2019–20 European Rugby Challenge Cup

20 teams will qualify for the 2019–20 European Challenge Cup; 18 will qualify from Premiership Rugby, the Pro14 and the Top 14, as a direct result of their domestic league performance, with two qualifying through the 2018–19 Continental Shield. The distribution of teams is:

• England: Five teams
  • Any teams finishing between 7th and 11th position in Premiership Rugby that do not qualify for the Champions Cup (Sale Sharks (7th) qualified for the Champions Cup and therefore did not take part in the Challenge Cup)).
  • The champion of the RFU Championship.
• France: Eight teams
  • Any teams finishing between 7th and 12th position in the Top 14 that do not qualify for the 2019-20 European Champions Cup
  • The champion from the Pro D2.
  • The winner of the promotion-relegation play-off between the team in 13th position in the Top 14 and the runner-up of the Pro D2.
• Italy, Scotland, Wales: six teams
  • Five teams from the Pro14, excluding the South African teams, that do not qualify for the 2019-20 European Champions Cup
  • One team from Italy qualified through the Continental Shield
• Russia: one team
  • One team from Russia qualified through the Continental Shield

No team from Ireland will participate in the competition as all four clubs have qualified for the 2019-20 European Champions Cup.

The following clubs have qualified for the Challenge Cup.

Premiership	Top 14	Pro14			Qualifying Competition
England	France	Italy	Scotland	Wales	Italy	Russia
Bristol Bears Leicester Tigers London Irish Wasps Worcester Warriors	Agen Bayonne Bordeaux Bègles Brive Castres Pau Stade Français Toulon	Zebre	Edinburgh	Cardiff Blues Dragons Scarlets	Calvisano	Enisey-STM

Qualifying Play-offs

30 March 2019

Calvisano	29 – 13	Rugby Rovigo Delta

Stadio San Michele, Calvisano Attendance: 1,200

30 March 2019

Timișoara Saracens	20 – 18	Enisey-STM

Dan Păltinișanu Stadium, Timișoara Attendance: 970

---

20 April 2019

Enisey-STM	40 – 32	Timișoara Saracens

Avangard Stadium, Krasnoyarsk Attendance: 2,600

20 April 2019

Rugby Rovigo Delta	30 – 28	Calvisano

Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo

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 and QF for losing Quarter-finalist.

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Method of Qualification
Agen	Christophe Laussucq		Stade Armandie	14,000	Top 14 7th-12th (12th)
Bayonne	Yannick Bru	Antoine Battut	Stade Jean Dauger	16,934	Pro D2 champions
Bordeaux Bègles	Christophe Urios	Jefferson Poirot	Stade Chaban-Delmas	34,694	Top 14 7th-12th (10th)
Bristol Bears	Pat Lam	Steven Luatua	Ashton Gate	27,000	Premiership 8th-11th (9th)
Brive	Jeremy Davidson	Saïd Hireche	Stade Amédée-Domenech	16,000	Pro D2 / Top 14 play-off winner
Calvisano	Massimo Brunello	Alberto Chiesa	Stadio San Michele	5,000	European Rugby Continental Shield play-off winner
Cardiff Blues	John Mulvihill	Ellis Jenkins	Cardiff Arms Park	12,125	Pro14 Conference A (5th)
Castres	Mauricio Reggiardo	Mathieu Babillot	Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	Top 14 7th-12th (7th)
Dragons	Dean Ryan	Cory Hill	Rodney Parade	8,700	Pro14 Conference B (6th)
Edinburgh	Richard Cockerill	Stuart McInally	Murrayfield Stadium	67,144	Pro14 Conference B (5th)
Enisei-STM	Alexander Pervukhin	Uldis Saulite	Kuban Stadium	35,200[lower-alpha 1]	European Rugby Continental Shield play-off winner
Leicester Tigers	Geordan Murphy	Tom Youngs	Welford Road Stadium	25,849	Premiership 8th-11th (11th)
London Irish	Declan Kidney	Franco van der Merwe Blair Cowan Dave Porecki Stephen Myler	Madejski Stadium	24,161	RFU Championship champions
Pau	Nicolas Godignon Frédéric Manca	Quentin Lespiaucq	Stade du Hameau	18,324	Top 14 7th-12th (11th)
Scarlets	Brad Mooar	Ken Owens	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	Pro14 Conference B (4th)[lower-alpha 2]
Stade Français	Heyneke Meyer (for Laurent Sempéré and Julien Arias)[lower-alpha 3]	Yoann Maestri	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000	Top 14 7th-12th
Toulon	Patrice Collazo	Raphaël Lakafia	Stade Mayol	18,200	Top 14 7th-12th (9th)
Wasps	Dai Young	Joe Launchbury	Ricoh Arena	32,609	Premiership 8th-11th (8th)
Worcester Warriors	Alan Solomons	GJ van Velze	Sixways Stadium	11,499	Premiership 8th-11th (10th)
Zebre	Michael Bradley	Tommaso Castello	Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000	Pro14 Conference A (7th)

