2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup

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 play-off to decide the 20th team was not held.[2] The final place in the Champions Cup is now directly awarded in the following order:[3]

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
  • The top 6 clubs in the English Premiership. (6 clubs)
  • The runner-up of the 2017–18 Challenge Cup Final, Gloucester.[4] (1 club)
• 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.[2] (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	France	Ireland	Scotland	Wales
Bath Exeter Chiefs Gloucester Leicester Tigers Newcastle Falcons Saracens Wasps	Castres Lyon Montpellier Racing 92 Toulon Toulouse	Leinster Munster Ulster	Edinburgh Glasgow Warriors	Cardiff Blues Scarlets

Team details

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.

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Method of qualification
Bath	Todd Blackadder	Matt Garvey	Recreation Ground	14,500	English Premiership top 6 (6th)
Cardiff Blues	John Mulvihill	Ellis Jenkins	Cardiff Arms Park	12,125	Pro14 top three in Conference (4A)[lower-alpha 1]
Castres	Christophe Urios	Rodrigo Capó Ortega	Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	Top 14 top 6 (6th) (CH)
Edinburgh	Richard Cockerill	Stuart McInally	Murrayfield Stadium	67,144	Pro14 top three in Conference (3B) (QF)
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Jack Yeandle	Sandy Park	12,800	English Premiership top 6 (1st) (RU)
Glasgow Warriors	Dave Rennie	Callum Gibbins	Scotstoun Stadium	7,351	Pro14 top three in Conference (1A) (SF)
Gloucester	David Humphreys	Willi Heinz	Kingsholm Stadium	16,115	European Rugby Challenge Cup runners-up [lower-alpha 2]
Leicester Tigers	Geordan Murphy	Tom Youngs	Welford Road	25,849	English Premiership top 6 (5th)
Leinster	Leo Cullen	Jonathan Sexton	RDS Arena Aviva Stadium	18,500 51,700	Pro14 top three in Conference (1B) (CH)
Lyon	Pierre Mignoni	Julien Puricelli	Stade de Gerland	25,000	Top 14 top 6 (5th) (SF)
Montpellier	Vern Cotter	Fulgence Ouedraogo	Altrad Stadium	15,697	Top 14 top 6 (1st) (RU)
Munster	Johann van Graan	Peter O'Mahony	Thomond Park	25,600[lower-alpha 3]	Pro14 top three in Conference (2A) (SF)
Newcastle Falcons	Dean Richards	Will Welch	Kingston Park	10,200	English Premiership top 6 (4th) (SF)
Racing 92	Laurent Labit Laurent Travers	Dimitri Szarzewski	Paris La Défense Arena	30,681	Top 14 top 6 (2nd) (SF)
Saracens	Mark McCall	Brad Barritt	Allianz Park	10,000[lower-alpha 4]	English Premiership top 6 (2nd) (CH)
Scarlets	Wayne Pivac	Ken Owens	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	Pro14 top three in Conference (2B) (RU)
Toulon	Patrice Collazo	Mathieu Bastareaud	Stade Mayol	18,200	Top 14 top 6 (4th) (QF)
Toulouse	Ugo Mola Régis Sonnes	Julien Marchand	Stade Ernest-Wallon	19,500	Top 14 top 6 (3rd) (SF)
Ulster	Dan McFarland	Rory Best	Ravenhill Stadium	18,196	Pro14 7th place play off winner [lower-alpha 5]
Wasps	Dai Young	Joe Launchbury	Ricoh Arena	32,609	English Premiership top 6 (3rd) (SF)

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.[5]

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

[[File:

Bath

Exeter

Gloucester

Leicester

Newcastle

Saracens

Wasps

Castres

Lyon

Montpellier

Racing

Toulon

Toulouse

Leinster

Munster

Ulster

Edinburgh

Glasgow

Cardiff

Scarlets

Locations

|1300px|alt=Locations of teams of the 2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup group stage.
Brown: Pool 1; Red: Pool 2; Orange: Pool 3; Yellow: Pool 4; Blue: Pool 5.]]

Locations of teams of the 2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup group stage.
Brown: Pool 1; Red: Pool 2; Orange: Pool 3; Yellow: Pool 4; Blue: Pool 5.

The draw took place on 20 June 2018, in Lausanne, Switzerland.[6]

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.[7]

In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers are 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.

