2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup


The 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup was the first season of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, the annual rugby union competition. It is the 19th season of second tier pan-European club competition in general, as the competition replaces the European Challenge Cup. The competition began with the first round of the group stage, on the weekend of 16 October 2014, and ended with the final on 1 May 2015 at the Twickenham Stoop.
Gloucester became the first ever champions of the newly formatted competition, beating Edinburgh, who became the first ever Scottish team to make a European final, 19–13, with 14 men on the pitch for the final 17 minutes with center Bill Meakes being sent off because of a dangerous high tackle of the ball on Edinburgh center Sam Beard.

Teams

Twenty teams qualified for the 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup, based on their performance in their respective domestic leagues the previous season. The distribution of teams is as follows:
So far, the following 18 teams have qualified.

Champions Cup Play-off

The following teams took part in the play-off to decide the final team in the Champions Cup. The play-off was held between the 7th placed teams in the Aviva Premiership and the Top 14. The loser of this play-off joined the Challenge Cup.
Aviva PremiershipTop 14
England France
WaspsStade Français

On 29 April 2014, it was announced that this play-off would take place over two legs, on the weekends of 17/18 May and 24/25 May, with a draw being used to determine home advantage for each leg.
The draw took place on 6 May 2014, in Heathrow. Following the draw, the fixtures were announced as follows:
Stade Français lost the play-off 35-50 on aggregate, and will play in the Challenge Cup.

Qualifying Competition

On 14 August 2014, EPCR announced the format for the first qualifying competition.
Given the amount of time until the start of the Challenge Cup, it was announced that this first competition will consist of 2 two-legged matches, with the aggregate winner of each taking a place in either pool. The first legs took place on 20 September, with the return legs taking place on 27 September

Rugby Europe 1 Play-off

Below is the list of coaches, captain and stadiums with their method of qualification for each team.
Note: Placing shown in brackets, denotes standing at the end of the regular season for their respective leagues, with their end of season positioning shown through CH for Champions, RU for Runner-up, SF for losing Semi-finalist and QF for losing Quarter-finalist.
TeamCoach /
Director of Rugby		CaptainStadiumCapacityMethod of Qualification
Bayonne Patricio Noriega
Nicolas Morlaes		 David RoumieuStade Jean Dauger17,000Top 14 7th-12th
Bordeaux Bègles Raphaël Ibañez Matthew ClarkinStade André Moga10,000Top 14 7th-12th
Brive Nicolas Godignon Arnaud MélaStade Amédée-Domenech16,000Top 14 7th-12th
București Wolves Lynn Howells Stelian BurceaArcul de Triumf Stadium5,500Challenge Cup Qualification Play-off
Cardiff Blues Paul John
Dale McIntosh
 Matthew ReesBT Sport Cardiff Arms Park12,500Pro12 bottom 5
Connacht Pat Lam John MuldoonSportsgrounds7,800Pro12 bottom 5
Edinburgh Alan Solomons Mike ComanMurrayfield Stadium12,464Pro12 bottom 5
Exeter Chiefs Rob Baxter Dean MummSandy Park10,744Aviva Premiership 7th-11th
Gloucester David Humphreys Billy TwelvetreesKingsholm Stadium16,500Aviva Premiership 7th-11th
Grenoble Fabrice Landreau Fabien GengenbacherStade des Alpes20,000Top 14 7th-12th
La Rochelle Patrice Collazo
Fabrice Ribeyrolles		 Uini AtonioStade Marcel-Deflandre12,5002013–14 Rugby Pro D2 promotion play-off winner
London Irish Brian Smith George SkivingtonMadejski Stadium24,250Aviva Premiership 7th-11th
London Welsh Justin Burnell Tom MayKassam Stadium12,5002013–14 RFU Championship Champion
Lyon Tim Lane Lionel NalletMatmut Stadium8,0002013–14 Rugby Pro D2 Champion
Newcastle Falcons Dean Richards Will WelchKingston Park10,200Aviva Premiership 7th-11th
Newport Gwent Dragons Lyn Jones Lee ByrneRodney Parade11,676Pro12 bottom 5
Oyonnax Christophe Urios Florian DenosStade Charles-Mathon11,400Top 14 7th-12th
Rovigo Delta Filippo Frati Luke MahoneyStadio Mario Battaglini6,000Challenge Cup Qualification Play-off
Stade Français Gonzalo Quesada Sergio ParisseStade Jean-Bouin20,0007th Place play-off loser
Zebre Andrea Cavinato Marco BortolamiStadio XXV Aprile
renamed Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in January 2015		5,000Pro12 bottom 5

