Leinster edged out fellow former champions La Rochelle in their most recent home match at the Aviva Stadium ©Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
EPCR has confirmed the dates, venues, kick-off times, and broadcast details for the Investec Champions Cup round of 16, with Leinster taking on Edinburgh at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, April 5 (kick-off 5.30pm).
The only Irish province left in the tournament, Leinster will wrap up this season’s first knockout round with an Easter Sunday encounter with the Scottish outfit, which marks their first Champions Cup meeting since January 2009.
The stakes could not be higher as the race to reach Bilbao, the venue for the 2026 final, intensifies. Leo Cullen’s men are one of eight former champions – with 21 titles between them – who are in the hunt for glory.
Led by Investec Player of Year nominee Caelan Doris, they earned home advantage in the last 16 as Pool 3 winners and third seeds overall. They strung together pool wins over Harlequins (45-28), Leicester Tigers (23-15), La Rochelle (25-24), and Bayonne (22-13).
Edinburgh, whom Leinster entertain in the BKT United Rugby Championship next week, finished fourth in Pool 2 after beating both Toulon (33-20) and Gloucester (26-24). However, Sean Everitt’s side struggled on the travels, going down 33-0 to Castres Olympique, and 63-10 in Bath.
Northampton Saints and Castres will have the honour of kicking off the round of 16 on Friday, April 3, before a bumper five-match Saturday schedule that includes Harlequins v Sale Sharks, the winners of which will play either Leinster or Edinburgh at the quarter-final stage.
With the province currently on a nine-match winning run but mindful that they will need to be better in the weeks and months ahead, scrum half Luke McGrath said: “It was pleasing to get the win (at Bayonne). They’re a very difficult side to beat at home, so that was the first thing that was pleasing.
“But there’s definitely a couple of opportunities we left (behind) in the first half. I think there were two kicks where we were a few inches off gathering that, scoring a try, and obviously ‘TC’ (Thomas Clarkson), the try gets disallowed.
“We just spoke in the review about how it was pleasing that we were creating opportunities, but obviously the other side is we’re not clinical enough to take them. Then they score a try off first phase off the lineout, put us under pressure.
“Then the conditions were very, very difficult. The ball was quite slippy so it was hard to play an attacking game, but I thought we kicked quite well and then I was very pleased in the last 15, 20 minutes, the pack kind of took over and it was brilliant to get the result.
“Listen, to get four wins in Europe in that group, we would have taken it at the start. It was definitely a pleasing changing room after the game.”
Every round of 16 will be broadcast live on Premier Sports in the UK and Ireland, beIN Sports in France, SuperSport in South Africa, and FloRugby in the USA and Canada.
Selected matches will also be available free-to-air on France Télévisions, with additional coverage on EPCR’s OTT platform EPCRugby.TV, which is also the exclusive home of the Investec Champions Cup in Italy.
Friday, April 3 –
Northampton Saints v Castres Olympique, cinch Stadium @ Franklin’s Gardens, 8pm
Saturday, April 4 –
Bath Rugby v Saracens, Recreation Ground, 3pm
RC Toullon v DHL Stormers, Stade Félix Mayol, 4pm local time
Glasgow Warriors v Vodacom Bulls, Scotstoun Stadium, 5.30pm
Stade Toulousain v Bristol Bears, Stadium de Toulouse, 6.30pm local time
Harlequins v Sale Sharks, Twickenham Stoop, 8pm
Sunday, April 5 –
Union Bordeaux-Bègles v Leicester Tigers, Stade Chaban-Delmas, 4pm local time
LEINSTER RUGBY v Edinburgh Rugby, Aviva Stadium, 5.30pm
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