2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup

The 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup was the first season of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, the annual rugby union competition. It is the 19th season of second tier pan-European club competition in general, as the competition replaces the European Challenge Cup.^[1] The competition began with the first round of the group stage, on the weekend of 16 October 2014, and ended with the final on 1 May 2015 at the Twickenham Stoop.^[2][3]

2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England  France  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  Wales  Romania
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and Knockout
Date	16 October 2014 – 1 May 2015
Tournament statistics
Teams	20
Matches played	67
Attendance	391,649 (5,846 per match)
Tries scored	395 (5.9 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh) (99 points)
Top try scorer(s)	Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues) (6 tries)
Final
Venue	The Stoop, Twickenham
Champions	Gloucester (2nd title)
Runners-up	Edinburgh
← 2013–14 (Previous) (Next) 2015–16 →

Gloucester became the first ever champions of the newly formatted competition, beating Edinburgh, who became the first ever Scottish team to make a European final, 19–13, with 14 men on the pitch for the final 17 minutes with center Bill Meakes being sent off because of a dangerous high tackle of the ball on Edinburgh center Sam Beard.^[4][5]

Teams

Twenty teams qualified for the 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup, based on their performance in their respective domestic leagues the previous season. The distribution of teams is as follows:^[1]

• England: 5 teams
  • Any teams finishing between 8th-11th position in the Aviva Premiership. (4 Teams)
  • The champion of the 2013–14 Greene King IPA Championship.^[6] (1 Team)
• France: 8 teams
  • Any teams finishing between 8th-12th position in the Top 14. (5 Teams)
  • The champion, and the winner of the promotion play-off, from the Pro D2. (2 Teams)
  • There will be an 8th team from France, as Stade Français lost the 7th Place play-off for entry into the European Rugby Champions Cup. (1 team)
• Ireland, Italy, Scotland & Wales: 5 teams
  • Any teams that did not qualify for the European Rugby Champions Cup through the 2013–14 RaboDirect Pro12
• Other European Nations: 2 teams
  • Two teams will qualify through the Qualifying Competition, which will take place in September.^[3]

So far, the following 18 teams have qualified.

English Premiership	Top 14	Pro12				Qualifying Competition
England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales	Other
Exeter Chiefs Gloucester London Irish Newcastle Falcons London Welsh (Championship)	Stade Français (7th Place play-off) Bordeaux Bègles Brive Bayonne Grenoble Oyonnax Lyon (Pro D2) La Rochelle (Pro D2)	Connacht	Zebre	Edinburgh	Cardiff Blues Newport Gwent Dragons	Rovigo Delta   București Wolves

Champions Cup Play-off

Main article: 2014–15 European Rugby Champions–Challenge Cup play-offs

The following teams took part in the play-off to decide the final team in the Champions Cup. The play-off was held between the seventh-placed teams in the English Premiership and the Top 14. The loser of this play-off entered the Challenge Cup.

English Premiership	Top 14
England	France
Wasps	Stade Français

On 29 April 2014, it was announced that this play-off would take place over two legs, on the weekends of 17/18 May and 24/25 May, with a draw being used to determine home advantage for each leg.^[7]

The draw took place in Heathrow on 6 May 2014. Following the draw, the fixtures were announced as follows:^[8]

18 May 2014 15:00 BST

Wasps	30–29	Stade Français

Adams Park, High Wycombe Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)

24 May 2014 14:45 CEST

Stade Français	6–20	Wasps

Stade Jean-Bouin, Paris Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)

Stade Français lost the play-off 35-50 on aggregate, and will play in the Challenge Cup.

Qualifying Competition

Further information: European Rugby Challenge Cup Qualifying Competition § 2013–14

On 14 August 2014, EPCR announced the format for the first Qualifying Competition.^[9]

Given the amount of time until the start of the Challenge Cup, it was announced that this first competition will consist of two ties, played over two legs, with the aggregate winner of each taking a place in either pool. The first legs took place on 20 September, with the return legs taking place on 27 September

Rugby Europe 1 Play-off

20 September 2014 16:00 CEST

Rovigo Delta	22–18	Tbilisi Caucasians

Stadio Mario Battaglini Referee: Lloyd Lynton (Scotland)

27 September 2014 17:00 GET

Tbilisi Caucasians	21–24	Rovigo Delta

Stadium Avchala Referee: Matthew Carley (England)

• Rovigo Delta won the play-off 46–39 on aggregate, and qualify for Pool 1.

Rugby Europe 2 Play-off

20 September 2014 21:00 EEST

București Wolves	18–13	Calvisano

Stadium Arcul de Triumf Referee: Gary Conway (Ireland)

27 September 2014 19:30 CEST

Calvisano	13–10	București Wolves

Peroni Stadium Referee: Alexandre Ruiz (France)

