Austin Healey says new-look Investec Champions Cup wide open - ‘You don’t know who’s going to step up’

Austin Healey gave a glimpse into why this season’s Investec Champions Cup is set to deliver unmissable action until a winner is crowned at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 25 next year.

There has been a change of format to the iconic European club rugby competition that now features teams from South Africa, and which has paved the way for some blockbuster group-stage match-ups.

The usual suspects will be fancied to make a run at the title but Healey, a two-time winner with Leicester Tigers in 2001 and ’02, believes it is wide open and cannot wait to see the clash of styles, with all the action on TNT Sports.

“What I look forward to the most is you don't know who's going to step up,” Healey said.

“La Rochelle over previous seasons, but there is so much quality around all the leagues and different styles of play as well.

“And when you see them go head-to-head in different styles of games in different weathers in different parts of Europe and now South Africa, it becomes a really difficult one to call to see who's going to go all the way, particularly with the new format.”

The four pools of six teams feature some of the best club sides in world rugby and Healey, along with fellow TNT Sports pundits Ryan Wilson and Stuart Hogg, previewed them ahead of Glasgow Warriors’ clash with Northampton Saints at Scotstoun.

“It’s the same with all the pools, win both your home games and you’ve got a pretty good chance of going through,” Healey said.

There is, however, one group that has everyone talking. Pool four includes DHL Stormers, defending champions La Rochelle, a resurgent Leicester Tigers, Leinster, Sale Sharks and Stade Francais.

It’s a who’s who of elite-level club rugby and has been understandably dubbed ‘the pool of death’.

“One of them is going to die in that pool and it’s going to be a difficult pool to get out of,” Healey added. “Look at the quality in there.

“Let’s call it the pool of life, that sounds nice. But you’ll be in there and be playing against La Rochelle and Leinster and think, ‘Actually, let’s call it the pool of death.'”

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