La Rochelle host Sale Sharks on Saturday as the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals get underway at the Stade Marcel Deflandre - with both sides hoping to win the competition for the first time. The Gallagher Premiership side will be buoyed by their emphatic triumph over Scarlets in the Round of 16 - a scintillating six try performance and 32-points from AJ MacGinty the catalyst for victory. La Rochelle, meanwhile, secured their last eight berth with a 27-16 win over Gloucester Rugby at Kingsholm and will be eager to defeat English opposition for the second consecutive round, this time on home soil. You can enjoy the action from the Stade Marcel Deflandre from 15:00 (British and Irish time) on Channel 4, BT Sport and Virgin Media. The game will also be live in France on beIN SPORTS and FR2. Pool positions La Rochelle; 4th in Heineken Champions Cup Pool A; 9 points Sale Sharks; 8th in Heineken Champions Cup Pool A; 1 point Round of 16 Gloucester Rugby 16 – 27 La Rochelle Scarlets 14-57 Sale Sharks Heineken Champions Cup Head-to-head record La Rochelle wins: 1 Draws: 0 Sale Sharks wins: 1 Leading 2020/21 points-scorers La Rochelle: Ihaia West (11) Sale Sharks: AJ MacGinty (36) https://twitter.com/ChampionsCup/status/1379841546502164481 Key quotes Alex Sanderson (Sale Sharks): “You’ve got to be in it to win it, haven’t you, we’ve been under the radar a little bit for the last 15 years, I’d say. The one bad thing about that performance is that we’ve just advertised to La Rochelle that we are coming for them. I think it was a case of us catching them [Scarlets] a bit cold and us being absolutely red-hot.” Match Facts

La Rochelle and Sale Sharks will face each other for the third time in the Heineken Champions Cup, each team winning their home game in the 2019/20 pool stage.
La Rochelle have won four of their last five completed games in the Heineken Champions Cup (L1), as many wins as in their first 10 games in the competition (L6).
La Rochelle have won four of their six completed home games in the Heineken Champions Cup (L2), including three wins against Premiership teams; La Rochelle’s last two home games in the competition have been won by the team trailing at half-time (W1 L1).
Sale’s 57-14 win over Scarlets in the Round of 16 ended a run of 14 defeats away from home for them in the Heineken Champions Cup and was the first time they had scored 40+ points away from home in the competition.

Sale Sharks are aiming to win consecutive away games in the Heineken Champions Cup for only the third time, both previous occasions saw them win the second game of those runs against French teams (Castres in December 2005 and Clermont Auvergne in October 2008).
Sale have reached the quarter-final stage of the Heineken Champions Cup for just the second time, on the previous occasion (2005/06) they were knocked out by Biarritz in a low scoring affair (6-11).
La Rochelle have reached the quarter-final stage of the Heineken Champions Cup for the second time, they have never progressed further than this in the competition (lost 17-29 v Scarlets in 2017/18).
La Rochelle have averaged more kicks in play (32) per game than any other side in the Heineken Champions Cup this season.
Sale’s Akker van der Merwe has made 17/17 tackles in the Heineken Champions Cup, no front row forward still in the competition has made as many without missing at least one.