FloRugby's Professional Club Power Rankings: Dec. 3, 2025

FloRugby’s Professional Club Power Rankings for Dec. 10, 2025 see the Stormers rise to number one, Toulouse climb fast, and Munster fall.

Dec 11, 2025 by Philip Bendon

FloRugby's Professional Club Power Rankings: Dec. 3, 2025

Round 1 of the Investec Champions Cup delivered exactly what the tournament has always promised: jeopardy, chaos, continental pedigree and a handful of statement performances that will define how Round 2 is shaped.

From the DHL Stormers’ demolition job in Bayonne to a Toulouse side firing warning shots at the rest of Europe, the early narrative is clear.

Over the next three months, the margins will be thin, but the teams capable of sustaining intensity across multiple competitions already have started to distance themselves from the pack.

The Champions Cup is back to being the sport’s great leveler.

Style clashes, travel demands and tactical adaptability matter here more than anywhere else on the club calendar. And in a season where domestic leagues already have stretched squads to their limits, Round 1 gave us an immediate indication of who is genuinely built for Europe and who is playing catch-up.

Rankings Model Explained

Before diving into this week’s rankings, it’s worth reiterating how our global model works.

This is not a table based on opinion or a subjective eye test. It is a tiered Elo-style system designed to answer one hard question: If Team A played Team B tomorrow at a neutral venue, who wins?

All teams begin on the same baseline rating. Each match then adjusts that rating using a context-driven coefficient: competition strength, venue, margin of victory and the quality of the opponent. Home losses carry heavier punishment. Upsets weigh more than expected results. Winning away, especially against sides from stronger leagues, delivers a premium bump. And a capped margin-of-victory multiplier prevents blowouts from over-inflating weaker teams.

Competitions also are weighted. The Champions Cup carries the highest coefficient because the caliber of opposition is consistently elite. The Top 14, URC, Premiership, Super Rugby Pacific, Japan League One and MLR scale proportionally below that. This structure ensures that European giants cannot be propped up by domestic form alone, and likewise, that fringe sides cannot game the system by beating lower-grade opposition. A win is not simply a win; it is a data point weighted by the real difficulty of the task.

Champions Cup Lowdown

Round 1 saw the DHL Stormers walk into a previously unbeaten Stade Jean-Dauger and blow Bayonne off its own turf.

Imad Khan’s second-minute try set the tempo, but the real headline was how physically dominant the Stormers were across both halves. They are unbeaten in seven matches across all competitions, and they sit atop this week’s rankings for a reason: they are playing like a complete side with world-class structure and frightening depth.

Saracens responded with a ruthless dissection of ASM Clermont Auvergne, a reminder that at their best the Sarries mirror knockout-rugby efficiency.

But perhaps the most significant away result came from Bordeaux Bègles, which produced a historic second-half surge to overturn the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria, becoming the first French side ever to win at Loftus in EPCR competition. That result reverberated through the rankings, boosting both Bordeaux and the teams UBB has beaten this season.

Bath’s 40-14 dismantling of Munster was another major marker. The four-try explosion inside 18 minutes at The Rec was not a fluke; it was a blueprint.

Bath look athletic, balanced and brutally accurate in good weather. Whether that transfers to the south of France this weekend remains to be seen, but Bath heads into Toulon with genuine European credibility.

Northampton was made to work for its win over Pau, but the timing of the surge reflects well in the model. The Saints remain one of the Premiership’s hardest teams to restrain.

Toulouse, meanwhile, delivered the weekend’s most complete attacking performance with an eight-try hammering of the Hollywoodbets Sharks. Ange Capuozzo’s hat trick will take the headlines, but this was a holistic Toulouse statement: power up front, pace everywhere, decision-makers in every channel and a returning Antoine Dupont, who instantly tilted the pitch.

Elsewhere, Gloucester, Edinburgh, Leinster and La Rochelle posted stabilizing results that keep them locked inside the competitive middle tier of Europe. Not all wins deliver the same rating value, but all of them provided essential momentum ahead of Round 2.

The DHL Stormers versus Stade Rochelais is the headline fixture of the weekend and one of the clearest tests of our model’s competitive-weighting logic.

The Stormers are unbeaten in six matches and trending upward, but La Rochelle enters with a pedigree that cannot be overstated: two Champions Cup titles, one of Europe’s biggest packs and a tactical nucleus shaped by Ronan O’Gara.

The move to Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium gives the Stormers home advantage, but this will be a collision of heavyweight identities.

Toulouse travels to Glasgow for a fixture that easily could turn into a late-season quarterfinal preview.

Glasgow’s comeback over Sale in Round 1 showed resilience, but facing Dupont, Capuozzo, Marchand and Gourgues is another level entirely. The model currently ranks Toulouse firmly above Glasgow, but Scotstoun in December has undone many European giants before.

Bath’s trip to Toulon may be the most fascinating stylistic matchup of the round.

Ben Spencer is in outstanding form, and Bath’s opening-quarter intensity is a weapon few sides can withstand. But Toulon at Stade Mayol is a different proposition.

Baptiste Serin could return, and their aerial pressure game is perfectly suited to disrupting Bath’s tempo.

Leicester versus Leinster is another major litmus test.

The first start of Rieko Ioane, combined with the return of James Lowe and James Ryan, gives the Irish province renewed structure, while Harry Byrne is handed the type of proving-ground start that can define a season. Leicester’s inconsistency this year makes this a dangerous fixture.

Munster enters Round 2 with urgency.

After losses to the Stormers and a heavy loss at Bath, Munster needs a response. The potential returns of Jack Crowley, Jean Kleyn and Michael Milne come at the perfect time as they prepare for a significant home fixture at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

This competition always reshapes our rankings.

Some teams rise because they earn it. Some rise because of the gravitational effect of beating elite opposition. Others fall because Europe exposes their limits. After one round, the hierarchy is already shifting.

This Week’s Global Rugby Power Rankings (1 to 42)

DHL Stormers — 1,657
Northampton Saints — 1,598
Bath — 1,595
Toulouse — 1,580
Bristol Bears — 1,572
Exeter Chiefs — 1,562
Stade Francais — 1,559
Glasgow Warriors — 1,557
Munster — 1,556
Cardiff Rugby — 1,553
Ulster — 1,552
Pau — 1,543
Montpellier — 1,537
Bordeaux Bègles — 1,543
Edinburgh — 1,528
Leicester Tigers — 1,520
Bayonne — 1,518
Leinster — 1,513
Toulon — 1,511
Saracens — 1,511
La Rochelle — 1,510
Benetton — 1,509
Racing 92 — 1,505
ASM Clermont Auvergne — 1,512
Castres — 1,498
Emirates Lions — 1,483
Cheetahs — 1,481
Gloucester Rugby — 1,470
Vodacom Bulls — 1,469
Ospreys — 1,468
Black Lion — 1,460
Connacht — 1,457
Zebre — 1,447
Harlequins — 1,439
Sale Sharks — 1,435
Newcastle Red Bulls — 1,442
Hollywoodbets Sharks — 1,433
Scarlets — 1,429
Lyon — 1,417
Dragons — 1,380
Montauban — 1,372
Perpignan — 1,364

How To Watch Investec Champions Cup Round 2

All Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup matches will stream on FloRugby and the FloSports app in the United States.

Friday, Dec. 12

3 p.m. ET: Leicester Tigers vs. Leinster Rugby, Mattioli Woods Welford Road

Saturday, Dec. 13

Sunday, Dec. 14

FloRugby and FloSports also are the U.S. home to:

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