Former All Blacks centre Aaron Mauger believes the European Champions Cup is now the “most prestigious competition” in club rugby.

Mauger helped the Crusaders to four Super Rugby titles between 2000 and 2007, but feels the tournament has been “diluted” by recent expansion. The Leicester Tigers head coach will come head-to-head with former All Blacks team-mate Dan Carter in Sunday’s Champions Cup semi-final showdown with Racing 92 at Nottingham’s City Ground.

Mauger will exploit his inside knowledge of sharing All Blacks and Crusaders backlines with Carter, but may cause some raised eyebrows in New Zealand for rating Europe’s top club competition ahead of the southern hemisphere’s Super Rugby.

Higher quality

“I think the European competition is probably the higher-quality competition, because you’ve got all the best teams, especially at this stage, you’ve got teams who deserve to be there,” Mauger said.

“I think it’s probably the most prestigious competition. The Premiership as well, it might not necessarily be the highest-quality competition, but it’s probably the toughest.”

Leicester are unchanged from last week’s Premiership win over Northampton with Manu Tuilagi at inside centre.

Carter is partnered at half-back by French international Maxime Machenaud while a back three of Brice Dulin, another former All Black Joe Rokocoko and Argentina’s Juan Imhoff carries plenty of threat.

The French side also have plenty of carrying power in their backrow with yet another former All Black Chris Masoe flanked by French internationals Bernard le Roux and Wenceslas Lauret.