There’s a delicious spread of Champions Cup rugby coming your way this weekend as the 2021/22 Champions Cup enters the quarter-final stage.
Saturday 7 May
Munster 39/20 | Draw 20/1 | Toulouse 44/100 (16:00)
The defending champions are in for a rough ride when they visit the Aviva Stadium to tackle a fired-up Munster on Saturday. Aside from the fact that Johann van Graan’s men are playing some truly outstanding rugby at the moment, they’ve won 11 of their 12 home games in all competitions this season — a phenomenal record. That said, they won’t have it easy against a Toulouse outfit that claimed a narrow 50-49 aggregate win over much-fancied Ulster in the round of 16. That result, which could have swung either way, proved again that Ugo Mola’s bunch have as much substance as they do style, which will come in handy playing in front of some vociferous Irish support.
Back the in-form hosts to upset the odds and get the job done here.
La Rochelle 2/15 | Draw 28/1 | Montpellier 52/10 (18:30)
La Rochelle clash with Montpellier in an all-French affair at the Stade Marcel Deflandre on Saturday. The hosts lost out to fellow countrymen Toulouse in last year’s final and will be eager to right some of those wrongs in the weeks ahead. However, they’ve struggled to reach the heights of last season, sitting seventh in the Top 14, and have the tricky task of facing the domestic French leaders this weekend. Montpellier have certainly copped their fair share of disappointing results so far (nobody could forget the 89-7 capitulation in Dublin), but they’ve already beaten Les Corsaires twice this season and will be confident of making it a third here.
Despite this, I still think Montpellier can do a job on La Rochelle here. The away side sit pretty atop the French Top 14 standings and at 52/10, you simply can’t pass them up.
Leicester 39/20 | Draw 20/1 | Leinster 44/100 (18:30)
The Tigers welcome Leinster to Welford Road in arguably the clash of the quarterfinals this Saturday. It’s the Premiership leaders against the URC front-runners here, and with both outfits highly favoured to go all the way in their domestic competitions, the pressure will be on to remain in Europe with victory here. While experience will certainly count in the visitors’ favour, they’ve shown susceptibility at this stage of the Champions Cup of late, with last year’s semi-final exit following up their quarterfinal and Grand Final defeats in the years since their last title. That said, they have been able to rest the bulk of their first-teamers over the last few weeks in the URC so they should come into this game fresh.
Considering the season the hosts have had, get on them to pull off an insane upset win here.
Sunday 8 May
Racing 2/15 | Draw 28/1 | Sale 52/10 (16:00)
Racing 92 host the Sale Sharks at La Defense Arena on Sunday in the last of this year’s quarterfinals. The Manchester-based outfit have been pretty ordinary this season, occupying seventh in the Premiership without any real hope of making the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Parisians are fourth domestically and still in the hunt for the Bouclier de Brennus, not to mention the Champions Cup. Speaking of which, one would think they’d have far too much at home for Sale and should earn safe passage to the last four.
The French outfit shouldn’t have too many problems here. It is notoriously difficult to go to France and get a result. Doubly so when you have the inferior side on paper. Get on Racing.
