Bath Leads English Bid to End French Champions Cup Run

Bath Rugby enters the 2025-26 Investec Champions Cup as the leading English contender to challenge a five-year French monopoly on the trophy, with the tournament kicking off this weekend across Europe. The English Premiership champions, who sit atop their domestic league after a recent victory at Saracens, face a formidable opening test against Munster at the Recreation Ground on Saturday evening. This matchup reunites Munster with former head coach Johann van Graan, now guiding Bath in their bid for European glory.

French clubs from the Top 14 have claimed the title exclusively since 2020, with Toulouse, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux-Begles dominating the knockout stages through superior squad depth and financial resources. English teams have struggled to match this intensity, often faltering in the group phase due to the competition's grueling schedule and the demands of balancing domestic play. Bath's own experience underscores the challenge: despite a dominant domestic campaign last season, they exited the Champions Cup at the group stage, losing their home opener to La Rochelle and suffering a defeat in Treviso against Benetton. That misstep relegated them to the Challenge...