Champions Cup draw live updates: Leinster and Munster await their fate
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the EPCR pool draws for the 2025 Investec
Champions Cup
and the EPCR
Challenge Cup
, which will take place at the Premier Sports studios in Dublin at 1.30pm.
Leinster
and
Munster
are among the 24 teams that have qualified for the Champions Cup, while
Ulster
and
Connacht
have qualified for the Challenge Cup.
For the Champions Cup, each pool of six will contain two clubs from each of the leagues, where Leinster and Munster will be kept apart. There will be no matches between clubs from the same league.
Leinster are in Tier 1 for the draw thanks to winning the United Rugby Championship, which means they also cannot play Union Bordeaux Bègles (2025 Investec Champions Cup winners), Bath Rugby (2025 Gallagher Premiership winners) and Toulouse (Top 14 winners). Munster will be in Tier 2 with the rest of the teams.
The Challenge Cup draw will have 18 clubs, with pools of six also, with Connacht and Ulster kept apart. There is no tier system involved for that draw, it is an open draw other than stipulations about teams from the same country and league meeting.
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
‘Tipperary are coming': Liam Cahill guides Premier hurlers back to Croke Park after six-year absence
Just a little over a decade ago Liam Cahill stood on the sideline watching his team contest a senior county hurling Kilkenny. The current Tipperary hurling boss carved out his reputation as a talented coach and manager during his silverware-laden stints in charge of the Premier county's underage sides. However, before he managed Tipperary to minor, under-21 and under-20 All-Ireland titles, he coached some of Kilkenny's top hurlers to a county final appearance during a spell with Carrickshock – including Richie and John Power, Michael Rice and John Tennyson. 'He was over us for two years and he was there when we got to the senior final in 2013,' recalls Richie Power. READ MORE 'I couldn't speak highly enough of Liam as a coach or as a manager, we loved him. 'He's a very good coach, very shrewd. We were hoping that he'd come back to us the following year but it didn't materialise. We tried to get him back but that's when he took over the Tipp minors.' Richie Power (right) in action for Carrickshock in the 2013 Kilkenny county final against Clara. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho Clara beat Carrickshock 1-15 to 2-10 in that Kilkenny final in October 2013 in what remains Carrickshock's last appearance in the decider. Around that same time Cahill, who had been a selector under Declan Ryan when Tipperary won the minor title in 2007, got the call from his county asking if he would take charge of the minors for 2014. It was a call he answered. He stepped away from Carrickshock, took charge of the Tipp minors and the Ballingarry man has been involved with county teams ever since. Tipperary lost the All-Ireland minor final to Galway in 2015 but 12 months later Cahill guided the county to minor glory, beating Limerick in the decider. He remained minor manager in 2017 but that November was appointed as the county's under-21 boss. In his maiden season with the group he led them to an All-Ireland title. Another title came the following year, despite the GAA changing the grade to under-20, making Tipperary the last county to hold the All-Ireland under-21 hurling crown and the first to hold the under-20. The latter, a 5-17 to 1-18 win over Cork, was achieved just six days after the county had beaten Kilkenny to claim the All-Ireland senior title. Sunday will be the first time a Tipperary senior team has played in Croke Park since that 2019 final. Liam Cahill ahead of the 2019 Munster under-20 final between Tipperary and Cork at Semple Stadium. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho In November 2019 Cahill was appointed Waterford senior hurling manager. The Covid-impacted 2020 season followed, but the Déise navigated the truncated championship to contest the All-Ireland final that December, losing out to Limerick. When Liam Sheedy stepped down as Tipperary manager at the end of 2021, Cahill was approached to succeed the Portroe man. 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Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho 'Now they're coming in against Kilkenny and I don't think Tipp or Liam Cahill will fear Kilkenny. 'Liam is very shrewd, he's very cute, and he kind of dropped it in his interview at the end of the quarter-final win over Galway that they could sneak into a final if things go right. I think it's a 50-50 game.' Cahill's championship report card after his first two years with Tipp reads: 1 win, 4 defeats, 3 draws. In the 2025 championship so far it's: 4 wins, 1 defeat, 1 draw. Of the 20 players who featured in what turned out to be Bonner's last game at the helm (against Cork in 2022) just eight played during Tipperary's win over Galway two weeks ago. 'Sometimes people have to realise that these things are going to take time,' adds Power. 'He went in and he has done the hard job in relation to doing a bit of a clean-out and then focusing on youth.' 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Irish Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Live GAA on TV this weekend: Streaming info for Dublin v Cork, Kilkenny v Tipp
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- The Irish Sun
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