Ulster drawn against holders Tolouse in tough Champions Cup group
Ulster have drawn defending Champions Cup holders Toulouse for next season’s tournament which kicks off in the first week of December.
Richie Murphy’s side are in Pool 1 and will also face Bordeaux Begles as well as English opposition in the shape of former winners Leicester Tigers and Exeter Chiefs.
The Sharks make up the six-team pool but as they play in the United Rugby Championship, Ulster will avoid the Challenge Cup winners as teams from the same domestic leagues cannot face each other.
Ulster will play the English and French sides once with the order and venue of the fixtures to be decided.
Last season, Ulster failed to get out of the pool, winning just one of their four games.
Toulouse won the Champions Cup for a record sixth time in May after beating Leinster after extra time at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Stade Ernest-Wallon side added the French League crown last weekend with a stunning 59-3 win over Bordeaux to claim a 24th Top 14 title.
It will be the second consecutive season Ulster have faced Toulouse after the sides clashed at Kingspan Stadium last January.
Ulster were undone by an Antoine Dupont masterclass as the mercurial French scrum-half scored two of Toulouse’s seven tries in a 48-24 win.
Dupont is the headline act in the star-studded Toulouse backline side which includes the likes of Roman Ntamack and Thomas Ramos.
Up front, they also have the power of Cyrill Baille, Peato Mauvaka and England’s Jack Willis.
Ulster did beat Toulouse 26-20 at Stade Ernest-Wallon in 2022 with Rob Baloucoune getting a hat-trick of tries in the first leg of the last 16 Champions Cup clash after the home side shipped an early red card.
However, it was Dupont again who made the difference with his late try at Kingspan Stadium helping Toulouse to a one-point aggerate win.
Last weekend was the first time in their history that Bordeaux reached the final of the Top14.
The Stade Chaban-Delmas stadium side will be boosted by the arrival of Irish out-half Joey Carbery from Munster during the close season, who joins a backline that includes electric French winger Damian Penaud.
Ulster faced Bordeaux in the competition during the 2016/17 season with the French club winning home and away.
Murphy’s side are also no strangers to facing Leicester in Europe. The Welford Road club have appointed Michael Cheika as coach for the upcoming season, who guided Leinster to the trophy in 2009.
One of Ulster’s most famous European victories came against the Tigers.
The match – played on a Sunday afternoon at Ravenhill in January 2004 – saw Ulster sweep the former back-to-back winners aside 33-0.
The Tigers contained a number of England’s World Cup-winning squad including captain Martin Johnson, who came of the bench.
The last time the sides met in Europe was in the Challenge Cup semi-final three years ago.
Ulster led by 11 points at the interval, but the Tigers roared back in the second half to win 33-24.
Exeter, meanwhile, won the cup in 2020 with the help of former Queen’s backs Ian Whitten and Gareth Steenson but have been going through a transitional period.
The competition will run under the same format as last year with the top four from each pool going into the last 16 while the fifth-place side will drop into the Challenge Cup.