The 20 competing teams will be seeded and split into four tiers; seeding is based on performance in their respective domestic leagues. Where promotion and relegation is in effect in a league, the promoted team is seeded last, or (if multiple teams are promoted) by performance in the lower competition.[2]

Rank	Top 14	Premiership	Pro 14	Continental Shield
1	Castres	Wasps	Scarlets	Enisey-STM
2	Stade Français	Bristol Bears	Cardiff Blues	Calvisano
3	Toulon	Worcester Warriors	Edinburgh
4	Bordeaux Bègles	Leicester Tigers	Dragons
5	Pau	London Irish	Zebre
6	Agen
7	Bayonne
8	Brive

Based on these seedings, teams are placed into one of the four tiers, with the top-seeded 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. The fourth-seed team from the same domestic league as the second-seed team which was put in Tier 2 will also be placed in Tier 2. Brackets show each team's seeding and their league. e.g. 1 Top 14 indicates the team was the top seed from the Top 14.

Given the nature of the Continental Shield, a competition including developing rugby nations and Italian clubs not competing in the Pro14, the qualifying teams from this competition are automatically included in Tier 4.

Tier 1	Wasps (1 Prem)	Scarlets (1 Pro14)	Castres (1 Top 14)	Stade Français (2 Top 14)	Cardiff Blues (2 Pro14)
Tier 2	Bristol Bears (2 Prem)	Worcester Warriors (3 Prem)	Edinburgh (3 Pro14)	Toulon (3 Top 14)	Leicester Tigers (4 Prem)
Tier 3	Bordeaux Bègles (4 Top 14)	Dragons (4 Pro14)	London Irish (5 Prem)	Zebre (5 Pro14)	Pau (5 Top 14)
Tier 4	Agen (6 Top 14)	Bayonne (7 Top 14)	Brive (8 Top 14)	Enisey-STM (CS 1)	Calvisano (CS 2)

The draw took place in June 2019.

Teams in the same pool will play each other twice, both at home and away in the group stage, that will begin in November 2019, and continue through to January 2020, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progressed to the quarter finals.

Teams will be awarded competition points, based on match result. Teams receive four points 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.[3]

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.

Pool 1

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Castres (Q)	6	5	0	1	159	103	56	22	12	3	0	23
Dragons (Q)	6	4	0	2	194	136	58	24	17	3	1	20
Worcester Warriors	6	3	0	3	209	127	82	27	14	3	1	16
Enisey-STM	6	0	0	6	73	269	-196	10	40	0	0	0

Pool 2

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Toulon (Q)	6	6	0	0	177	87	90	25	8	4	0	28
Scarlets (Q)	6	4	0	2	149	90	59	17	11	2	1	19
Bayonne	6	1	0	5	93	190	-97	12	28	2	1	7
London Irish	6	1	0	5	122	174	-52	16	23	1	2	7

Pool 3

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Bordeaux Bègles (Q)	6	5	1	0	221	72	149	28	6	4	0	26
Edinburgh (Q)	6	4	1	1	140	85	55	16	9	3	0	21
Wasps	6	2	0	4	141	145	-4	18	16	2	1	11
Agen	6	0	0	6	57	257	-200	6	37	0	0	0

Pool 4

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Bristol Bears (Q)	6	5	1	0	209	58	151	27	6	4	0	26
Brive	6	3	0	3	111	165	-54	14	22	1	1	14
Zebre	6	2	1	3	106	151	-45	15	19	2	1	13
Stade Français	6	1	0	5	104	156	-52	11	20	1	3	8

Pool 5

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Leicester Tigers (Q)	6	5	0	1	181	95	86	23	10	2	1	23
Pau	6	4	0	2	208	170	38	29	23	3	0	19
Cardiff Blues	6	3	0	3	216	119	97	30	13	4	2	18
Calvisano	6	0	0	6	68	289	-221	7	43	0	1	1

Ranking of pool leaders and runners-up

Rank	Pool Leaders	Pts	Diff	TF
1	Toulon (Q)	28	90	25
2	Bristol Bears (Q)	26	151	27
3	Bordeaux Bègles (Q)	26	149	28
4	Leicester Tigers (Q)	23	86	23
5	Castres (Q)	23	56	22
Rank	Pool Runners–up	Pts	Diff	TF
6	Edinburgh (Q)	21	55	16
7	Dragons (Q)	20	58	24
8	Scarlets (Q)	19	59	17
9	Pau	19	38	29
10	Brive	14	-54	14

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

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Agen	3	7,580	2,527	3,570	1,997	18%
Bayonne	3	21,566	7,189	9,053	5,057	42%
Bordeaux Bègles	3	43,694	14,565	17,553	12,233	42%
Bristol Bears	3	32,505	10,835	11,120	10,511	40%
Brive	3	9,335	3,112	4,533	1,800	19%
Calvisano	3	5,450	1,817	2,500	950	36%
Cardiff Blues	3	17,612	5,871	7,122	4,668	48%
Castres	3	24,507	8,169	8,277	7,957	65%
Dragons	3	12,088	4,029	4,038	4,013	46%
Edinburgh	3	17,529	5,843	6,387	5,432	9%
Enisei-STM	3	700	233	400	100	1%
Leicester Tigers	3	46,861	15,620	16,538	15,073	60%
London Irish	3	9,083	3,028	3,444	2,632	13%
Pau	3	14,115	4,705	6,124	3,724	26%
Scarlets	3	20,575	6,858	7,565	6,257	46%
Stade Français	3	6,000	2,000	2,000	2,000	10%
Toulon	3	38,575	12,858	15,336	10,212	71%
Wasps	3	20,847	6,949	7,594	6,107	21%
Worcester Warriors	3	20,124	6,708	6,938	6,287	58%
Zebre	3	6,100	2,033	2,200	1,900	41%

[4]

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

Most points Rank Player Team Apps Points 1 Jamie Shillcock Worcester Warriors 5 67 2 Matthieu Jalibert Bordeaux Bègles 5 62 3 Sam Davies Dragons 5 60 4 Leigh Halfpenny Scarlets 4 46 5 Clovis Lebail Pau 5 42 6 Anthony Belleau Toulon 4 40 Jarrod Evans Cardiff Blues 4 40 7 Callum Sheedy Bristol Bears 5 37 8 Tedo Abzhandadze Brive 6 35 9 Joris Segonds Stade Français 6 33 [5]

Most tries Rank Player Team Apps Tries 1 Jamie Shillcock Worcester Warriors 5 5 2 Jonah Holmes Leicester Tigers 1 4 Josh Adams Cardiff Blues 2 4 Owen Lane Cardiff Blues 3 4 Albert Tuisue London Irish 3 4 Darcy Graham Edinburgh 4 4 Duhan van der Merwe Edinburgh 4 4 Will Capon Bristol Bears 5 4 Ollie Lawrence Worcester Warriors 5 4 Vasil Lobzhanidze Brive 5 4 Vincent Pinto Pau 6 4 [5]

• 2019–20 European Rugby Champions Cup