Edinburgh Rugby set for 2025/26 Investec Champions Cup pool draw

• 18 Jun 2025
• News

The highly anticipated pool draws for the 2025/26 Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup are just around the corner.

We’ll discover our European opponents for next season on Tuesday 1 July with the draws taking place at the Premier Sports studios in Dublin.

You can catch all the action live as it unfolds, as both draws will be streamed on epcrugby.com. The event kicks off at 1.30 PM (UK-Irish time).

Investec Champions Cup: What we know so far

Having qualified on merit from the BKT United Rugby Championship (URC), Edinburgh Rugby return to the Investec Champions Cup. The tournament will feature 24 clubs divided into four pools of six.

Here are the key principles of the draw that will affect us:

• No same-shield clashes: Edinburgh Rugby will be drawn into a separate pool from Glasgow. This ensures clubs from the same URC Shield don’t face each other in the pool stage.

• Diverse opponents: To keep things exciting, there will be no matches between clubs from the same league during the pool stage. This means we’ll play four different clubs who aren’t from the URC, with two home and two away fixtures.

• Tiered draw: The clubs are divided into two tiers. While the four Tier 1 clubs (which include the 2025 Investec Champions Cup winners, Gallagher Premiership winners, and URC winners) will be drawn first to anchor each pool, the remaining 20 clubs in Tier 2 (including Edinburgh Rugby) will then be drawn or allocated into the pools, always adhering to the key principles.

We’re one of eight URC teams to qualify for the Investec Champions Cup, joining Leinster Rugby, Vodacom Bulls, Hollywoodbets Sharks, Glasgow Warriors, DHL Stormers, Munster and Scarlets.

Mark your calendars: Key European dates

While we await the draw to see who we’ll be facing, here are the weekends for next season’s European action:

• Round 1: 5/6/7 December 2025
• Round 2: 12/13/14 December 2025
• Round 3: 9/10/11 January 2026
• Round 4: 16/17/18 January 2026

We’ll bring you the full fixture list, including dates, venues, and kick-off times, as soon as it’s released by EPCR. Stay tuned to our channels for all the updates on our European journey!