The 2026–27 European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the 2026–27 Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) will be the thirteenth season of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the annual club rugby union competition run by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) for professional clubs. It will be the 32nd season of the pan-European professional club rugby competition.
The final will be played at Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon.
Bordeaux Bègles entered the competition as defending champions with Leinster entering as beaten finalists.
Format changes for 2026/27 season In June 2026, the tournament organisers confirmed two rule changes to how the format of the tournament works; including a change to the qualification process for the Round of 16 and an adaptation to the bonus points system.
Previously, the top four teams in each pool automatically qualified for the Round of 16. However, as of the 2026–27 season, only the top three teams will automatically qualify for the Round of 16, with the top two earning a home draw. The remaining four places will go to the four clubs with the highest number of match points across the competition, regardless of what pool they are in. If two teams are level on points, the deciding factor will now be the number of wins they have, instead of points difference.
Elsewhere, the bonus point system will mirror that of the Top 14, with teams only securing a try bonus-point if they score three or more tries more than the opposition. This has changed from the four-try system used since the 2003–04 season.
The changes are designed to enhance the competitiveness and intensity of the Pool stage fixtures by enhancing the battle for qualification to the Round of 16, and ensuring matches stay competitive for longer.
Teams Twenty-four clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues qualified for the 2026–27 edition of the Champions Cup.
The distribution of teams was: England: eight clubs The top eight clubs from the 2025–26 PREM. France: eight clubs The top eight clubs from the 2025–26 Top 14. Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Wales: eight clubs The top eight sides from the 2025–26 United Rugby Championship.
Bath Bristol Bears Exeter Chiefs Gloucester Leicester Tigers Northampton Saints Sale Sharks Saracens Bordeaux Bègles Clermont La Rochelle Montpellier Pau Racing 92 Stade Français Toulouse Connacht Leinster Munster Glasgow Warriors Bulls Lions Stormers Cardiff
Team details Below is the list of coaches, captain and stadiums with their method of qualification for each team.
Team Coach(es)/Director of Rugby Captain(s) Stadium Capacity Method of qualification Bath Johann van Graan Ben Spencer The Rec 14,509 PREM top 8 (2nd) (SF) Bordeaux Bègles Yannick Bru Maxime Lucu Stade Chaban-Delmas 34,694 Top 14 top 8 (8th) Bristol Bears Pat Lam Fitz Harding Ashton Gate 27,000 PREM top 8 (6th) Bulls Johan Ackermann Marcell Coetzee Loftus Versfeld 51,762 URC top 8 (4th) (RU) Clermont Christophe Urios Baptiste Jauneau Stade Marcel-Michelin 19,022 Top 14 top 8 (7th) Cardiff Corniel van Zyl Liam Belcher Cardiff Arms Park 12,125 URC top 8 (6th) (QF) Connacht Stuart Lancaster Cian Prendergast Dexcom Stadium 12,500 URC top 8 (8th) (QF) Exeter Chiefs Rob Baxter Dafydd Jenkins Sandy Park 15,600 PREM top 8 (3rd) (RU) Glasgow Warriors Franco Smith Kyle Steyn Scotstoun Stadium 7,351 URC top 8 (1st) (SF) Gloucester George Skivington Dewi Lake Kingsholm Stadium 16,115 PREM top 8 (8th) La Rochelle Ronan O'Gara Grégory Alldritt Stade Marcel-Deflandre 18,000 Top 14 top 8 (6th) (QF) Leicester Tigers Geoff Parling Ollie Chessum Mattioli Woods Welford Road 25,849 PREM top 8 (4th) (SF) Leinster Leo Cullen Caelan Doris Aviva Stadium, Dublin 55,000 URC top 8 (2nd) (CH) Lions Ivan van Rooyen Francke Horn Emirates Airline Park 62,567 URC top 8 (7th) (QF) Montpellier Lenni Nouchi Septeo Stadium 15,697 Top 14 top 8 (2nd) (RU) Munster Clayton McMillan Tadhg Beirne Thomond Park, LimerickSuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork 25,60045,000 URC top 8 (5th) (QF) Northampton Saints Phil Dowson Fraser Dingwall Franklin's Gardens 15,200 PREM top 8 (1st) (CH) Pau Sébastien Piqueronies Beka Gorgadze Stade du Hameau 14,999 Top 14 top 8 (4th) (QF) Racing 92 Patrice Collazo Ibrahim Diallo Plenitude ArenaStade Dominique Duvauchelle 30,68012,150 Top 14 top 8 (5th) (SF) Sale Sharks Alex Sanderson Ernst van Rhyn CorpAcq Stadium 12,000 PREM top 8 (7th) Saracens Brendan Venter Maro Itoje StoneX Stadium 10,500 PREM top 8 (5th) Stade Français Paul Gustard Paul Gabrillagues Stade Jean-Bouin 20,000 Top 14 top 8 (3rd) (SF) Stormers John Dobson Ruhan Nel DHL StadiumNelson Mandela Bay Stadium 55,00046,000 URC top 8 (3rd) (SF) Toulouse Ugo Mola Antoine Dupont Stade Ernest-Wallon 19,500 Top 14 top 8 (1st) (CH)
