It’s another big weekend of European rugby.
The quarter-finals of the Heineken Champions Cup take place across the weekend after the round of 16 games were completed at the weekend.
Our focus here of course is on Leinster who is through via a walkover over Toulon who saw one of their players test positive for Covid-19, therefore causing the game to be cancelled and awarded to Leinster.
Check out some of these facts ahead of the weekend’s action.
• Home clubs have a 76% success rate from the 96 tournament quarter-finals which have been played to date.
• Sunday’s showdown against ASM Clermont Auvergne at Stade Marcel-Michelin will be Toulouse’s 18th quarter-final appearance and they have never been defeated at this stage of the tournament by another French club.
• The last time Exeter Chiefs and Leinster met was in the 2017/18 pool stage when Leinster won both matches before going on to lift the trophy in Bilbao.
• If selected for the quarter-final matches, Stuart Hogg of defending champions, Exeter Chiefs, and Racing 92’s, Maxime Machenaud, will make their 50th tournament appearances.
• Clermont have played in 10 quarter-finals to date, and of their five defeats, four have been by French clubs – Racing 92 twice, Castres and Toulouse.
• La Rochelle and Sale Sharks, who clash at Stade Marcel Deflandre on Saturday, met twice in last season’s pool stage with the home club winning on each occasion.
• Sale’s one previous quarter-final appearance was in 2006 when they were defeated by Biarritz Olympique.
• Bordeaux-Bègles and Racing 92 will be going head-to-head for the first time in European competition.
• This will be La Rochelle’s first Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final at home. In their one previous appearance in 2018, they lost 29-17 at Parc y Scarlets.
Fixtures – Quarter-finals
10/04/2021 16:00 – La Rochelle Sale Sharks Stade Marcel-Deflandre
10/04/2021 17:30 – Exeter Chiefs Leinster Rugby Sandy Park
11/04/2021 13:30 – Bordeaux-Bègles Racing 92 Stade Chaban-Delmas
11/04/2021 16:00 – ASM Clermont Auvergne Toulouse Stade Marcel-Michelin
2020/21 Season Dates
Round 1 – 11/12/13 December 2020
Round 2 – 18/19/20 December 2020
Round of 16 – 2/3/4/ April 2021
Quarter-finals – 9/10/11 April 2021
Semi-finals – 30 April – 1/2 May 2021
Finals – 21/22 May 2021
Tied match
If the scores are tied at the end of full time, then 20 minutes (two periods of 10 minutes) of extra time
will be played. If at the end of extra time the scores are still level, then the winners will be the team that
has scored the most tries in the game, including extra time.
If the teams are level on points and tries at the end of extra time, then the winners will be determined by a place kicking competition as follows:
Each team will be asked to nominate THREE goalkickers. The kickers need not to be predetermined, but they must come from the players on the pitch at the final whistle. No substituted or dismissed player will be permitted to take part.
The end at which the competition takes place will be determined by a toss of a coin. The team to kick first will also be determined by a toss of a coin.
Each kicker will have two kicks from designated positions on the 22 and 10-metre lines and after each team has completed their six kicks a winner will be declared.
If the teams remain deadlocked, the competition will continue on a sudden-death basis.
