Where to watch 2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup knockouts

Jonathan Victoria • 02 Apr 2025 Guides

The business end of the competition is ready to get underway…

An artistic drawing of the European Rugby Champion Cup trophy, with swirls of gold and blue surrounding it.

The four rounds of the pool stage were completed in January and after a break, the 2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup campaign is ready to return.

16 teams will start the knockout stage, all with the same goal of achieving the biggest prize in European (and South African) club rugby.

With the knockouts set to get going this Friday, check out the information regarding where to watch the remainder of the competition, the story so far and more.

Where to watch 2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup

Prior to the start of the campaign, an announcement was made that declared a new lead broadcaster for viewers in the UK and Ireland, with TNT Sports long-time association with the competition ending in favour of new broadcaster, Premier Sports.

Premier Sports and EPCR agreed a three-year deal that will conclude at the end of the 2026/27 season. They will show all 63 Champions Cup matches, adding to their already solid collection of rugby content to become the most comprehensive ‘home of rugby’ in the UK and Ireland.

How to get Premier Sports

Premier Sports consists of the Premier Sports 1 & 2 channels as well as La Liga TV, plus streaming options via the Premier Sports website and app that is available on mobile, tablet, and Smart TV.

To gain access to Premier Sports, you’ll need to sign up via one of the various methods.

Via Premier Sports website

If you simply desire to watch Premier Sports via streaming and apps, you can opt for subscribing via the Premier Sports website. There are three payment methods:

Monthly rolling – £15.99 a month
Annual (12-month contract) – £11.99 a month
Annual upfront – £120 a year

Via Amazon

That may sound broad, but that’s because there are two options. You can watch Premier Sports on Fire TV as it has the Premier Sports app, so if you subscribe via the Premier Sports website you will have access via Fire TV.

Alternatively, you can subscribe via Amazon Prime Video for £15.99 a month. Do note that you will need an Amazon Prime account to access Prime Video (monthly cost of Amazon Prime is £8.99).

Via Virgin Media

For Virgin Media customers, you can add Premier Sports to your existing TV pack, or add it onto the channels that you want to select if you are new to Virgin and are setting up your package.

It is available at £15.99 a month on a rolling contract, so you can drop it and add it again whenever you’d like.

Via Sky

For Sky customers, it’s slightly more complicated. Essentially, you sign up through the Premier Sports website, but instead of clicking on the option for ‘Streaming’, you select ‘Sky’.

This will take you to the same looking subscription page, so choose whichever payment method you’d like (£11.99 monthly, 12-month contract | £15.99 monthly, rolling contract | £120 annually), but after that you’ll be redirected to a set of on-screen instructions which will tell you how to add Premier Sports to your Sky subscription.

You’ll already need a valid Sky TV subscription to be able to add your Premier Sports subscription and access the Premier Sports channels.

Unlike with Virgin Media, signing up for Premier Sports with Sky will also give you access to streaming via the website and apps since you are subscribing to Premier Sports through the website then linking your account to Sky.

2024/25 European Rugby Champion Cup: Story so far

The pool stage is complete and the 16 qualified teams will be preparing for the first round of the knockout stage, the Round of 16.

There weren’t any major surprises in the initial stage of the competition, bar Premiership highflyers Bath missing out on qualification for the latter stages and instead dropping down into the EPCR Challenge Cup.

Rather sensationally, in fact, Bath were beaten to a place in the knockouts by the only Italian team in the competition, Benetton, thanks to a last-minute winning try by the side from Treviso to claim a one point lead when the pair played in Round 2.

Defending champions Stade Toulousain, or simply Toulouse, will continue their campaign to retain the title but not from the first seed like last year after they finished second in their group, taking the fifth seed instead. They will still have the home advantage in the next round, but will face a somewhat more stern opposition.

Speaking of French teams, the reigning Six Nations champions are well represented in the knockouts, with six teams from the Top 14 still in the competition. England’s Premiership sides closely follow in second with five teams.

