2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup

2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup
2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	2021–22 →

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.[1] The final, originally scheduled to be held at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille,^[2] took place on 21 May 2021 at Twickenham Stadium.^[3]

On 11 January 2021 EPCR announced the competition was suspended temporarily due to new restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4] A revised format to finish the tournament was announced on 24 February 2021.^[5]

Teams

Fourteen teams will qualified for the 2020–21 European Challenge Cup from

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.^[6]

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 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

Round	Premiership	Top 14	Pro14
	England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales
Preliminary stage	Leicester Tigers London Irish Newcastle Falcons Worcester Warriors	Agen Bayonne Brive Castres Pau Stade Français		Benetton Zebre		Cardiff Blues Ospreys
Knockout stage	Bath Harlequins Northampton Saints	Montpellier	Connacht Ulster		Glasgow Warriors	Dragons

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
Entering at Preliminary Stage
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^[a]	Sixways Stadium	11,499	Premiership 9th–11th (9th)
Entering at Knockout Stage (transferred from Champions Cup)
Bath	Stuart Hooper	Charlie Ewels	The Recreation Ground	14,509	Champions Cup Pool A 9th–12th (10th)
Connacht	Andy Friend	Jarrad Butler	Galway Sportsgrounds	8,129	Champions Cup Pool B 9th–12th (10th)
Dragons	Dean Ryan	Rhodri Williams	Rodney Parade	8,700	Champions Cup Pool A 9th–12th (12th)
Glasgow Warriors	Danny Wilson	Fraser Brown Ryan Wilson	Scotstoun Stadium	7,351	Champions Cup Pool B 9th–12th (12th)
Harlequins	Billy Millard	Stephan Lewies	Twickenham Stoop	14,800	Champions Cup Pool B 9th–12th (11th)
Montpellier	Xavier Garbajosa	Fulgence Ouedraogo	Altrad Stadium	15,697	Champions Cup Pool A 9th–12th (11th)
Northampton Saints	Chris Boyd	Lewis Ludlam Alex Waller	Franklin's Gardens	15,200	Champions Cup Pool A 9th–12th (9th)
Ulster	Dan McFarland	Iain Henderson	Ravenhill Stadium	18,196	Champions Cup Pool B 9th–12th (9th)

Preliminary stage

[[File:

Dragons

Harlequins

Glasgow

class=notpageimage|

Locations

|1300px|alt=Locations of teams of the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

Red: Competed in pool stage;

Green: Entered from Champions Cup.]]

Locations

| ]]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[a]

Tier 1	Bayonne (11 Top 14)	Benetton (9 Pro14)	Brive (10 Top 14)	Cardiff Blues (10 Pro14)	Castres (9 Top 14)	London Irish (10 Prem)	Worcester Warriors (9 Prem)
Tier 2	Agen (13 Top 14)	Leicester Tigers (11 Prem)	Newcastle Falcons (12 Prem)	Ospreys (12 Pro14)	Pau (12 Top 14)	Stade Français (14 Top 14)	Zebre (11 Top 14)

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
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
Pau	2	1	0	1	41	46	−5	5	6	0	0	4
Bayonne	2	0	1	1	45	53	−8	5	6	0	0	2
Worcester Warriors	2	0	0	2	49	62	−13	6	7	1	1	2
Brive	2	0	0	2	33	57	−24	2	6	0	1	1
Castres	2	0	0	2	32	65	−33	5	8	0	0	0
Stade Français	2	0	0	2	20	72	−52	3	11	0	0	0

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
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
Ulster	2	0	0	2	56	67	−11	7	9	1	2	3
Connacht	2	0	0	2	40	53	−13	5	8	0	1	1
Northampton Saints	2	0	0	2	31	51	−20	3	5	0	1	1
Bath	2	0	0	2	19	51	−32	2	6	0	1	1
Montpellier	2	0	0	2	28	68	−40	3	10	0	0	0
Dragons	2	0	0	2	16	71	−55	2	11	0	0	0
Harlequins	2	0	0	2	14	70	−56	2	9	0	0	0
Glasgow Warriors	2	0	0	2	0	70	−70	0	10	0	0	0

Zebre	27–35	Bath
Try: Bruno 2' c, 9' c, 22' c Con: Canna (3/3) 3', 10', 23' Pen: Pescetto (2/3) 67', 71'	Report	Try: Cokanasiga 14' c Stuart 40' c Obano 45' c Watson 61' c du Toit 78' c

Cardiff Blues
Try: Loader 30' c Hassell-Collins (2) 49' c, 74' c Hepetema 71' c Rona 79' c Con: Jackson (5/5) 31', 49', 72', 76', 80' Pen: Jackson (2/3) 13', 39'	Report	Try: Dacey 16' c Adams 20' c Harries 57' m L. Williams 64' c Con: Evans (3/4) 17', 20', 65' Pen: Evans (2/3) 27', 46' Drop: Evans 77'

2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup

Teams

Team details

Preliminary stage

Last 16 rankings

Knockout stage

Bracket

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

See also

Notes

References

Key to colours
	Top 8, advance to round of 16
	Eliminated from tournament

Benetton	29–16	Agen
Try: Duvenage 20' m Ioane 45' m Brex 62' m Padovani 73' m Pen: Garbisi (3/3) 12', 29', 39'	Report	Try: Hayes 1' c Con: Verdu (1/1) 2' Pen: Verdu (3/3) 18', 50', 55'

Dragons	39–43	Northampton Saints
Try: Hewitt (2) 11' c, 33' m Screech 26' c S. Davies 50' c Brown 60' c Con: S. Davies (4/5) 12', 26', 51', 60' Pen: S. Davies (2/2) 6', 43'	Report	Try: Naiyaravoro (2) 36' c, 73' c Sleightholme 41' c Mitchell 54' c Harrison 62' m Collins 74' c Con: Grayson (5/6) 37', 41, 55', 73' 75' Pen: Grayson (1/1) 24'

Leicester Tigers	48–32	Connacht
Try: Clare (2) 11' m, 65' c Porter 14' c Moroni 27' m Henry 31' c Wells 73' c Wiese 78' c Con: Henry (2/4) 15', 32' McPhillips (3/3) 66', 74', 79' Pen: McPhillips (1/1) 57'	Report	Try: Marmion 6' m E. Masterson 43' c Wootton 56' c Boyle 71' c Con: Carty (2/3) 44', 59' C. Fitzgerald (1/1) 71' Pen: Carty (2/3) 23', 40+5'