Pool 1

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Leinster (3)	6	5	0	1	204	88	116	27	10	4	1	25
Toulouse (7)	6	5	0	1	149	136	13	16	15	1	0	21
Bath	6	1	1	4	115	152	–37	14	19	1	3	10
Wasps	6	0	1	5	134	190	–92	13	26	1	1	4

[8]

Pool 2

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Munster (5)	6	4	1	1	138	72	66	14	9	2	1	21
Exeter Chiefs	6	2	1	3	124	104	20	18	11	2	2	14
Castres	6	3	0	3	97	142	–45	11	16	1	1	14
Gloucester	6	2	0	4	122	163	–41	15	22	0	0	9

[9]

Pool 3

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Saracens (1)	6	6	0	0	185	81	104	23	10	4	0	28
Glasgow Warriors (8)	6	4	0	2	147	119	28	19	16	3	0	19
Cardiff Blues	6	2	0	4	138	174	–36	19	22	2	0	10
Lyon	6	0	0	6	87	183	–96	10	23	0	0	0

[10]

Pool 4

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Racing 92 (2)	6	5	0	1	196	121	75	26	15	5	1	26
Ulster (6)	6	5	0	1	131	128	3	18	16	2	0	22
Scarlets	6	1	0	5	145	170	–25	18	23	1	2	7
Leicester Tigers	6	1	0	5	115	168	–53	14	22	2	1	7

[11]

Pool 5

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Edinburgh (4)	6	5	0	1	154	83	71	16	11	2	1	23
Montpellier	6	3	0	3	158	116	42	21	11	3	1	16
Toulon	6	2	0	4	134	180	–46	16	21	1	1	10
Newcastle Falcons	6	2	0	4	102	169	–67	10	20	0	1	9

[12]

Ranking of pool leaders and runners-up

Rank	Pool leaders	Pts	Diff	TF
1	Saracens	28	104	23
2	Racing 92	26	75	26
3	Leinster	25	116	27
4	Edinburgh	23	71	16
5	Munster	21	66	14
Rank	Pool runners–up	Pts	Diff	TF
6	Ulster	22	3	18
7	Toulouse	21	13	16
8	Glasgow Warriors	19	28	19
9	Montpellier	16	42	21
10	Exeter Chiefs	14	20	18

• Does not include the attendance at the final as it takes place at a neutral venue.

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bath	3	40,020	13,340	14,429	12,284	92%
Cardiff Blues	3	28,207	9,402	12,018	6,692	78%
Castres	3	28,394	9,465	9,746	9,048	76%
Edinburgh	4	62,019	15,505	36,358	6,803	23%
Exeter Chiefs	3	36,311	12,104	12,749	11,762	95%
Glasgow Warriors	3	22,053	7,351	7,351	7,351	100%
Gloucester	3	37,398	12,466	15,500	9,993	77%
Leicester Tigers	3	58,887	19,629	20,146	18,832	76%
Leinster	5	171,425	34,285	51,700	18,055	92%
Lyon	3	37,895	12,632	13,031	12,197	51%
Montpellier	3	26,173	8,724	10,450	7,800	56%
Munster	3	71,205	23,735	26,276	21,861	92%
Newcastle Falcons	3	20,251	6,750	7,174	6,383	66%
Racing 92	4	70,216	17,554	26,092	13,168	57%
Saracens[lower-alpha 6]	5	55,760	11,152	16,235	8,528	82%
Scarlets	3	23,572	7,857	8,087	7,421	53%
Toulon	3	38,107	12,702	13,572	11,439	70%
Toulouse	3	53,343	17,781	18,754	16,737	91%
Ulster	3	42,118	14,039	16,842	12,124	77%
Wasps	3	44,822	14,941	16,002	13,599	46%

[16]

• Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included).

Most points Rank Player Team Apps Points 1 Owen Farrell Saracens 7 89 2 Jaco van der Walt Edinburgh 7 73 3 Thomas Ramos Toulouse 8 72 4 Joey Carbery Munster 7 70 5 Adam Hastings Glasgow Warriors 6 61 6 Ruan Pienaar Montpellier 6 56 7 Johnny Sexton Leinster 6 53 8 Finn Russell Racing 92 7 48 9 Gareth Anscombe Cardiff Blues 5 44 10 George Ford Leicester Tigers 5 43 [17]

Most tries Rank Player Team Apps Tries 1 Jacob Stockdale Ulster 7 6 Seán Cronin Leinster 9 6 2 Henry Immelman Montpellier 5 5 Steff Evans Scarlets 6 5 Juan Imhoff Racing 92 6 5 Sean Maitland Saracens 7 5 Simon Zebo Racing 92 7 5 Antoine Dupont Toulouse 8 5 3 Aled Summerhill Cardiff Blues 4 4 Johnny McNicholl Scarlets 5 4 James Lowe Leinster 6 4 Virimi Vakatawa Racing 92 6 4 Maxime Médard Toulouse 7 4 Sofiane Guitoune Toulouse 8 4 [17]

• 2018–19 European Rugby Challenge Cup
• 2018–19 European Rugby Continental Shield