Heineken Champions Cup: Ulster to face Toulouse in opening Pool B match

Toulouse defeated Ulster 36-8 in last season's quarter-finals in September

Ulster will face Toulouse in their opening European Champions Cup match on Friday, 11 December.

The match at Kingspan Stadium will pit Ulster against a side that beat them in the quarter-finals of last season's competition.

Gloucester host Dan McFarland's men on 19 December before the return fixture on 16 January and a trip to Toulouse on 24 January.

The two-legged quarter-finals will be played at the start of April.

The first leg of the quarter-finals will take place on 2-4 April with the return fixtures a week later.

The last-four ties are scheduled for 30-April-1 May and the final will take place on Saturday, 22 May at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.

New format for Champions Cup

The delayed started to this season has meant a reduction to the pool stages and a new format to the competition. The competition has two pools of 12 teams although clubs will only play two of those teams home and away.

The four highest-ranked clubs in each pool will qualify for the quarter-finals, with the clubs ranked numbers five to eight in each pool dropping into the knockout stage of the European Challenge Cup.

Quarter-final ties will be played on a home and away basis before the competition reverts to one-off games in the semi-finals and final which takes place in Marseille on 22 May.

There will be four rounds of pool matches, with no teams from the same league playing each other.

Teams drawn in Pool B alongside Ulster include champions Exeter and Racing 92, who the Chiefs, defeated in last season's final earlier this month, plus Munster and Connacht.