The 8 teams I predict will make Champions Cup quarter-finals – Andy Goode

There’s always conjecture around the Champions Cup but the best club competition in the world never fails to stir the emotions and this 30^th anniversary could be its best year yet.

Talk of broadcast deals and format will melt away as soon as Andrew Brace blows the first whistle at the Rec, and Bath v La Rochelle is about as good an opening game as you can get, with the quality of rugby speaking for itself.

For what it’s worth, I think the format does exactly what you want it to do. It minimises the number of dead rubbers at the tail end of the pool stage and gets the very best teams through to an extended knockout stage. None of the old formats achieved that.

Cheetahs Director of Rugby Frans Steyn and coach Izak van der Westhuizen preview the EPCR face-off with Perpignan

Cheetahs Director of Rugby Frans Steyn and coach Izak van der Westhuizen preview the EPCR face-off with Perpignan

And, while I do understand fans’ gripes that there are too many broadcasters involved in rugby, Premier Sports have more rugby than anyone and at by far the best price point. It is an extra outlay for some English supporters but fans of the URC and Top 14 will be signed up anyway.

You only have to look at the Champions League in the round ball game to see exactly the same conversations being had but it doesn’t diminish the calibre of the competition and it certainly doesn’t reduce the excitement levels of this observer.

Importantly, aside from some French players for whom the power of the Top 14 is so ingrained in them, it remains the tournament that everyone wants to win most if you ask the players.

The images of Martin Johnson, Anthony Foley, Lawrence Dallaglio, Leo Cullen, Jonny Wilkinson, Brad Barritt, Greg Alldritt and most recently Antoine Dupont lifting the trophy live long in the memory.

Just look at the performance of the world’s best player last season to see what it means. He might be winning Olympic gold medals and turning everything else he touches into gold too but he led the way in almost every stat going in the Champions Cup.

I don’t think the big French trio of Toulouse, Bordeaux and La Rochelle will be any less determined than in previous years to get their hands on the prize at the end of it all and it’ll take something special to break the Gallic grip on the trophy.

It is a British & Irish Lions year in 2025 when the tournament reaches its crescendo and that does add a bit of spice. Once the Six Nations is done and dusted, the Champions Cup knockout games are the ones that Andy Farrell will be watching most closely.

If Finn Russell can lead Bath to glory or inspire them to a big quarter-final or semi-final victory over one of the French giants, it might just sway him into deciding that he’s his starting fly-half.

Even more so for Farrell Junior, who won’t have the Six Nations as a stage to shine on. He might have a direct line to the boss but the way he steers Racing 92 in this competition will be his biggest shop window in terms of his Lions selection chances.

Leinster are the most obvious threat to the French dominance we’ve seen over the past four years. They have lost three finals on the spin after all and added a couple of huge names and pretty sizeable bodies in RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett to their ranks in an attempt to get over that final hurdle.

Despite the negativity surrounding English rugby at the moment, I do actually think Bath will be right in the mix and the combination of Russell’s razzle-dazzle and Johann van Graan’s nous and hard-nosed edge will stand them in good stead come the knockout rounds.

I don’t think they’ll go all the way but it’s a massive season for Glasgow too on the back of them winning the URC last season. They lifted that trophy away in South Africa, which is an incredible achievement, but they’ve never been beyond the quarter-finals in the Champions Cup.

Then there are the South African sides, who might have had the odds stacked against them a little bit in their first couple of years in the competition but who I’m expecting to make plenty of noise this time around.

There is real depth at the Sharks and Bulls in particular and if the former keeps everyone fit, a starting XV featuring Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen and Aphelele Fassi will be a match for anyone.

The Round of 16 element not only makes the tournament more exciting but it also makes it more unpredictable and harder to pick your quarter-finalists as a slip here or there or a failure to pick up a bonus point will see two of the big boys going head to head earlier than you might expect.

Nevertheless, I think we’ll see the cream rising to the top once more and a line-up of three French clubs, two English teams and one each from Ireland, South Africa and Scotland in the last eight come mid-April.

We’re used to seeing dynasties being established in the world’s best club competition and if we’re being honest, it’s hard to look past another one taking shape in 2024/25 .

Five teams have won back-to-back Champions Cups but, amazingly, the most successful side in the tournament’s history aren’t one of them. Leinster, Leinster, Toulon, Saracens and La Rochelle have all done it and my money’s on Toulouse joining that elite club this season.

My Champions Cup 2024/25 Quarter-Finalists

Toulouse

La Rochelle

Bordeaux

Leinster

Sharks

Glasgow

Bath

Leicester