The two finals of European competitions, The Champions Cup and The Challenge Cup, both taking place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. First up on Friday evening is Gloucester vs Sharks in the Challenge Cup and on Saturday afternoon the big one Leinster vs Toulouse.
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Challenge Cup
Gloucester vs Sharks
When: Friday May 24th, 20:00
Where: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. London
How:
UK – TNT Sports 1
South Africa – Super Sport
France – France 4
Portugal – SportTV3
Denmark – Viaplay
Norway – Viaplay
Sweden – Viaplay
Netherlands – Viaplay
Romania – Prima Sports 4
Spain – Movistar Deportes
Australia – beIN Sports 2
The Sharks bring Ox Niche, Bongi Mbonambi and Eben Etzebeth from the South Africa’s World Cup winning team + Vincent Koch to provide real ballast in the scrum, In the backs they have winger Makazole Mapimpi, star of the 2019 World Cup final. Gloucester winger Johnny May, in his last game for the team, was on the losing England side in that World Cup final and will be out for revenge. Gloucester have had a poor season in the Premiership and the Challenge Cup has been their only positive. However I think the Sharks scrum will prove too much and they will come away empty handed.
Champions Cup
Leinster v Toulouse
When: Saturday May 24th, 14:45
Where: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
How:
UK – ITV 4/ITVX
UK – TNT Sports 1
Ireland – RTE 2
France – France 2
France – beIN Sports 1
South Africa – Super Sport
Portugal – SportTV3
Denmark – Viaplay
Norway – Viaplay
Sweden – Viaplay
Netherlands – Viaplay
Romania – Digi Sports 3
Spain – #Vamos
Australia – beIN Sports 3
Czechoslovakia – Nova Sport 3
The final is between the two most successful teams in this competition, with both appearing in seven finals, Toulouse winning five and Leinster four. Leinster, Ireland in disguise, have lost the last two finals against La Rochelle, against whom they gained revenge in this year’s quarter finals. Toulouse’s last win was in 2021 against La Rochelle. The key battle is between French fly half Romain Ntamack, restored to partner Antoine Dupont, up against Ireland half back pairing of Jamison Gibson-Park and Ross Byrne. Another intriguing matchup is between the back rows with Jack Willis versus Caelan Doris. And even with three major Irish internationals on the bench in Josh van der Flier, James Ryan and Jack Conan (Toulouse have Thomas Ramos on the bench), I still expect the French to consign the Irish to a third consecutive Champions Cup defeat.
