Stephen Ferris’ hand settled the fate of the French clubs in next season’s Champions Cup on Wednesday. Seeded in the top band, French champions Toulouse and double defending champions Union Bordeaux-Bègles avoided the other heavyweights in the pool stage. Here is what awaits them.

The four Champions Cup pools

Pool 1: Leinster, Glasgow Warriors, Sale Sharks, Leicester Tigers, Section Paloise, ASM Clermont.

Pool 2: Stade Toulousain, Stade Rochelais, Lions, Saracens, Exeter, Connacht.

Pool 3: Union Bordeaux-Bègles, Racing 92, Stormers, Munster, Bristol, Gloucester.

Pool 4: Montpellier, Stade Français, Northampton, Bath, Cardiff, Bulls.

Placed in band 1, the four top seeds (defending champions UBB, Top 14 winners Toulouse, English champions Northampton and United Rugby Championship winners Leinster) were kept apart. In this format each side meets only four of the other five clubs in its pool: two teams from the same league, such as two French clubs in the same group, do not face each other.

A hard road for Pau, Clermont and Paris, Toulouse spared

Pau and Clermont drew the toughest group. In Pool 1 they face Leinster, Glasgow, Sale and Leicester, with at least the guarantee of avoiding a trip to South Africa. Pool 4 is just as unforgiving for Montpellier and Stade Français, who meet Northampton, Bath and URC runners-up the Bulls. Back in the competition after three years away, Joan Caudullo’s side will come up against two former Montpellier men, Handré Pollard and Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg.

Toulouse drew the kindest hand. The French champions meet the Lions, Saracens, Exeter and Connacht, and go into Pool 2 as favourites, with Stade Rochelais for French company. That should let them target a top-two finish in the overall standings and spare themselves a dangerous away trip before the final. Yannick Bru’s UBB, meanwhile, are dreaming of a treble after their 2025 and 2026 titles: in Pool 3 alongside Racing 92, they will have to see off Siya Kolisi and Cheslin Kolbe’s Stormers, Munster, Bristol and Gloucester.

The pedigree of the pools, in numbers

Pool 2 holds most of the silverware. With six European titles (1996, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2021, 2024), Stade Toulousain remain the most decorated club in the competition’s history, ahead of Leinster (4) and Saracens (3). UBB have only two European Cups, but they are the two most recent, in 2025 and 2026. La Rochelle (2022, 2023) complete the list of French winners over the past decade.

An attacking bonus point modelled on the Top 14

EPCR have brought the attacking bonus point into line with the Top 14: a side must now score at least three more tries than its opponent to claim it. The qualifying format changes too: only the top three in each pool go straight through to the last 16, down from four, with the remaining four places decided on points across all pools. Last season that rule would have sent through the Sharks and Munster, fifth in their groups, at the expense of Leicester and the Bulls. The final will be played on 22 May 2027 at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon.