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The 2020 European Rugby Challenge Cup will be the 5th season of the second tier club rugby competition in Europe. It replaced the Amlin Cup. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related issues that delayed the finish of the 2019/20 season, the European Rugby Champions Cup will be run on a different format for 2020/21 season. There will be a 14 team pool that will have teams playing 4 rounds of pool play. Teams will not play against other teams from the same domestic competition that they qualified from. The top 8 teams will then combine with 8 teams from the European Rugby Champions Cup to play a round of 16. This will be a knock-out format down to a finals series. Further changes were made after COVID-19 issues again affected the competition. Details are below. |
The teams playing in the competition are:
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France
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England
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Wales
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Italy
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December 11
December 12
December 18
December 19
December 20
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Stade Français Leicester Tigers Newcastle Falcons Zebre Rugby Club Agen Pau Ospreys
Castres Olympique Brive Benetton Rugby Worcester Warriors Bayonne London Irish Cardiff Blues |
v v v v v v v
v v v v v v v |
Benetton Rugby Brive Cardiff Blues Bayonne London Irish Worcester Warriors Castres Olympique
Newcastle Falcons Zebre Rugby Club Agen Ospreys Leicester Tigers Pau Stade Français |
Paris Leicester Newcastle Parma Agen Pau Swansea
Castres Brive Treviso Worcester Bayonne Brentford Cardiff |
20 39 20 25 8 24 39
14 16 0 29 20 26 28 |
44 17 33 25 34 20 15
26 18 28 38 28 17 0 |
At this stage the European Rugby Challenge Cup was suspended due to COVID-19 issues.
At the end of February 2021 the EPCR announced revised a tournament format to allow for the completion of the competition. The original draw for Rounds 3 & 4 were cancelled.
There would be Round of 16 matches followed by the knock-out stages. The Round of 16 matches would be determined by a draw.
The 8 highest placed teams at the time of the suspension of play qualified for the Round of 16, joined by the 8 teams from the Champions Cup that did not make that competitions Round of 16. Teams from the same league cannot be drawn against one another. Teams which had won both pool stage matches on the pitch (that is; not COVID-19 affected results) will get home advantage.
Following the Round of 16 an open draw will be held to determine the quarter-final matches. Teams from the same league may end up playing against each other.
Teams from Challenge Cup (Top 8) Teams from Champions Cup (17th - 24th)
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April 2
April 3
April 4 Quarter-Finals April 9 April 10
Semi-Finals April 30 May 1
Final May 21 |
Zebre Rugby Club London Irish Montpellier Benetton Rugby Ospreys Dragons Leicester Tigers Harlequins
Bath Montpellier Leicester Tigers Northampton Saints
Leicester Tigers Bath
Leicester Tigers |
v v v v v v v v
v v v v
v v
v |
Bath Cardiff Blues Glasgow Warriors Agen Newcastle Falcons Northampton Saints Connacht Ulster
London Irish Benetton Rugby Newcastle Falcons Ulster
Ulster Montpellier
Montpellier |
Parma Brentford Montpellier Treviso Swansea Newport Leicester London
Bath Montpellier Leicester Northampton
Leicester Bath
London |
27 41 26 29 24 39 48 21
26 31 39 27
33 10
17 |
35 35 21 16 28 43 32 57
13 25 15 35
24 19
18 |