2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup

2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup
Tournament details
Countries  England
 France
 Ireland
 Scotland
 Wales
Tournament format(s) Round-robin and knockout
Date 12 October 2018 – 11 May 2019
Tournament statistics
Teams 20
Matches played 6
Attendance 74,754 (12,459 per match)
Highest Attendance 18,055 - Leinster v Wasps
(12 October 2018)
Lowest Attendance 8,064 - Scarlets v Racing 92
(13 October 2018)
Tries scored 28 (4.67 per match)
Top point scorer(s) England Freddie Burns (Bath)
15 points
Top try scorer(s) Multiple players
2 tries each
Final
Venue St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne

The 2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup is the fifth European Rugby Champions Cup championship (24th overall), the annual rugby union club competition for teams from the top six nations in European rugby and is the twenty-fourth season of pan-European professional club rugby competition. It is the first to be sponsored by Heineken since the 2011-12 competition.

The tournament started on 12 October 2018. The final will take place on 11 May 2019 at St James' Park in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Teams

Twenty clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues competed in the Champions Cup. Nineteen of these qualified directly as a result of their league performance.

In a change to previous seasons, the 20th team play-off will now no longer take place.[1] The final place in the Champions Cup is now directly awarded in the following order:[2]

  1. Champions Cup winner, if not already qualified
  2. Challenge Cup winner, if not already qualified
  3. Challenge Cup losing finalist, if not already qualified
  4. Challenge Cup semi-finalist, if not already qualified, or the winner of a play-off between both semi-finalists, if both have not already qualified
  5. Highest ranked non-qualified club by virtue of league position from the same league as the Champions Cup winner

The distribution of teams is:

  • England: 7 clubs
  • France: 6 clubs
    • The top 6 clubs in the Top 14. (6 clubs)
  • Ireland, Scotland & Wales: 7 clubs, based on performance in the Pro14.
    • Following the inclusion of 2 South African teams into the Pro14, the tournament format and qualification process was changed.
    • The top 3 sides in each Pro14 conference (not including the South African sides, who are not eligible for European competition), automatically qualify for the Champions Cup. The previous requirement for each country (Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales) to be represented was waived beginning with this season.[1] (6 Teams)
    • The next best placed eligible team in each conference compete in a one-off play-off game to determine the 7th Pro14 team. (1 Team)

The following teams qualified for the 2018–19 tournament.

Premiership Top 14 Pro14
England England France France Ireland Ireland Scotland Scotland Wales Wales

Team details & locations

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, QF for losing Quarter-finalist, and PO for the Pro14 7th place play-off winner.

Seeding

The twenty competing teams are seeded and split into four tiers, each containing five teams.

For the purpose of creating the tiers, clubs are ranked based on their domestic league performances and on their qualification for the knockout phases of their championships. For example, a losing quarter-finalist would be seeded below a losing semi-finalist, even if they finished above them in the regular season.[4]

Rank Top 14 Premiership Pro14
1France CastresEngland SaracensIreland Leinster
2France MontpellierEngland Exeter ChiefsWales Scarlets
3France Racing 92England WaspsScotland Glasgow Warriors
4France LyonEngland Newcastle FalconsIreland Munster
5France ToulouseEngland Leicester TigersScotland Edinburgh
6France ToulonEngland BathWales Cardiff Blues
7England GloucesterIreland Ulster

Based on these seedings, teams are placed into one of the four tiers, with the top seed clubs being put in Tier 1. The nature of the tier system means that a draw is needed to allocate two of the three second seed clubs to Tier 1 and to allocate one of the three fourth seed clubs to Tier 2. The tiers are shown below. Brackets show each team's seeding and their league (for example, "1 Top 14" indicates the team was seeded 1st from the Top 14).

Tier 1 England Saracens (1 Prem) Ireland Leinster (1 Pro14) France Castres (1 Top 14) Wales Scarlets (2 Pro14) France Montpellier (2 Top 14)
Tier 2 England Exeter Chiefs (2 Prem) England Wasps (3 Prem) Scotland Glasgow Warriors (3 Pro14) France Racing 92 (3 Top 14) England Newcastle Falcons (4 Prem)
Tier 3 Ireland Munster (4 Pro14) France Lyon (4 Top 14) England Leicester Tigers (5 Prem) Scotland Edinburgh (5 Pro14) France Toulouse (5 Top 14)
Tier 4 England Bath (6 Prem) Wales Cardiff Blues (6 Pro14) France Toulon (6 Top 14) Ireland Ulster (Play-off Pro14) England Gloucester (CC)

The following restrictions will apply to the draw:

  • Each pool will consist of four clubs, one from each Tier in the draw.
  • Each pool must have one from each league drawn from Tier 1, 2, or 3. No pool will have a second team from the same league until the allocation of Tier 4 takes place.
  • Where two Pro14 clubs compete in the same pool, they must be from different countries.

