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 after centre Bill Meakes was sent off because of a dangerous high tackle off the ball on Edinburgh centre 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 seventh-placed teams in the English Premiership and the Top 14. The loser of this play-off entered the Challenge Cup.
English PremiershipTop 14
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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 two ties, played over two legs, 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

Rovigo Delta won the play-off 46–39 on aggregate, and qualify for Pool 1.

Rugby Europe 2 play-off

București Wolves won the play-off 28–26 on aggregate, and qualify for Pool 3

Team details

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

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

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 2 pm.
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.

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

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Semi-finals

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