Leicester Tigers will open the club’s Heineken Champions Cup campaign with a trip to Bordeaux-Bègles in December before hosting Connacht Rugby on the weekend before Christmas.
Tournament organisers EPCR have today announced the dates and times of fixtures in the pool stages of both the Heineken Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup, together with broadcast details.
Tigers return to the Champions Cup after reaching the Challenge Cup Final last season and will kick off with a first-ever trip to the Stade Chaban Delmas to face Union Bordeaux-Bègles on Saturday, December 11 (4.15pm local time/3.15pm UK time).
Connacht travel to Mattioli Woods Welford Road for a second successive season in the second round of fixtures on Sunday, December 19 (1.00pm).
The return fixture with the Irish province follows on Saturday, January 15, with Bordeaux-Bègles due at Mattioli Woods Welford Road a week later in the last round of pool fixtures.
The Heineken Champions Cup will feature 24 clubs, with Tigers among the nine previous winners with 38 European titles between them.
Teams will play in two pools of 12 over four pool stage rounds and the eight highest-ranked clubs from each pool will qualify for the knockout stage which will consist of a Round of 16 on a home-and-away basis, quarter-finals and semi-finals, with the final in Marseille on May 28.
The clubs ranked 9-11 in each of the pools will qualify for the Round of 16 of the EPCR Challenge Cup.
Entry to the home games against Bordeaux-Bègles and Connacht is included in Tigers season tickets alongside every home game in the Gallagher Premiership regular season and two games in the Premiership Rugby Cup. For details, see the club website or contact the Tigers ticket office by calling 0116 319 8888 (option 2).
Match ticket details for both European home fixtures will be confirmed shortly.
BT Sport in the UK and Ireland, and beIN SPORTS in France, will broadcast each of the 48 Heineken Champions Cup pool matches live, with free-to-air transmission of key fixtures in each round by Channel 4 and Virgin Media in the UK and Ireland, and by France Télévisions in France.
A modified Challenge Cup format will see 15 clubs competing in three pools over five pool stage rounds. The three highest-ranked clubs from each pool, and the highest-ranked fourth-placed club, as well as six Heineken Champions Cup clubs, qualify for the Round of 16 which will be played on the weekend of April 15/16/17, followed by quarter-finals and semi-finals, with the final at the Stade Vélodrome, Marseille on May 27.
Click HERE for the 2021/22 Heineken Champions Cup fixtures.
