How the Champions Cup should reshape its format to deliver a better spectacle

The competition used to be a genuine highlight of the rugby calendar, but lately it’s hard to escape the feeling that something important has been lost.

Part of that comes down to who actually treats the tournament as a priority. In France, only a few clubs seem truly invested. Toulouse and Bordeaux to name a couple have such deep budgets and squads that they can throw themselves into every competition without sacrificing anything.

Most others clearly don’t see Europe as worth the strain on top of a demanding domestic season. And if the French are half-hearted, the South African involvement has brought its own challenges.

Their clubs haven’t ignored the Champions Cup, but their rugby calendar is so overcrowded that it’s no surprise they sometimes appear undercooked or depleted, especially on long away trips.

The Currie Cup blends into the Rugby Championship, which runs into the URC, which runs into European games, and by the time January rolls around they are still nowhere near the end of their season.

It’s little wonder they struggle to fully buy into a competition that is slotted awkwardly into their one short break.

Even putting that aside, the format itself has sucked the life out of the pool stages. Since the shift back to a multi-pool system, fans have found themselves frustrated. The competition is now so large that qualifying doesn’t really feel like an achievement anymore.

You can finish well down the table in your domestic league and still find yourself in the “Champions” Cup. That alone cheapens the idea of Europe’s best going head-to-head.

But the biggest issue is the complete lack of jeopardy. When four teams from a six-team pool go through, the urgency drains away. You can win once and still make the knockouts, so teams rotate heavily, especially when travelling.

Away fixtures become experiments rather than battles, and supporters are left with matches that feel more like obligations than events. Two-thirds of the competition progresses. How can anyone pretend the pool stages matter when the consequences for losing are so mild?

It didn’t used to be like this. Playing home and away against the same three clubs created stories over the course of the pool rounds, gave games a natural rhythm and ensured that every win or slip carried weight. The current approach has no such flow.

If EPCR is determined to keep 24 teams involved, there are ways to bring the competition back to life. One option would be eight pools of three teams — one from each league — with everyone playing each other home and away.

Only the pool winners would reach the quarter-finals. That alone would transform the intensity.

Every fixture would matter again. Rivalries would form quickly because clubs would meet twice instead of once, and the teams reaching the last eight would feel like they had really earned it.

The other option is to stop dancing around the issue and turn it into a straight knockout competition. A preliminary round for the lowest-ranked teams, then straight into sudden death from the round of 16 onwards.

No safety nets, no drifting through the pools, no room for complacency. It would give the tournament the kind of immediacy that fans have been crying out for.

The Champions Cup isn’t a lost cause. The talent on display is still world-class, and when the games matter the atmosphere is as strong as ever.

But the competition can’t keep relying on nostalgia and expecting supporters to stay engaged while the pool stages deliver so little tension.

It needs sharpening. It needs urgency. Above all, it needs every match to feel like it means something again. Until that happens, the feeling that the tournament has gone stale will linger.