English challengers Leicester and Sale Sharks have landed a fearsome pool draw in next season’s Heineken Champions Cup.

The pair, who cannot play each other in the group stage, face games against Champions Cup holders La Rochelle, runners-up Leinster, South African heavyweights DHL Stormers and Parisians Stade Francais.

They will play two matches at home and two away in December and January. The top four teams in each group will comprise the round of 16 later next term.

Premiership champions Saracens and Bristol, who replaced London Irish after the Exiles went into administration, will tackle Bordeaux-Begles, Vodacom Bulls, Lyon and Connacht in Pool 1.

Bath, Champions Cup qualifiers following a dramatic last day of the Premiership season, are in Pool 2 alongside Harlequins.

They will take on newly-crowned French champions Toulouse, Racing 92, Ulster and the solitary Welsh representative Cardiff.

Past tournament winners Exeter and Northampton are in Pool 3, where they will face fixtures against United Rugby Championship title holders Munster, Glasgow, Bayonne and Toulon.

Premiership challengers Gloucester have been handed a tough European Challenge Cup draw, being grouped in Pool 3 alongside Clermont Auvergne, Scarlets, Edinburgh, Castres and a yet-to-be-announced invited club.

Newcastle are in Pool 2 with Ospreys, Benetton, Montpellier, Perpignan and Emirates Lions, while Pool 1 comprises another invited club alongside Dragons, Pau, Oyonnax, Zebre Parma and Cell Sharks.

The top four in each group progress to the Challenge Cup round of 16, where they will be joined by the four fifth-placed Champions Cup teams.

The Challenge Cup and Champions Cup finals take place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 24 and 25.

Rob Baxter accepts that Exeter will need to get “an awful lot right” when they tackle Heineken Champions Cup holders La Rochelle in this season’s semi-finals.

But Exeter will arrive at the 42,000-capacity Mahmut Atlantique stadium in Bordeaux on Sunday determined to underline their own rich European pedigree.

The 2020 champions are England’s sole survivors, having won five out of six games in Europe this season, including a gripping last-16 success against French champions Montpellier.

And they have got there despite patchy domestic form that undermined their Gallagher Premiership play-off bid as Chiefs missed out behind confirmed semi-finalists Saracens, Sale, Leicester and Northampton.

Exeter beat La Rochelle home and away during their 2019-20 Champions Cup-winning campaign, but the last-four represents Chiefs’ best European run since then.

La Rochelle, in contrast, lifted the trophy last term and were runners-up 12 months before that, confirming their status as strong favourites this weekend.

“They are a good team, and we are going to have to get an awful lot right and be massively resilient,” Exeter rugby director Baxter said.

“They are going to land shots, and we just have to get up and get on with stuff and not get hurt by any one thing that happens. That consistent level of intensity across 80 minutes is always the key in big games.

“We are going very much to overturn the tables, which is a nice challenge for us and one we should be relishing and looking to enjoy.

“We’ve got a pretty good record against French teams, and we’ve got to back ourselves with that a little bit and get on with stuff. We’ve got some good firepower in the team.

“We went to La Rochelle and won in our cup-winning year and we won in Castres this season. Occasions in France are brilliant – players love them, they are incredible experiences.

“I think you either thrive on the atmosphere, or you don’t. Every game has an ebb and flow around it, and you have got to stick in there sometimes for a long time before you get the benefits of scores.”

Sunday’s clash could be the final European game in Exeter colours for players like brothers Joe and Sam Simmonds, who are moving to France next term, England wing Jack Nowell – a major target for La Rochelle – and retiring Scotland star Stuart Hogg.

So the lure of a possible Champions Cup final appointment with Leinster or Toulouse in Dublin on May 20 cannot be underestimated for numerous reasons.

Baxter added: “We’ve got a collection of very good players. There is a lot of international quality in our team.

“The team we take over has got plenty of caps in it, plenty of players who have won important games.

“It is a big game for the club. It feels like a very tight group that is working very hard to make this game successful.

“That is the key, that is how you look after each other, whether you are staying or going, and it feels like we have got that kind of vibe around the place at the moment.

“They are going to come at us, and there are going to be times when we are going to have to weather it, stick together and hold our discipline, hold our work-rate and not take a breath.

“You stay in the fight when it is their moments, and then you take yours when it is your time. There is no way of dressing it up.”

La Rochelle lifted their first ever European Champions Cup after Arthur Retiere's late try stole a dramatic 24-21 win over Leinster at Stade Velodrome.

Despite scoring the first try in Marseille through Raymond Rhule, La Rochelle trailed for much of the match as Jonny Sexton's boot dominated for Leinster on Saturday.

He had 18 points before Pierre Bourgarit powered over for La Rochelle to tee up a nervy finish as last year's runners-up piled on the pressure.

The French side's indiscipline almost put the game beyond them, with Thomas Lavault sent to the sin bin and Ross Byrne – on for the injured Sexton with 16 minutes remaining – kicking another three points, but Retiere's last-gasp response swung the final in their favour.

Leinster, chasing a record-equalling fifth title, ultimately paid for their failure to score a try – not that it appeared to matter as Sexton converted two straightforward penalties to edge them ahead.

Rhule then bundled over in the left corner after Dillyn Leyds' offload, before another Sexton penalty put Leinster back on top, and he profited again before the break when La Rochelle were punished for more sloppiness.

West reduced the arrears with three points after the interval, but Sexton responded with a further two penalties to take Leinster out of reach of a converted La Rochelle try.

That lead was cut after 61 minutes, however, as Bourgarit crossed following a maul and West's conversion made it a one-point game.

Sexton limped off in the aftermath of that try, but La Rochelle's momentum appeared to be halted when Lavault was yellow-carded for tripping Jamison Gibson-Park, allowing replacement Byrne to dispatch the subsequent kick.

And yet there was still time, with a prolonged period of La Rochelle pressure ending in Retiere breaking through to claim Champions Cup glory for his side at the second time of asking.

La Rochelle will face Leinster in the European Champions Cup final after beating Racing 92 20-13 in an almighty battle at Stade Bollaert-Delelis.

A year after losing to Toulouse in the final, La Rochelle will have another chance to be crowned European champions for the first time at Stade Velodrome on May 28 after fighting back to defeat their Top 14 rivals on a hot Sunday in Lens.

A second-half penalty try, which resulted in Racing being reduced to 13 men for around eight minutes, was a key moment in the semi-final as it put La Rochelle in front for the first time.

Ronan O'Gara's side edged out the Ireland legend's former employers to set up a repeat of last year's semi-final in Marseille, Ihaia West making amends for an off day with the boot by sealing it with a try right at the end.

Nolann Le Garrec put Racing in front with an early penalty and West failed to make it 3-3 when he missed a straightforward chance from the tee.

Virimi Vakatawa extended the Paris club's lead with a sharp sidestep to squeeze beyond two defenders and dot down for an opening try, which Le Garrec converted after 25 minutes.

La Rochelle applied sustain pressure and although Raymond Rhule had a try ruled out as the ball was not clearly out of a ruck when he scooped it up, West's penalty got them on the board and Gregory Alldritt powered his way over on the stroke of half-time.

West was unable to add the extras and the La Rochelle fly-half was off target with another penalty early in the second half before the ice cool Le Garrec booted Racing into a 13-8 lead.

Ill-disciplined Racing were rocked when Camille Chat and Cedate Gomes Sa were sent to the sin bin in quick succession, the second offence resulting in a penalty try that put last year's runners-up 15-13 up with just under half an hour go.

A disjointed and sloppy La Rochelle side failed to increase their advantage while Racing were two men down, during which time Le Garrec missed from the tee twice.

Pierre Popelin stepped up to miss a penalty at the other end, but O'Gara's men ended Racing's hopes of winning the Champions Cup for the first time, with West diving over to seal it.

Toulouse won a record fifth European Champions Cup and their first since 2010 thanks to a 22-17 win over La Rochelle, who played much of the match a man light.

Both sides traded penalty blows during a feisty opening at Twickenham, with the scores level at 6-6 in the 27th minute thanks to Ihaia West's successful kick for La Rochelle.

But they suffered a massive setback just a few moments later as Levani Botia floored Maxime Medard with an ugly high hit.

As Botia walked off towards the sin-bin, the television match official ensured his punishment was upgraded to a red card, the first ever in a Champions Cup final.

Yet La Rochelle made it to the break with a 12-9 lead, with West's four kicks to Romain Ntamack's three the difference after a compelling – albeit brutal – first half.

West missed the target early in the second half, though, and Ntamack again evened the score as Toulouse started to up the ante.

La Rochelle were putting up a good fight with their 14 men but Toulouse finally got the match's first try with an hour played, Juan Cruz Mallia going over out wide after being fed by Selevasio Tolofua.

Toulouse looked to be coasting home as they went 22-12 up with the conversion, though a Tawera Kerr-Barlow try with five minutes to go made life a little nervy.

However, Toulouse held on to seal their fifth European crown and surpass Leinster on four, with La Rochelle's maiden appearance in a final ending in disappointment.

La Rochelle earned a convincing 32-23 victory over Leinster at Stade Marcel Deflandre to reach their first European Champions Cup final.

The French side, who had never previously made it as far as the last four, will now face fellow Top 14 club Toulouse at Twickenham on May 22.

Leinster have won the competition on four previous occasions and started Sunday's contest brightly through Tadhg Furlong's eighth-minute try.

The hosts were a man short at that point after Wiaan Liebenberg was sin-binned for an offside infringement, but they hit back thanks to a penalty and drop goal from Ihaia West.

West was successful from a couple more kicks before half-time, but only after Ross Byrne had added six points from the boot for Leinster in a tightly-contested opening period that ended with the visitors ahead by one.

That kicking battle ensued in the early stages of the second period when Byrne responded to West edging La Rochelle in front for the first time in the contest.

Leinster were a point to the good at that point but lost James Lowe to a yellow card for not rolling away in what proved to be a pivotal moment in an entertaining clash.

West split the sticks once more to restore his side's advantage and Gregory Alldritt found a way over the line 15 minutes from time, which West inevitably added to with the extras.

La Rochelle pushed for another try to seal the win and they found it as Will Skelton broke away from the driving maul to start the celebrations.

Byrne had the final say in terms of the scoring by finding a gap and dotting down late on, but La Rochelle comfortably held on to set up an all-French final at Twickenham.