Leinster enter another defining Champions Cup clash against La Rochelle in a matchup rich with pride, history and bragging rights.

A replay of the 2022 and 2023 finals, pool stage games don’t get much bigger, as two titans of their respective domestic competitions lock horns in European rugby.

During both finals, La Rochelle took the bragging rights, edging out Leinster in a pair of thrillers by three points and one point respectively. However, the Dublin side have had the rub of the green over their last three meetings, most notably thumping the visitors by a 27 point margin the last time they came to the Aviva Stadium in 2024.

Both sides have made mixed starts to their domestic campaigns. Leinster sit fifth in the URC with a 66% win rate, while La Rochelle are seventh in Top-14, having won half of their 14 matches so far.

Leinster will head into this one as undeniable favourites though, boasting an elite home record in the Investec Champions Cup. They’ve won 14 of their last 15 European ties on home soil, slipping up just once in their 2025 semi-final encounter with Northampton Saints.

Despite their defence blips this season, Leinster have still shown their deadly attacking instinct, having scored the joint-second most tries in the URC. If the hosts can turn pressure into an early scoreboard buffer, they should come out on top.

The DHL Stormers face a stern test away to Harlequins in a group stage rematch of last season.

This match up is an absolute tale of two stories. The hosts, Harlequins, have endured a particularly rough start to 2025/26. They sit in eighth in the PREM, having won just twice in nine matches, and come into this tie off the back of three consecutive league defeats – each by 26 points or more.

DHL Stormers, meanwhile, have seen nothing but success this year. In the URC, they remain faultless, winning all eight of their matches, and they remain the only side in Europe who are unbeaten across all formats, having dispatched both Bayonne and Leicester in December, adding to an impressive 10 game win streak.

In the URC, the DHL Stormers are averaging over five tries per match, whilst ranking among the competition’s best for defenders beaten and offloads. They also lead URC sides in kick metres and counter-attack returns, a key weapon against a Quins team who play at a high tempo.

Discipline will be crucial, if the DHL Stormers can slow Quins’ ruck speed and impose their physicality early, their strike power gives them a firm chance of adding to the West Londoners’ troubles this season, and further their own unbeaten streak to eleven wins on the bounce.

Of these three fixtures, this one is for sure the toughest one to call.

Both sides have seen a similar storyline this season. Domestically, they’ve started strongly before slowly tailing off in form, and in Europe they have won at home and lost on the road.

Toulon will certainly lean on playing in front of their own fans where they are unbeaten at Stade Mayol since April 2025, only losing narrowly in the quarter-final of this competition to arch rivals Toulouse. This impressive home run will certainly fuel the French side with confidence heading into Sunday lunchtime.

However, their recent form has welcomed several warning signs. Toulon come into this one off the back of a thumping against La Rochelle, losing 66-0 and failing to score for the first time since 2018.

Munster, similarly, failed to score a try last time out on the road to Ulster, facing a 28-3 defeat at the hands of their Irish rivals.

This result, coupled with a narrow loss at home to Leinster and a Champions Cup humbling at the hands of Bath, mean they head to France’s South Coast on a cold streak of two wins from their last five matches.

way form is the key variable, as Munster have conceded an average of 22 points per match on the road this season, whilst Toulon average over a whopping 39 points every home game, highlighting how notoriously tough a place this is to travel to.