Pool 1: Leinster wrap up early qualification
It should be the pool of death given that three of its occupants are heading their respect leagues. Leinster are at the top of their Pro14 conference, unbeaten since last May, Lyon head the Top 14, 10 points ahead of Montpellier, who are third, while Northampton look down on the rest in the Premiership. There is a code in Europe that league form cannot crack. Lyon have won away to Toulon and Racing 92 this season, but they lost in Treviso on Saturday to all but end their interest in the Champions Cup while the Saints won in Italy only after a final flourish. Leinster, who became the first team to qualify for the last eight after four rounds, learned the painful way, like Munster and Saracens, that Europe is a long step up from league rugby. Paul Rees
Match report: Leinster 50-21 Northampton
Pool 2: Chiefs almost there
Exeter need just one point from their remaining two fixtures against Glasgow and La Rochelle to be certain of topping the pool, making them the only English side currently on track to claim a home quarter-final. Succeeding in both competitions, as Saracens did last year, is not easy and Exeter’s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, is taking nothing for granted. “We’ve got to go away to Leicester next week and then we’ve got Saracens here. They’re going to be two hugely challenging games. Leicester aren’t going to go bumbling along the bottom of the Premiership with the quality of players they’ve got. They’re just not. We’ve got to make sure we don’t draw a big breath, go up to Leicester and underperform. The important thing for us is to park this, get selection right, get some energy back into the team and refocus very quickly on the Premiership around the Christmas period. If not, those challenges are going to hit us just as hard as they’ve hit everybody else.” Glasgow, meanwhile, are all but out after a late red card to Matt Fagerson deprived them of the chance to beat La Rochelle at the death. Robert Kitson
Match report Exeter 35-10 Sale
Pool 3: Bath scrubbed
What a nightmare Europe is proving for Bath. They were always going to struggle away in Clermont having lost their opening three pool games but to concede 40 points before half-time is truly grim. Along with Harlequins, well beaten at home by Ulster, they are out of Europe already and both clubs can only hope that there is some more joy to be had domestically. If not this is going to be a long, painful campaign, particularly with their England contingent set to disappear away to the Six Nations in the new year. Exeter aside, this has been a sobering campaign for the Premiership’s representatives, who have found the task of battling on two fronts after the World Cup almost impossible. Other countries have had to face exactly the same challenge, however, and a number of their problems would appear to lie closer to home. Robert Kitson
Match report: Harlequins 10-34 Ulster
Pool 4 : Case to answer
Interesting constitutional issues arise from the prominent turning point of pool four on Saturday. EPCR has confirmed it will be investigating the incident in which one of Munster’s medical staff is said to have made unsavoury comments about Jamie George’s weight, which incensed the normally equable hooker. From that, all hell broke loose as most of the players on the field – and a few off – joined in a brawl that spilled dangerously close to some heavy, sharp-looking camera equipment beyond the hoardings. From out of the melee, the referee decided to penalise Owen Farrell – because he was captain and had come in from 10 metres to join the fray – which gave Munster the chance, owing to the intervention of one of their own staff, to extend their lead. As it happens, they missed, and it was Saracens, instead, who took inspiration from the incident. Bystanders influencing events on the field? It shouldn’t happen for any number of reasons. The case, as they say, continues. Michael Aylwin
Match report: Saracens 15-6 Munster
Pool 5: Anyone for seconds
Toulouse are all but through to the quarter-finals after coming from behind to secure a bonus-point victory at Montpellier. The race is for second place, a position currently held by Gloucester even though they have won just one of their four matches while Connacht, their conquerors in Galway on Saturday, have secured two victories. Gloucester left Ireland with two bonus points, but a club that won their opening two Premiership matches have lost their way with six defeats in seven matches in the league and Europe since then. They are fashioning different ways to lose and were 24-13 ahead in Connacht with four minutes to go before conceding two tries. As things stand, pools three and four should supply two of the three runners-up in the quarter-finals. Gloucester and Connacht are vying with Northampton and Glasgow for the other and it may be that the one who goes through secures 15 points or fewer, showing the domination of the five group leaders. Paul Rees
