2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup


The 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup is 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 was the 25th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition.
The tournament began in December 2020. The final, originally scheduled to be held at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, took place on 21 May 2021 at Twickenham Stadium.
On 11 January 2021 EPCR announced the competition was suspended temporarily due to new restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. A revised format to finish the tournament was announced on 24 February 2021.

Teams

Fourteen teams will qualified 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 was:
  • 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 9th and 14th position in the [2019–20 2019–20 Top 14 season|Top 14 season|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

Team details

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

Preliminary stage

Teams were placed into one of the two tiers, with the higher ranked clubs being put in Tier 1. The nature of the tier system meant that no draw was needed this year. Brackets show each team's ranking and their league. e.g. 9 Top 14 indicates the team was the ninth placed team from the Top 14.
Tier 1

Last 16 rankings

Top 8 in Challenge Cup Champions Cup 17th-24th

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Knockout stage

The knockout stage commenced with a round of 16 consisting of the top 8 ranked teams from the preliminary stage and the teams placed between 9th and 12th in each Champions Cup pool. Due to the truncation of the preliminary stage, a draw was used to determine matches in both round of 16 and quarter-finals but no team would face a team from the same league in the round of 16. Teams which won both their matches and were not awarded points due to COVID cancellations would be guaranteed home advantage. Therefore, Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Ospreys received home advantage.
The draw for the round of 16 and quarter-finals took place on 9 March 2021 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Round of 16

Fixtures were announced on 16 March 2021.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 11 April 2021 at BT Sport's studios in London.