European Champions Cup

The inaugural Champions Cup will kick off next month without all its major sponsors in place, one of the new European competition's key architects has admitted.

Saracens will open their European Rugby Champions Cup campaign by renewing hostilities with Clermont Auvergne, the French side they trounced to reach last term's Heineken Cup final.

After all of the controversy, discussions and actions the European Rugby Champions Cup has been formed and the inaugural tournament’s showpiece event will be hosted by Twickenham Stadium.

London Welsh have been drawn with Edinburgh Rugby, Bordeaux Begles and Lyon in Pool 5 of next season's inaugural European Rugby Challenge Cup.

Saracens chief executive Ed Griffiths says the creation of the European Rugby Champions Cup is a 'win-win' situation for Northern Hemisphere rugby.

The two-year deadlock on the future of top-flight European rugby is over and Bill Beaumont has hailed Ian Ritchie as a vital peace broker between the parties involved.