Seeding

The 20 competing teams will be seeded and split into four tiers, seeding will be based on performance in their respective domestic leagues. Where promotion and relegation is in effect in a league, the promoted team will be seeded last, or by performance in the lower tier. So, Lyon – who were Pro D2 champions – will be the seventh Top 14 seed while La Rochelle – who qualified through the Pro D2 play-off – will be the eighth seed.
As with the previous European competition, the European Challenge Cup, teams from the same country will be kept apart where possible. However, as 8 teams have qualified from France, 3 pools will contain two French teams – Oyonnax, Lyon and La Rochelle.
For the purposes of creating the tiers, the clubs are ranked based on their finishing positions in the Top 14, Aviva Premiership, Pro12 and PRO D2 Leagues, or on their qualification via a play-off.
RankTop 14PremiershipPro 12Qualifying Competition
1 Stade Français Exeter Chiefs Cardiff Blues Rovigo Delta
2 Bordeaux Bègles Gloucester Edinburgh București Wolves
3 Brive London Irish Newport Gwent Dragons
4 Bayonne Newcastle Falcons Connacht
5 Grenoble London Welsh Zebre
6 Oyonnax
7 Lyon
8 La Rochelle

Teams will be taken from a league in order of rank and put into a tier. A draw is used allocate two second seeds to Tier 1, the remaining team will go into Tier 2. This allocation then determines which fourth seeded team enters Tier 2, while the others enter Tier 3.
Given the nature of the Qualifying Competition, a competition including developing rugby nations and Italian clubs not competing in the Pro12, Rugby Europe 1 and Rugby Europe 2 are automatically included in Tier 4, despite officially being ranked 1/2 from that competition.
The brackets show each teams seeding and their league.
Tier 1 Cardiff Blues Exeter Chiefs Stade Français Gloucester Edinburgh
Tier 2 Bordeaux Bègles Brive London Irish Newport Gwent Dragons Bayonne
Tier 3 Newcastle Falcons Connacht FC Grenoble London Welsh Zebre
Tier 4 Oyonnax Lyon La Rochelle Rovigo Delta București Wolves

Pool stage

The draw took place on 10 June 2014, at the Stade de la Maladière in Neuchâtel.
Teams will play each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that will begin on the weekend of 16/17/18/19 October 2014, and continue through to 22/23/24/25 January 2015, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progress to the quarter finals.
Fixtures were announced on Thursday 14 August 2014 at 2pm.
Teams are awarded competition points, based on match result. Teams receive 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw, 1 attacking bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and 1 defensive bonus point for losing a match by seven points or fewer.
In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers are used, as directed by EPCR:
  1. Where teams have played each other
  2. # The club with the greater number of competition points from only matches involving tied teams.
  3. # If equal, the club that scored the most tries in those matches.
  4. # If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches.
  5. Where teams remain tied and/or have not played each other in the competition
  6. # If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage.
  7. # The club that scored the most tries in the pool stage.
  8. # If equal, the club with the fewest players suspended in the pool stage.
  9. # If equal, the drawing of lots will determine a club's ranking.
Winner of each pool, advance to quarter-finals.
Three highest-scoring second-place teams advance to quarter-finals.

Pool 1

Pool 2

Pool 3

Pool 4

Pool 5

Seeding and runners-up

Knock-out stage

The eight qualifiers will be seeded according to performance in the pool stage, and compete in the quarter-finals, which will be held on the 3/4/5 April 2015. The four top seeds will host the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 format.
The semi-finals, to be contested by the quarter-final winners, will take place on the weekend of 17/18/19 April 2015.
The winners of the semi-finals will contest the final, at The Twickenham Stoop, on the weekend of 1 May 2015.

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final