The Champions Cup and Challenge Cup returned at the weekend, but which players earned selection for our European rugby Team of the Week?
Clubs all across Europe and South Africa returned to cross-competition action this weekend, as the penultimate round of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup pool stages took place.
Many teams are simply vying for a spot in the knockouts, while those sitting higher up in their pools will have their eyes firmly on securing home fixtures and a potentially easier route to the final.
There were some big scorelines at the weekend. Benetton’s 74-21 win against the Dragons was both their biggest win and highest points total in a European game since defeating Farul Constanta 86-8 back in 1995.
Meanwhile, Harlequins (61-10 vs Stormers) and Bristol (61-49 vs Bulls) both hit 60+ points for the second consecutive game in the Champions Cup, with the Bears also conceding their second-highest points total in the process. In fact, their match against the Bulls was the forth highest-scoring match in Champions Cup history.
With so many points scored, it was clearly a weekend of rugby in which attacks were on top. Let’s see how that impacted our European Club Rugby Team of the Week.
Opta’s Star Player of the Week
With so many excellent attacking performances to choose from this week there were several players in the mix for the top ranking player of the week, but it was Bordeaux-Begles’ Salesi Rayasi who finished top of the pile.
The full-back was one of five players to score a hat-trick at the weekend, while he also gained the most metres of any player in the Champions Cup (143), including a competition-high 53 metres-in-contact. No player in the competition could better his tally of four line breaks either, while just one player (Simeli Daunivucu – 10) beat more defenders than him (9) in Europe’s top tier.
Even when he was stopped he was still a threat, with Davit Niniashvili (5) the only player to make more offloads than Rayasi (4) who also assisted two line breaks. He didn’t have a huge amount to do in defence, but of his four tackles two were dominant – Tom Farrell (3) was the only back in the Champions Cup to make more.
The Best of the Rest
Joining Rayasi in the back three is Nick David – another player to cross the line three times at the weekend – and like the Bordeaux flyer he also beat nine defenders. The only player to beat that tally in the Champions Cup at the weekend was Daunivucu who beat 10 and took the number 12 jersey in our team.
Only one other player beat more defenders when including the Challenge Cup – Benetton’s Onisi Ratave, who beat 12 – while his 212 metres gained and five line breaks were also the most of any player across the two European competitions.
212 – @BenettonRugby's Onisi Ratave gained 212 metres against the Dragons, the most by any player in European competition at the weekend and the most by any player in a @ChallengeCup_ match since January 2019, when Ryan Edwards gained 212 for Bristol v Enisei-STM. Unstoppable. pic.twitter.com/fBvAqDMWG8
— OptaJonny (@OptaJonny) January 12, 2026Ratave’s teammate Jacob Umaga was the top points scorer of any player in the Champions or Challenge Cup (29) and one of just two players to both score and assist multiple tries (2 tries & 2 assists, also Billy Searle – 3 tries & 2 assists).
Umaga also assisted four line breaks for Benetton against the Dragons, a joint-high for any player in the Challenge Cup with only Jack van Poortvliet assisting more across both competitions combined – registering an impressive seven against Bayonne, in addition to a hat-trick of try assists.
In the pack, Cameron Woki was the standout, as the only forward to get on the scoresheet three times, while in the engine room Cameron Henderson was a menace at the opposition set piece – his three lineout steals was a joint-high across the Champions and Challenge Cup, alongside Esteban Abadie.
Up front, Gabriel Oghre epitomised Bristol Bears’ expansive style of play. His 14 passes were the most of any forward and he assisted two tries in the process – Jack Conan was the only other forward to assist as many (also 2). Oghre’s set-piece work was also solid too, finding a teammate with 14 of his 15 lineout throws.
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