Ranking Europe's Top 15 Club Teams After Weekend of April 18-19

The Champions Cup final will be an all-French affair after Toulon and Clermont Auvergne won their semi-finals.

It ensured the pair will not be moved from this season’s top two placings in the power rankings and, as the second time in three seasons they have contested European rugby’s biggest prize, underlined the financial strength of French club rugby.

No one from outside the top 14 has won what was the Heineken Cup since Leinster beat Ulster in 2012, and only one side has made it to the final from outside that league in the same time.

That opens its own debate on how healthy for the sport the current monetary limitations on other clubs is, but it doesn’t change the fact that, on balance, we just about have the best two sides in the tournament in this year’s final.

Other than the semi-finals in both European tournaments, it was a quiet weekend across the continent, and therefore, other than a small shuffle in the top five, it’s very much as you were before we head into the final few weeks of domestic battle.

15. Leicester

The Tigers fell out of the play-off places in the last round of Premiership after defeat to Saracens.

But after their dormant week they entertain relegated London Welsh, which represents a chance for Richard Cockerill’s men to fill their boots.

In other news, the East Midlanders will travel to Philadelphia in August for a game against an American side as the power brokers of the sport across the pond attempt to get a professional league off the ground, per BBC Sport.

There is much work to do if they are to make that trip as English champions.

14. Ospreys

Ospreys travel to Cardiff this weekend for a Welsh derby with the Blues in their bid to maintain their play-off hopes.

The clash is the first fixture of Judgement Day at the Millennium Stadium, that will also see the Dragons battle the Scarlets on the same day.

A win will all but ensure they deny reigning champions Leinster a path back into the top four, and it is expected that the event will break attendance records for a regional rugby match in Wales, per Wales Online.

13. Stade Francais

Stade have the chance this Friday to fend off the challenge to the top four from Toulouse.

They host the men from the Pink City and can put clear daylight between themselves and Guy Noves’ resurgent side as the fight for a playoff place heads for the home straight.

Stade are four points clear of their opponents ahead of kick-off.

12. Exeter

The Chiefs are out of the Challenge Cup after a 30-19 semi-final defeat to Gloucester.

Rob Baxter’s men can at last focus all their efforts on maintaining their challenge for a place in the Premiership play-offs. They are fourth with a three-point cushion over Leicester.

But by the time they run out at Wasps on Sunday the Tigers could have overhauled them with a heavy defeat of London Welsh.

11. Ulster

Ulster start their final push to secure a home playoff place by hosting Leinster.

With the champions fresh from the heartache of semi-final defeat in Europe and only faint hopes of breaking into the top four of the Pro 12, Neil Doak’s men will hope to find a demorailsed outfit in front of them at Ravenhill.

A solid win at Connacht in their last outing will give the Ulstermen confidence ahead of this clash.

10. Munster

Munster can retain second spot in the Pro 12 with a thumping home win over Treviso.

That will put them in charge of their own destiny as far as play-off home advantage is concerned, with the key clash coming a week later when they travel north to Ulster.

Current standings, if maintained, will mean another clash with the Red Hand Gang in the knockout phase.

9. Glasgow

Pro 12 leaders Glasgow have a tricky trip to Connacht this weekend, which they follow with another away day at the Ospreys.

It’s a tough end to an impressive campaign from the Warriors, who have seldom been south of the top two in the league.

With Munster likely to gather maximum points against Treviso, only a win in the West of Ireland will keep a comfortable amount of breathing space at the head of the pack for Gregor Townsend’s men.

8. Toulouse

Toulouse will see their Friday-night fixture in Paris as win or bust for their season.

They are level on points with fourth-placed Racing Metro and four behind this week’s opponents Stade Francais.

If victory this week lifts them into a playoff spot, it will be some comeback following their horrific start to this season and will doubtlessly unnerve Toulon, who were given a sound beating by Toulouse earlier this month.

7. Racing Metro

Racing face a tricky away day at Oyonnax this weekend.

The minnows toppled Clermont in Clermont in the previous round and will be full of confidence against the Parisians, who were pegged back by Montpellier in their last outing to end up with draw.

Racing will have a keen eye on events in Paris, where playoff rivals Stade and Toulouse go head to head, but they will know a win should be enough to keep them in the top four.