Pool stage

The draw took place on 20 June 2018, in Lausanne, Switzerland.[5]

Teams in the same pool play each other twice, at home and away, in the group stage that begins on the weekend of 12-14 October 2018, and continues through to 18-20 January 2019. The five pool winners and three best runners-up progress to the quarter finals.

Teams are awarded group points based on match performances. Four points are awarded for a win, two points for a draw, one attacking bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and one defensive bonus point for losing a match by seven points or fewer.[6]

In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers will be used, as directed by EPCR:

  1. Where teams have played each other
    1. The club with the greater number of competition points from only matches involving tied teams.
    2. If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches.
    3. If equal, the club that scored the most tries in those matches.
  2. Where teams remain tied and/or have not played each other in the competition (i.e. are from different pools)
    1. The club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage.
    2. If equal, the club that scored the most tries in the pool stage.
    3. If equal, the club with the fewest players suspended in the pool stage.
    4. If equal, the drawing of lots will determine a club's ranking.
Key to colours
     Winner of each pool, advance to quarter-finals.
     Three highest-scoring second-place teams advance to quarter-finals.

Pool 1

Team
 P W D L PF PA Diff TF TA TB LB Pts
Ireland Leinster 1100523+4980105
France Toulouse 11002220+232004
England Bath 10012022–223011
England Wasps 1001352–4908000

[7]

Pool 2

Team
 P W D L PF PA Diff TF TA TB LB Pts
England Gloucester 11001914+511004
England Exeter Chiefs 10101010+011002
Ireland Munster 10101010+011002
France Castres 10011419-511011

[8]

Pool 3

Team
 P W D L PF PA Diff TF TA TB LB Pts
England Saracens 1100133+1010004
Wales Cardiff Blues 11003021+932004
France Lyon 10012130-923000
Scotland Glasgow Warriors 1001313-1001000

[9]

Pool 4

Team
 P W D L PF PA Diff TF TA TB LB Pts
Ireland Ulster 11002410+1431004
France Racing 92 11001413+122004
Wales Scarlets 10011314–122011
England Leicester Tigers 10011024-1413000

[10]

Pool 5

Team
 P W D L PF PA Diff TF TA TB LB Pts
France Montpellier 11002115+632004
England Newcastle Falcons 11002625+123004
France Toulon 10012526-132011
Scotland Edinburgh 10011521–623011

[11]

Ranking of pool leaders and runners-up

Rank Pool Leaders Pts Diff TF
10+00
20+00
30+00
40+00
50+00
Rank Pool Runners–up Pts Diff TF
60+00
70+00
80+00
90+00
100+00

Attendances

  • Does not include the attendance at the final as it takes place at a neutral venue.
Club Home
Games		 Total Average Highest Lowest % Capacity
England Bath112,28412,28412,28412,28484.7%
Wales Cardiff Blues000000%
France Castres000000%
Scotland Edinburgh000000%
England Exeter Chiefs112,74912,74912,74912,74999.6%
Scotland Glasgow Warriors000000%
England Gloucester000000%
England Leicester Tigers000000%
Ireland Leinster118,05518,05518,05518,05597.5%
France Lyon000000%
France Montpellier110,45010,45010,45010,45066.6%
Ireland Munster000000%
England Newcastle Falcons000000%
France Racing 92000000%
England Saracens000000%
Wales Scarlets18,0648,0648,0648,06454.2%
France Toulon000000%
France Toulouse000000%
Ireland Ulster113,15213,15213,15213,15273.1%
England Wasps000000%

Individual statistics

  • Points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included).

Season records

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Gloucester finished as one of the two best 7th placed teams across the three leagues who participate in the European Rugby Cup.
  2. ↑ Allianz Park typically has a capacity of 10,000 but this can be raised to 15,000 with temporary seating.

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.epcrugby.com/news/35907.php
  2. ↑ "{title}". Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  3. ↑ the winner of both European competitions from last year, Leinster and Cardiff Blues having already qualified through a top 6 finish in the Pro14
  4. ↑ http://archive.ercrugby.com/news/28791.php Archived 2014-08-13 at the Wayback Machine. ERCRugby.com. Accessed 8 June 2014
  5. ↑ "2018/19 Pool Draws produce top-quality fixtures". epcrugby.com. 20 June 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  6. ↑ "Champions Cup Rules". epcrugby.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-04. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  7. ↑ "Heineken Champions Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  8. ↑ "Heineken Champions Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  9. ↑ "Heineken Champions Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  10. ↑ "Heineken Champions Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  11. ↑ "Heineken Champions Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  12. 1 2 "Player Statistics". EPCR. 13 October 2018.
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