2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup

2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England France Italy Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and knockout
Tournament statistics
Teams	14+8
Final
Venue	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille

The 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup will be the seventh edition of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, an annual second-tier rugby union competition for professional clubs. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this is the 25th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition.

The tournament is began in December 2020. The final will take place at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille on 21 May 2021.

On 11 January, 2021 EPRC announced the competition was suspended temporarily due to new restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teams

Fourteen teams will qualify for the 2020–21 European Challenge Cup from Premiership Rugby, the Pro14 and the Top 14, as a direct result of their domestic league performance having not qualified for the Heineken Champions Cup. Although, the two South African Pro14 teams are not eligible.

The distribution of teams will be:

• England: four teams
  • Any teams finishing between 9th and 11th position in the Premiership Rugby that do not qualify for the 2020–21 European Champions Cup
  • The champion of the RFU Championship
• France: six teams
  • Any teams finishing between 8th and 14th position in the Top 14 that do not qualify for the 2020–21 European Champions Cup
• Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales: four teams
  • Four teams from the Pro14, excluding the South African teams, that do not qualify for the 2020–21 European Champions Cup

Premiership	Top 14	Pro14
England	France	Italy	Wales
Leicester Tigers London Irish Newcastle Falcons Worcester Warriors	Agen Bayonne Brive Castres Pau Stade Français	Benetton Zebre	Cardiff Blues Ospreys

Team details

Below is the list of coaches, captain and stadiums with their method of qualification for each team.

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Method of qualification
Agen	Christophe Laussucq Rémi Vaquin	Antoine Erbani	Stade Armandie	14,000	Top 14 bottom 6 (13th)
Bayonne	Yannick Bru	Antoine Battut	Stade Jean Dauger	16,934	Top 14 bottom 6 (11th)
Benetton	Kieran Crowley	Dewaldt Duvenage	Stadio Comunale di Monigo	6,700	Pro14 Conference B (5th)
Brive	Jeremy Davidson	Saïd Hireche	Stade Amédée-Domenech	13,979	Top 14 bottom 6 (10th)
Cardiff Blues	John Mulvihill	Ellis Jenkins	Cardiff Arms Park	12,125	Pro14 Conference B (6th)
Castres	Mauricio Reggiardo	Mathieu Babillot	Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	Top 14 bottom 6 (9th)
Leicester Tigers	Steve Borthwick	Tom Youngs	Welford Road Stadium	25,849	Premiership 9th–11th (11th)
London Irish	Declan Kidney	Blair Cowan Paddy Jackson Nick Phipps Matt Rogerson	Brentford Community Stadium	17,250	Premiership 9th–11th (10th)
Newcastle Falcons	Dean Richards	Mark Wilson	Kingston Park	10,200	RFU Championship champions
Ospreys	Toby Booth	Justin Tipuric	Liberty Stadium	20,827	Pro14 Conference A (7th)
Pau	Nicolas Godignon Frédéric Manca	Quentin Lespiaucq-Brettes	Stade du Hameau	18,324	Top 14 bottom 6 (12th)
Stade Français	Laurent Sempéré Julien Arias	Yoann Maestri	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000	Top 14 bottom 6 (14th)
Zebre	Michael Bradley	Tommaso Castello	Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000	Pro14 Conference A (6th)
Worcester Warriors	Alan Solomons	Ted Hill	Sixways Stadium	11,499	Premiership 9th–11th (9th)

Preliminary Stage

[[File:

Leicester

London Irish

Worcester

Newcastle

Agen

Pau

Stade Français

Castres

Bayonne

Brive

Zebre

Benetton

Cardiff

Ospreys

class=notpageimage|

Locations

|1300px|alt=Locations of teams of the 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup group stage.]]

[[:File:

Leicester

London Irish

Worcester

Newcastle

Agen

Pau

Stade Français

Castres

Bayonne

Brive

Zebre

Benetton

Cardiff

Ospreys

class=notpageimage|

Locations

| ]]

Locations of teams of the 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup group stage.

Main article: 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup preliminary stage

The preliminary stage will consist of a single pool of 14 teams. Each team will play four matches against teams from a different league to their own. The top eight teams will advance to the knockout stage, joining the teams that finish in fifth to eighth place in both pools of the 2020–21 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	London Irish	2	2	0	0	60	25	+35	9	3	2	0	10
2	Ospreys	2	2	0	0	77	44	+33	9	6	2	0	10
3	Cardiff Blues	2	2	0	0	61	20	+41	7	2	1	0	9
4	Leicester Tigers	2	2	0	0	67	37	+30	7	3	1	0	9
5	Zebre	2	1	1	0	43	41	+2	5	4	0	0	6
6	Agen	2	1	0	1	36	34	+2	5	5	1	0	5
7	Benetton	2	1	0	1	44	48	−4	7	7	1	0	5
8	Newcastle Falcons	2	1	0	1	46	50	−4	5	6	0	0	4
9	Pau	2	1	0	1	41	46	−5	5	6	0	0	4
10	Bayonne	2	0	1	1	45	53	−8	5	6	0	0	2
11	Worcester Warriors	2	0	0	2	49	62	−13	6	7	1	1	2
12	Brive	2	0	0	2	33	57	−24	2	6	0	1	1
13	Castres	2	0	0	2	32	65	−33	5	8	0	0	0
14	Stade Français	2	0	0	2	20	72	−52	3	11	0	0	0

Source:

Last 16 rankings

Key to colours

Top 4 in Challenge Cup

Champions Cup 9-16th

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
London Irish	2	2	0	0	60	25	+35	9	3	2	0	10
Ospreys	2	2	0	0	77	44	+33	9	6	2	0	10
Cardiff Blues	2	2	0	0	61	20	+41	7	2	1	0	9
Leicester Tigers	2	2	0	0	67	37	+30	7	3	1	0	9
Scarlets	2	2	0	0	51	19	+32	6	2	1	0	9
Clermont	2	1	0	1	82	77	+5	11	8	2	0	6
Bristol Bears	2	1	0	1	65	69	–4	9	9	2	0	6
Exeter Chiefs	2	1	0	1	42	28	+14	6	4	1	0	5
Edinburgh	2	1	0	1	24	28	–4	2	4	0	1	5
Gloucester	2	1	0	1	48	89	–41	6	12	1	0	5
Toulon	2	1	0	1	26	42	—16	2	6	0	0	4
Sale Sharks	2	0	0	2	29	42	–13	4	3	0	1	1
Zebre	2	1	1	0	43	41	2	5	4	0	0	6
Agen	2	1	0	1	36	34	+2	5	5	1	0	5
Benetton	2	1	0	1	44	48	-4	7	7	1	0	5
Newcastle Falcons	2	1	0	1	46	50	-4	5	6	0	0	4

See also

• 2020–21 European Rugby Champions Cup