6. Bath

Bath can overtake Saracens on Friday night when they host London Irish at the Rec.

Should they do that, it will crank up the pressure on the Fez Heads, for whom defeat to Northampton would cost them a home semi-final slot with two rounds left to get it back.

A crackerjack performance last time out against Newcastle suggests Mike Ford’s men will be keen to turn on the style again in front of their own crowd and seize the momentum in the play-off race.

Of all the sides vying for a berth in the knockout stage, Bath are the only side without a rival to play in their run-in.

5. Leinster

Reaching the last four of the Champions Cup is not to be sniffed at, but Leinster missed an opportunity in Marseilles.

They came up against a Toulon side who put in an atrocious performance in slippery conditions but still couldn’t get past them.

And they are now left with a thread of hope that somehow they might sneak a playoff place in the Pro 12. We are talking miracles on a scale you couldn’t even hope for if you invited Jesus to your wedding.

They were still in the fight even after Ian Madigan’s pass was picked off by Bryan Habana. The Irish Independent’s Tony Ward wrote:

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Had Leinster made it they would have done so on merit. It was that kind of knife-edge game. It eventually swung on one error of judgement and while not wishing to labour the point, Madigan will know that better than anyone.

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Leinster’s season is effectively over, and their exit from the Champions Cup takes with it that last reason for the Dubliners to ride so high in this ranking.

You could forgive Joe Schmidt for doing a little fist pump on his sofa on Sunday.

At least it means the Irish coach will receive his many international players from the province in decent physical shape after being spared the cut and thrust of pushing for trophies in the denouement to their campaign.

4. Northampton

A rest week for the Saints was perhaps turned into a psychological—and physical­—advantage as they sat back and watched Saracens put themselves through the mangle in a bid to reach the European Champions Cup final.

The Saints face Sarries this weekend in the unfamiliar surrounds of Stadium MK, a World Cup venue that is undergoing testing this weekend, per the Northampton Saints website.

And Saints will be hoping Mark McCall’s men are still spent from their test in France when they arrive.

Saints should need no extra motivation, having lost in the last round to Exeter and seeing their advantage at the top cut to six points.

3. Saracens

Sarries couldn’t replicate their victory over Clermont Auvergne of last season.

Their efforts in a heaving, yellow-clad stadium in St Etienne will go down as one of Europe’s most glorious failures since, well, since they almost toppled Munster in Coventry in 2008, per BBC Sport.

The, worry now, as The Guardian’s Rob Kitson wrote, is how they will recover from this bruising effort:

"Sarries have another big game against Northampton on Saturday, what shape they will be in after this staggeringly brutal contest remains to be seen."

Billy Vunipola emerged with immense credit, per Kitson’s assessment:

"This ranked right up there with their most stirring European efforts, the amount of valour shown in adversity little short of extraordinary. Quite how Billy Vunipola, Maro Itoje, George Kruis and Brad Barritt walked away unaided at the end was a total mystery."

So Saracens end this season’s European adventure with total respect but not the trophy they have pursued so feverishly for several seasons now.

Their focus can now turn to the Premiership and avenging last year’s final defeat to Northampton.

2. Clermont Auvergne

Clermont are back in the European final and again face the team who denied them two seasons ago.

This time they have exorcised one of their demons by overturning the Saracens side that ripped them to piece at the semi-final stage last year.

This was a much tighter affair and Clermont owed a debt to their reliable Australian fly-half Brock James as much as the individual brilliance of Wesley Fofana, the game’s only try-scorer.

Clermont will feel better equipped to get past Toulon this time, rather than implode late in the game as they did in Dublin in 2013, having largely bossed the contest.

1. Toulon

The reigning kings of Europe needed extra time to see of the challenge of Leinster. But a classic Bryan Habana interception try proved the difference for Toulon, who march on to their third consecutive European final.

Leigh Halfpenny contributed 20 points from his trusty boot, but The Guardian’s Robert Kitson was far from impressed:

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Only a masochist would have wanted another 20 minutes of rugby following one of the most error-strewn games imaginable in Marseille. As it turned out extra time was easily the most interesting part of the game, with Toulon finally getting their act together sufficiently to keep alive their chances of a third straight European title.

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Needless to say, then, that Toulon must find a far higher level than this if they are to make it an unprecedented hat-trick of European crowns.