2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage
The 2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage was the first stage of the 27th season of European club rugby union, and the eighth under the European Rugby Champions Cup format. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the end of the 2019–20 tournament, twenty-four clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues would competed in the Champions Cup in a one-year exceptional basis. Several round 2 matches between teams from France and the UK were postponed. This was due to new travel restrictions between the UK and France introduced  by the French government on 18 December 2021. This resulted in multiple 0–0 draws and 2 match points given to each team. Seeding. For the purposes of the pool draw, the 24 clubs were separated into tiers based on their league finishing position, and clubs from the same league in the same tier were not drawn into the same pool. The number 1 and number 2 ranked clubs from each league are in Tier 1, the number 3 and number 4 ranked clubs are in Tier 2, the number 5 and 6 ranked clubs are in Tier 3, and the  number 7 and number 8 ranked clubs are in Tier 4. Pool play will feature the Tier 1 teams playing the Tier 4 teams in their pool (that are not from the same league) twice in a home and away manner, while the Tier 2 and 3 clubs will follow in a similar manner. The four teams from each pool with the best points will qualify for the knockout stage. Teams finishing 5th through 8th after pool play will join the Challenge Cup at the round of 16 stage (joining eight qualifiers from the Challenge Cup pool stage) In total , eight weekends of play will be provided for, one less than in previous seasons. Pool stage. The draw took place on 21 July 2021, at the Lausanne, Switzerland. Teams in the same pool play two other teams twice, at home and away, in the group stage. The top eight teams in each pool progress to the round of 16, with the teams ranked 9-11 progressing to the 2021–22 European Rugby Challenge Cup round of 16. Teams are awarded group points based on match performances. Four points are awarded for a win, two points for a draw, one attacking bonus  point for scoring four or more tries in a match and one defensive bonus point for losing a match by seven points or fewer. In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers are used, as directed by EPCR: (Q) denotes the team has qualified for the Champions Cup quarter-finals (q) denotes the team has qualified for the Challenge Cup quarter-finals