

      Ulster, who travel to Toulouse, have won one of their four away quarter-finals when they famously defeated Munster 22-16 at Thomond Park in 2012.

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      Exeter’s Joe Simmonds has a 93% goalkicking success rate from 27 attempts during his six pool stage appearances.

      Toulouse have qualified for the knockout stage for the 18th time, equalling Munster’s tournament record.

      The Leinster-Saracens clash is a repeat of the 2018 quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium won 30-19 by Leinster, however, Saracens exacted revenge with a victory in last season’s final in Newcastle.

      Virimi Vakatawa of Racing 92 has the highest total of defenders beaten from the pool stage with 39.

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      The only time ASM Clermont Auvergne lost a home quarter-final match was in 2018 against Racing 92 who are back at Stade Marcel-Michelin on Saturday looking for a repeat of that impressive 28-17 success.

      The only previous meeting in the knockout stage between Toulouse and Ulster was in Belfast in the 1998/99 season when Ulster pulled off a famous 15-13 quarter-final victory before going on to win the competition. Current Toulouse president, Didier Lacroix, and High Performance Manager, Jerome Cazalbou, played in the match.

      Home clubs have a 76% success rate in the 92 tournament quarter-finals played to date.

      If selected, Courtney Lawes of Northampton Saints and Exeter’s Ian Whitten will make their 50th tournament appearances on Sunday.

      Leinster’s quarter-final will be the club’s 175th tournament match.

      Racing’s Teddy Thomas, Sam Simmonds of Exeter and Leinster’s Garry Ringrose are this season’s joint top try scorers with six apiece.

      CHAMPIONS CUP MATCH KICK OFF TIMES:
      Leinster v Saracens (Saturday, 16.00)
      Clermont Auvergne v Racing 92 (Saturday, 18.30)
      Toulouse v Ulster (Sunday, 13.30)
      Exeter v Northampton (Sunday, 18.30)

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      RedWarriors 2 hours ago
      Ulster boss Richie Murphy levels accusation at Leinster after heavy loss

      There’s a lot to unpick in your comment but let’s start with the obvious and that is that you clearly don’t know what the budgets are and therefore cannot state that they are equal.

      Neither do you.


      Now you mention stadia, sure Ravenhill and the RDS are comparable but Leinster don’t play most of their games at the RDS anymore, do they?

      They play most of their matches in the Aviva because the RDS is being redeveloped for capacity. You’re assertion that Leinster will not play in the RDS again is utter hogwash and a conspiracy theory (if even that).


      So fanbase, sure Leinster have a larger fanbase and that’s a direct result of being, by a considerable distance, the largest urban population on Ireland, aided further by the absence of any top tier football teams that similar cities across other countries have. Once again an inherent advantage over the other provinces.

      The population of Leinster is 2.9 million. The population of Ulster is 2.3 million. The population of the Dublin Urban area is about 1.3 million. If you quote 2 million at me, we can go for an 80 mile walk over the Wicklow mountains, not meet a house and not leave the ‘Greater Dublin Area’. If you were Irish you would know this. The population of Belfast urban area (including Bangor etc) is about .75 million. Not a major difference. Most of the soccer in Ireland is played in Dublin City so not an inherent advantage. A fact you just ‘Made up’ right?


      Now Belfast has an element of this but it’s very much smaller in scale. Munster and Connacht, pretty negligible by comparison.

      Yes, there are less private schools in Belfast but Ulster contributors here are clear that it is how they are managed. If you are saying the private school rugby playing population in Munster is negligable then you haven’t a clue. Any Cork player is private. Any Limerick player more or less community. Anyone who knows anything about Irish rugby knows this. Where do you think ROG POM and all those Cork guys came from? FEE paying schools.


      Now what does that tell us about budgets when Munster were told to release Snyman last year who just happened to end up at…Leinster!

      Munster were NOT told to release Snyman. They had 4 overseas players and were told to reduce it to 3, as all provinces must. They chose to Keep Jean Kleyne and release Snyman. That was a cock up by Munster but how can you blame Leinster for this? Leinster are allowed no more than 3. When Barrett goes, then they are entitled to bring in Ioane. Munster and other provinces will benefit from this sabbattical template Leinster use. Yet it is now being used to attack Leinster again?


      Obviously you are free to comment about Irish rugby. But please stop with the BS.

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      Thekla Homata 3 hours ago
      The mixed feelings in Northampton changing room after beating Newcastle

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