Notes
Draw For the purposes of the draw, the 24 clubs were separated into two tiers, Tier 1 and Tier 2, based on their league finishing position; with the winners of each domestic competition (Northampton Saints, Toulouse and Leinster) and the defending Champions Cup winners, Bordeaux Bègles, seeded in the top tier. The remaining twenty teams are seeded in the second tier. Like previous seasons, the four pools are made up of six teams, with each pool containing two clubs from each of league; however, clubs from the same URC Shield cannot be in the same pool.
Pool stage
Teams were drawn into pools in Dublin on 1 July 2026. Teams are awarded four points for a win, two for a draw, one for scoring three tries more than their opponent in a game and one for losing by fewer than eight points. This marks a significant change in the bonus point system of the competition, broadly mirroring that employed in the Top 14.
Each pool consist of six teams, two from each of the three contributing leagues. Each team plays the four teams which are not from its own league once. The top three teams in each pool will progress to the round of 16. The four other round of 16 places will go to the four clubs with the highest number of points across all pools, regardless of which pool they are in. Four clubs that did not qualify for the round of 16 can progress to the knockout stages of the 2025–26 EPCR Challenge Cup. These will be the next four clubs with the highest number of points, also regardless of which pool they are in.
Pool 1
Pool 2
Pool 3
Pool 4
Ranking of non-top three teams This table displays the overall standings for the twelve teams that did not qualify automatically for the round of 16 as one of the top three in their respective pools. Under the updated format for the 2026–27 season, the clubs finishing fourth, fifth, and sixth across all four pools are aggregated into this single ranking to determine the remaining knockout participants. The top four teams from this combined table secure the final four places in the Champions Cup round of 16, the next four drop down to compete in the Challenge Cup round of 16, and the bottom four are eliminated from European competition entirely.
Knockout stage The knockout stage will follow the same format as used in previous years, beginning with a single-leg round of 16. This round will then be followed by the quarter-finals and semi-finals, before the tournament concludes with the final at OL Stadium, Lyon on Saturday 22 May 2027.
All clubs will be ranked in descending order, based firstly on their ranking in their pool, and subsequently on the number of competition points they have accumulated, to create an overall ranking from 1 to 16. The pool winners will be ranked 1 to 4, the second-placed clubs ranked 5 to 8, the third-placed clubs ranked 9 to 12, and the four next best clubs across all pools will be ranked 13 to 16.
Whilst the round of 16 will follow a pre-determined format (1 v 16 down to 8 v 9) with home advantage given to the clubs ranked 1 to 8, the quarter-finals will see home venue advantage given to the higher-ranked team from the pool stage based on a fixed bracket. As such, the teams seeded 1 to 4 are guaranteed home advantage if they reach the quarter-finals, and teams seeded 13 to 16 are guaranteed an away fixture if they do so. Whether a team ranked from 5 to 12 plays home or away depends on which teams advance in their section of the bracket.
At the semi-final stage, the winner of the first quarter-final (Winner R16 1 v Winner R16 8) will play the winner of the fourth quarter-final, while the winner of the second quarter-final will play the winner of the third, with the venues for the matches designated by EPCR. If matches are drawn at the end of normal time during any knockout round, extra-time is played, followed if necessary by a tiebreaker for the most tries scored or a place-kick competition.
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