In Rugby, there are two European continental competitions; the European Rugby Champions Cup, a mixture of champions and other teams; and the EPCR Challenge Cup, which is more challenging to get knocked out of than anything else.
European Rugby Champions Cup
The European Rugby Champions Cup is a premier competition and very much the elite – winning is the mark of a truly great team. The reigning champions are French side Stade Toulousain, who beat Irish team Leinster 31-22 (after extra time) in the 2024 final.
This coming season, the now sixth-time Champions will compete in Group A (pool 1) alongside fellow French team Bordeaux-Bègles, South Africa’s Hollywoodbets Sharks, British clubs Exeter Chiefs and Leicester Tigers and rounding off the group with Irish side Ulster.
The rules for the European Rugby Champions Cup are as follows.
In the group stage each team plays four games – two at home and two away – but they will not play anyone from the same league system as themselves, at this stage.
Using Group A as an example, this means Exeter and Leicester will not play each another, nor will Bordeaux and Stade Toulousain or Sharks and Ulster – despite the latter two originating from different countries they play in the same domestic league.
Once all teams have played their initial four group games, they are all ranked to decide their next round matches.
The four group winners will be seeded according to who accumulated the most league points in their pool, if scores are equal, the points difference, tries scored and number of disciplines become the decisive factors – in that order – to determine the rankings.
The group winners acquire positions one to four, then all second placed teams from the pools accumulate places five to eight. This repeats for the third and fourth placed teams to fill the remaining spots, nine to twelve and thirteen to sixteen. However, if a team fails to make the top-four in their group but finish fifth they drop down to the Challenge Cup.
The better seeded team will get a home-game advantage when playing their opponent, so the combined seeding number equals 17, eg. Team 1 vs Team 16; Team 8 vs Team 9.
Once that round is complete, the quarter-finals and semi-finals will continue to favour the higher seeded team from the pool stages, with the only caveat being if a South African team qualifies for the semi-finals, the match has to be played in Europe.
The 2024/25 season final will played in Cardiff, Wales at the Principality Stadium on 24th May 2025.
So far, so straightforward…
For the Challenge Cup, there are only three pools, each comprising of six teams.
EPCR Challenge Cup
Similar to the Champions Cup, the teams play four games, two at home and two away and where possible they will avoid playing teams from the same domestic league as themselves.
However, this is not always possible.
Each year two additional teams from outside the European domestic leagues are also invited into the competition, taking the number of participating teams up to 18. For the 2024/25 season these additional places have been handed to the Toyota Cheetahs from South Africa and Georgia’s Black Lion.
The round 16 stage is where the seeding gets a little complex, thanks to the addition of the four extra teams who finished fifth in the Champions Cup pools, earning them a second chance in this European competition.
From the Challenge Cup, the pool winners will be ranked one to three, with the three second placed teams occupying positions four to six. Next up are the best two teams that finished third in their pool, taking positions seven and eight, with nine to twelve handed to those knocked out of the Champions Cup, followed by the last team that came third in their Challenge Cup pool given thirteen. The teams who finish fourth in their group will be seeded fourteen to sixteen respectively.
Similarly to the Champions Cup rules, points difference, tries scored and disciplines are decisive factors for equal scoring. Again Team 1 plays Team 16 with the higher seeded team getting a home advantage each time. The rest of the knockout system echoes the Champions Cup with the only exception being in the Challenge Cup, the semi-finals can be played outside of Europe if the home team is South African.
