Exeter Chiefs handed tough draw as they prepare to defend inaugural Champions Cup title

Exeter Chiefs have been handed a difficult draw ahead of the start of their Champions Cup defence in December, with the Gallagher Premiership champions facing Toulouse and Glasgow Warriors in the tournament's pool stage.

A rejigged format for the 2020-21 season as a result of Covid-19 will see two groups of 12 sides battle it out for qualification for the quarter-finals, with the 24 clubs who have qualified from the Premiership, the Pro14 and the Top 14 classified into four tiers based on their performances in the knockout phases of their respective leagues and/or on their qualifying positions in their respective league tables.

Each tier contains six clubs, with Tier 1 made up of the number one and number two ranked clubs from each league at the end of last season - Exeter and Wasps, Leinster and Ulster, Bordeaux and Lyon. The teams have been allocated so that no clubs in the same tier are from the same league in the same pool.

The top four teams from each pool of 12 will then qualify for the quarter-finals, while the clubs ranked from fifth to eight in each pool will drop into the Round of 16 stage in the Challenge Cup.

Exeter were crowned champions of Europe for the first time a couple of weeks ago with their 31-27 victory over Racing 92 in Bristol.

Premiership runners-up Wasps have been handed an easier draw, taking on Pro14 region Dragons and France's Montpellier, while Bristol Bears, making their first appearance in Europe's top competition for 13 years, have been drawn alongside Connacht, the former side of Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam, along with French giants Clermont Auvergne.

Fourth-placed Bath, defeated in the Premiership play-offs by eventual Premiership champions Exeter, will meet La Rochelle and Scarlets in the group stage, with Sale Sharks, who missed out on a top four spot in the Premiership due a breakout of Covid-19 tests and therefore an allocation in Tier 2, facing Edinburgh and three-time winners Toulon.

Northampton Saints and Harlequins face two of the more difficult draws, with Northampton set to play Bordeaux, who were in first place in the Top 14 last season before the campaign was cancelled due to Covid-19, as well as four-time European Cup winners Leinster. Harlequins, meanwhile, take on two-time winners Munster as well as last season's beaten finalists Racing 92.

The final English side, Gloucester, who came eighth in the Premiership under new head coach George Skivington, are set to play Lyon and Ulster.