Frank Quinn takes a look at round two of Investec Cup
- Updated: 03/01/2025
By Frank Quinn
WE are half way in the pool stages of the Investec Cup with two rounds to come this month. The 24 teams are sorting them selves out.
After the pool stages there is a knockout round for the top sixteen clubs and further reductions to the knock out quarter finals, semi finals and then the final. To win the Investec cup there are eight matches.
After two rounds the following clubs have no points and they are in trouble and they will have real difficulty in staying in the competition
Clubs with zero points ARE :Pool 1 Ulster and Exeter, Pool 2. Bath and Bristol, Pool 3 Bulls and Stade Francais, Pool 4 Stormers
Round 3 & 4, in January 2025, To be played on the 10-12 & 17-19 th jan
Leinster play La Rochelle away and finish with Bath at home
Munster play Saracens at home and finish with Northampton away
Ulster play Leicester away and Exeter at home The Round of 16 is scheduled for April
The leaders after two rounds , Pool 1. Toulouse and Bordeaux , Pool 2 La Rochelle and Leinster, Pool 3 Northampton and Saracens , Pool 4 Toulon and Glasgow
It looks like the year of the French as they have four Clubs at the top of the pools and they defeated the All Blacks in the Autumn internationals, this should all add up to a very strong Six Nations Squad in Feb/March.
Toulouse are favourites and Leinster are second, but it is early days to speculate on a winner. This is high class European tournament.
In the URC after 9 rounds, it’s congratulations to Leinster who are a run away, lead the with 9 wins from 9 games on 43 points. The rest of the news is not so good for us, we are really struggling, but it’s early days yet.
Munster has played 9 and won 4 ,Ulster has played 9 and won 4 and Connacht are in the same boat playing 9 and winning 3. (Glasgow are second with played 9 w 6 – 33points ).
There is a total of 18 rounds (halfway now) and that is a long way to go, inluding a round of 16 in the knockout stages to reduce the field from 16 Clubs.
Dragons, Zebre, Ospreys and Connacht are the bottom four.
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