Champions Cup and Challenge Cup round three Sunday round-up
BATH, ENGLAND - JANUARY 14: Tom de Glanville and Finn Russell of Bath Rugby of Bath Rugby celebrate the bonus point try from tea-mate Will Muir (not shown) during the Investec Champions Cup match between Bath Rugby and Racing 92 at Recreation Ground on January 14, 2024 in Bath, England. (Photo by Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images)
The third weekend of EPCR action ended with half of the qualification places now decided in each of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup.
Though Top 14 leaders Racing 92 went down to an English club for the second time in this season’s Champions Cup as Bath snatched a famous win, it was a very different story for the 2022 and 2023 English champions who were handed tough lessons against French sides.
Online editor Nick Powell looks back on another exciting Sunday of continental competition.
Champions Cup
Bath’s terrific comeback against Racing 92 opened the action up on Sunday, as the Somerset side secured their place in the next round from 22-8 down with a 29-25 win at the Rec.
Will Muir completed the 14-point recovery with a late try that also secured a four try bonus-point, meaning Harlequins – the only team that can catch Bath for a place in the top two – will have to overturn both a five-point deficit in the Pool B table and a 17-point gap in points difference to displace Johann van Graan’s team in the final round.
Bath will face a tough test against Toulouse next weekend though, and will be especially wary as two more games on Sunday added to the growing list of Premiership clubs suffering some hard lessons against some of France’s biggest clubs in the tournament this season.
La Rochelle finally recorded their first win of the competition as they dished out a 45-12 hammering to Leicester before Bordeaux-Begles inflicted a humiliating 55-15 drubbing on Saracens.
The trip to Stade Marcel-Deflandre was always going to be a huge test for the Tigers, who have performed admirably up to this stage in the competition, but Leicester boss Dan McKellar did concede after the game that his side had provided too many chances to the eventual seven-try victors.
“They’re an incredibly difficult team to beat if you let them get a roll and we just gave them too many opportunities to use their power around our goal-line,” he said.
“They’re obviously an incredibly difficult challenge, particularly at home and we didn’t do enough to stop their game and equally, we left to many opportunities out there.”
McKellar did, however, praise the effort shown by his troops, which is perhaps more than could be said for a Saracens side who suffered their heaviest defeat in European rugby against Bordeaux.
It was Sarries’ fifth defeat in seven games in all competitions, and while they still have a relatively good chance of qualifying for the knockout stages anything less than a bonus point victory against Lyon will open the door wide for Bristol, who could even qualify ahead of them by matching their result when they travel to Connacht.
Saracens had been in fourth heading into their game against Bordeaux-Begles, but the margin of a defeat in which they conceded nine tries against a fearless counter-attacking opposition saw them slip behind the Bears in the Pool A table on points difference.
Challenge Cup
Pau made it three out of four victories for Top 14 sides on Sunday, as they beat the Cheetahs at the NRCA Stadium in Amsterdam 33-20 to secure back-to-back wins and strengthen their qualification hopes in Pool 1.
Two early tries helped the side in sixth in the Top 14 to a 14-0 lead after less than a quarter of an hour, but it needed former Wasps and England scrum-half Dan Robson to score a late try that would ultimately secure the win after Axel Desperes had kicked 18 points for Pau two days short of his 20th birthday.
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