2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup: Tables

Pool 1

Team (seed)	Wins	Draws	Losses	PD	BP (TB-LB)	PTS
Bordeaux (1)	4	0	0	+141	4 (4-0)	20
Toulouse (5)	4	0	0	+163	3 (3-0)	19
Leicester Tigers (10)	2	0	2	-15	3 (3-0)	11
Ulster (16)	1	0	3	-61	1 (1-0)	5
Sharks	1	0	3	-87	1 (1-0)	5
Exeter Chiefs	0	0	4	-141	1 (1-0)	1

Pool 2

Team (seed)	Wins	Draws	Losses	PD	BP (TB-LB)	PTS
Leinster (2)	4	0	0	+59	2 (2-0)	18
La Rochelle (8)	2	0	2	+23	3 (1-2)	11
Benetton (11)	2	0	2	-26	3 (2-1)	11
Clermont (14)	2	0	2	+8	2 (2-0)	10
Bath	1	0	3	-12	3 (1-2)	7
Bristol Bears	1	0	3	-52	3 (2-1)	7

Pool 3

Team (seed)	Wins	Draws	Losses	PD	BP (TB-LB)	PTS
Northampton Saints (3)	3	0	1	+31	4 (4-0)	16
Castres (6)	3	0	1	+19	2 (2-0)	14
Munster (9)	2	0	2	+27	4 (2-2)	12
Saracens (13)	2	0	2	+20	3 (2-1)	11
Bulls	1	0	3	-29	1 (1-0)	5
Stade Francais	1	0	3	-68	1 (1-0)	5

Pool 4

Team (seed)	Wins	Draws	Losses	PD	BP (TB-LB)	PTS
Toulon (4)	3	0	1	0	1 (1-0)	13
Glasgow Warriors (7)	2	0	2	+11	4 (3-1)	12
Sale Sharks (12)	2	0	2	-11	2 (2-0)	10
Harlequins (15)	2	0	2	+31	1 (1-0)	9
Racing 92	2	0	2	-12	1 (1-0)	9
Stormers	1	0	3	-16	1 (1-0)	5

PD = Points difference | BP = Bonus points | TB = Try bonus | LB = Losing bonus

2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup: Stats leaders

Credit: All 10 of Damian Penaud's 2024/25 Pool Stage Tries | Investec Champions Cup (Investec Champions Cup & EPCR Challenge Cup, YouTube)

Club

Points: 225 – Toulouse
Tries: 33 – Toulouse & Bordeaux
Carries: 604 – Leicester Tigers
Clean breaks: 64 – Toulouse
Defenders beaten: 117 – Racing 92
Turnovers won: 52 – Bordeaux
Kicks: 139 – Castres
Tackles: 696 – Northampton Saints
Tackle success: 83% – Glasgow Warriors
Lineout success: 94% – Munster Rugby

Player

Points: 63 – Thomas Ramos, Toulouse
Tries: 10 – Damian Penaud, Bordeaux
Penalties: 5 – Antoine Hastoy, La Rochelle
Conversions: 26 – Thomas Ramos, Toulouse
Carries: 77 – Antoine Dupont, Toulouse
Clean Breaks: 15 – Damian Penaud, Bordeaux
Defenders beaten: 21 – Jack Nowell, La Rochelle
Tackles: 68 – Tom Willis, Saracens
Kicks: 49 – Antoine Dupont, Toulouse

Note: These are the stat leaders from the pool stage. They will be updated at the conclusion of each knockout stage.

2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup: Knockouts

The 16 teams who finished first to fourth in their pools have advanced to the knockouts, with their table positions and records giving them a seed which corresponds to who they’ll be playing in the Round of 16.

As usual, the teams who finished fifth in their pool will drop down to play in the EPCR Challenge Cup, the second-tier European competition. They’ll step into the Round of 16 there but will face an away tie.

The knockouts consist of single-elimination matches starting with the Round of 16, proceeding to the quarter-finals and then the semi-finals, at the end of which, the winning two teams of the semi-finals will progress to play in this year's final.

2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup: Round of 16 fixtures

Friday 4th April

Northampton Saints (3) vs Clermont (14) – 8pm

Saturday 5th April

Toulon (4) vs Saracens (13) – 12:30pm
Leinster (2) vs Harlequins (15) – 3pm
Castres (6) vs Benetton (11) – 3pm
La Rochelle (8) vs Munster (9) – 5:30pm
Glasgow Warriors (7) vs Leicester Tigers (10) – 8pm

Sunday 6th April

Bordeaux (1) vs Ulster (16) – 12:30pm
Toulouse (5) vs Sale Sharks (12) – 3pm

All times are in BST.

2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup: Final

The 2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup final will take place on 24th May 2025 and will be played at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

European Rugby Champion Cup: Winners

Credit: Instant Highlights - Leinster Rugby v Stade Toulousain Final | Investec Champions Cup 2023/24 (Investec Champions Cup & EPCR Challenge Cup, YouTube)