{"id":47845,"date":"2026-01-19T05:18:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T05:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=47845"},"modified":"2026-01-19T05:18:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T05:18:42","slug":"champions-cup-playoff-fixtures-two-sa-teams-progress-stormers-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/19\/champions-cup-playoff-fixtures-two-sa-teams-progress-stormers-bulls\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions Cup playoff fixtures as two SA teams progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Following the conclusion of the Champions Cup pool stage, the four highest-ranked clubs in each pool have secured their places in the Round of 16 and the two highest-ranked clubs in each pool will have home advantage for the matches which will be played on the first weekend of April.<\/p>\n<p>From a South African perspective, there was some positive news as the Stormers and Bulls did enough to progress, but the Sharks missed out despite a big win over Clermont this past weekend, and they now drop down to the EPCR Challenge Cup<\/p>\n<p>The Stormers comfortably overcame an understrength Leicester Tigers at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday, ultimately finishing third in Pool 3 after Harlequins upset La Rochelle.<\/p>\n<p>The Bulls only won a solitary game during the pool phase, which came in the form of a narrow victory over Pau on Friday night, and yet they still managed to qualify when the Scarlets lost away to Northampton on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>In accordance with\u00a0the\u00a0tournament rules, the pool winners have been ranked 1 to 4, the second-placed clubs have been ranked 5 to 8, the third-placed clubs have been ranked 9 to 12, and the fourth-placed clubs have been ranked 13 to 16.<\/p>\n<p>The exact dates and kick-off times of the Round of 16 fixtures will be announced as soon as possible. You can <strong>CLICK HERE<\/strong>\u00a0for the updated tables with confirmation of the clubs which have qualified for the knockout stage of the tournament.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-champions-cup-playoff-fixtures\"><strong>CHAMPIONS CUP PLAYOFF FIXTURES<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Round of 16 \u2013 3\/4\/5 April<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>R16 1: Union Bordeaux B\u00e8gles (1) v Leicester Tigers (16)<\/p>\n<p>R16 2: Glasgow Warriors (2) v Bulls (15)<\/p>\n<p>R16 3: Leinster Rugby (3) v Edinburgh Rugby (14)<\/p>\n<p>R16 4: Bath Rugby (4) v Saracens (13)<\/p>\n<p>R16 5: Northampton Saints (5) v Castres Olympique (12)<\/p>\n<p>R16 6: Harlequins (6) v Sale Sharks (11)<\/p>\n<p>R16 7: RC Toulon (7) v Stormers (10)<\/p>\n<p>R16 8: Stade Toulousain (8) v Bristol Bears (9)<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>NB<\/strong>\u00a0The clubs ranked numbers 1 to 8 will have home venue advantage<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quarter-finals \u2013 10\/11\/12 April<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>QF 1: Winner R16 1 v Winner R16 8<\/p>\n<p>QF 2: Winner R16 2 v Winner R16 7<\/p>\n<p>QF 3: Winner R16 3 v Winner R16 6<\/p>\n<p>QF 4: Winner R16 4 v Winner R16 5<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>NB<\/strong>\u00a0The highest-ranked clubs from the pool stage will have home venue advantage<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-semi-finals-1-2-3-may\"><strong>Semi-finals \u2013 1\/2\/3 May<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>SF 1: Winner QF 1 v Winner QF 4<\/p>\n<p>SF 2: Winner QF 2 v Winner QF 3<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>NB<\/strong>\u00a0The matches will be played in Europe and where relevant the highest-ranked clubs from the pool stage will have home country advantage<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>2026 Champions Cup Final<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Saturday 23 May; San Mam\u00e9s Stadium, Bilbao<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Champions #Cup #playoff #fixtures #teams #progress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the conclusion of the Champions Cup pool stage, the four highest-ranked clubs in each pool have secured their places&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47847,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47845\/revisions\/47847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}