• București Wolves won the play-off 28–26 on aggregate, and qualify for Pool 3

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
Bayonne	Patricio Noriega   Nicolas Morlaes	David Roumieu	Stade Jean Dauger	17,000	Top 14 7th-12th (10th)
Bordeaux Bègles	Raphaël Ibañez	Matthew Clarkin	Stade André Moga	10,000	Top 14 7th-12th (8th)
Brive	Nicolas Godignon	Arnaud Méla	Stade Amédée-Domenech	16,000	Top 14 7th-12th (9th)
București Wolves	Lynn Howells	Stelian Burcea	Arcul de Triumf Stadium	5,500	Challenge Cup Qualification Play-off
Cardiff Blues	Paul John   Dale McIntosh (For   Mark Hammett)^[a]	Matthew Rees	Cardiff Arms Park	12,500	Pro12 bottom 5 (7th)
Connacht	Pat Lam	John Muldoon	Galway Sportsgrounds	7,800	Pro12 bottom 5 (10th)
Edinburgh	Alan Solomons	Mike Coman	Murrayfield Stadium	12,464^[b]	Pro12 bottom 5 (8th)
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Dean Mumm	Sandy Park	10,744	Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (8th)
Gloucester	David Humphreys	Billy Twelvetrees	Kingsholm Stadium	16,500	Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (9th)
Grenoble	Fabrice Landreau	Fabien Gengenbacher	Stade des Alpes	20,000	Top 14 7th-12th (11th)
La Rochelle	Patrice Collazo   Fabrice Ribeyrolles	Uini Atonio	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	12,500	2013–14 Rugby Pro D2 promotion play-off winner
London Irish	Brian Smith	George Skivington	Madejski Stadium	24,250	Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (10th)
London Welsh	Justin Burnell	Tom May	Kassam Stadium	12,500	2013–14 RFU Championship Champion
Lyon	Tim Lane	Lionel Nallet	Matmut Stadium	8,000	2013–14 Rugby Pro D2 Champion
Newcastle Falcons	Dean Richards	Will Welch	Kingston Park	10,200	Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (11th)
Newport Gwent Dragons	Lyn Jones	Lee Byrne	Rodney Parade	11,676	Pro12 bottom 5 (9th)
Oyonnax	Christophe Urios	Florian Denos	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,400	Top 14 7th-12th (12th)
Rovigo Delta	Filippo Frati	Luke Mahoney	Stadio Comunale Mario Battaglini	6,000	Challenge Cup Qualification Play-off
Stade Français	Gonzalo Quesada	Sergio Parisse	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000	7th Place play-off loser
Zebre	Andrea Cavinato	Marco Bortolami	Stadio XXV Aprile renamed Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in January 2015	5,000	Pro12 bottom 5 (12th)

Seeding

The 20 competing teams will be seeded and split into four tiers, seeding will be based on performance in their respective domestic leagues. Where promotion and relegation is in effect in a league, the promoted team will be seeded last, or (if multiple teams are promoted) by performance in the lower tier.^[11] So, Lyon – who were Pro D2 champions – will be the seventh Top 14 seed while La Rochelle – who qualified through the Pro D2 play-off – will be the eighth seed.

As with the previous European competition, the European Challenge Cup, teams from the same country will be kept apart where possible. However, as 8 teams have qualified from France, 3 pools will contain two French teams – Oyonnax, Lyon and La Rochelle.

For the purposes of creating the tiers, the clubs are ranked based on their finishing positions in the Top 14, Aviva Premiership, Pro12 and PRO D2 Leagues, or on their qualification via a play-off.

Rank	Top 14	Premiership	Pro 12	Qualifying Competition
1	Stade Français	Exeter Chiefs	Cardiff Blues	Rovigo Delta
2	Bordeaux Bègles	Gloucester	Edinburgh	București Wolves
3	Brive	London Irish	Newport Gwent Dragons
4	Bayonne	Newcastle Falcons	Connacht
5	Grenoble	London Welsh	Zebre
6	Oyonnax
7	Lyon
8	La Rochelle

Teams will be taken from a league in order of rank and put into a tier. A draw is used allocate two second seeds to Tier 1, the remaining team will go into Tier 2. This allocation then determines which fourth seeded team enters Tier 2, while the others enter Tier 3.

Given the nature of the Qualifying Competition, a competition including developing rugby nations and Italian clubs not competing in the Pro12, Rugby Europe 1 and Rugby Europe 2 are automatically included in Tier 4, despite officially being ranked 1/2 from that competition.

The brackets show each teams seeding and their league (for example, 1 Top 14 indicates the team has been seeded 1st from the Top 14).

Tier 1	Cardiff Blues (1 Pro12)	Exeter Chiefs (1 AP)	Stade Français (1 Top 14)	Gloucester (2 AP)	Edinburgh (2 Pro12)
Tier 2	Bordeaux Bègles (2 Top 14)	Brive (3 Top 14)	London Irish (3 AP)	Newport Gwent Dragons (3 Pro12)	Bayonne (4 Top 14)
Tier 3	Newcastle Falcons (4 AP)	Connacht (4 Pro12)	FC Grenoble (5 Top 14)	London Welsh (5 AP)	Zebre (5 Pro12)
Tier 4	Oyonnax (6 Top 14)	Lyon (7 Top 14)	La Rochelle (8 Top 14)	Rovigo Delta (Rugby Europe 1)	București Wolves (Rugby Europe 2)

Pool stage

Main article: 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup pool stage

The draw took place on 10 June 2014, at the Stade de la Maladière in Neuchâtel.^[12]

Teams will play each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that will begin on the weekend of 16/17/18/19 October 2014, and continue through to 22/23/24/25 January 2015, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progress to the quarter finals.^[2][13]

Fixtures were announced on Thursday 14 August 2014 at 2pm.

Teams are awarded competition points, based on match result. Teams receive 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw, 1 attacking bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and 1 defensive bonus point for losing a match by seven points or fewer.^[14]

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 that scored the most tries in those matches.
   3. If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches.
2. Where teams remain tied and/or have not played each other in the competition (i.e. are from different pools)
   1. If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage.
   2. 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 v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
London Irish (4)	6	5	0	1	220	123	+97	30	11	4	0	24
Cardiff Blues (6)	6	5	0	1	249	95	+154	35	10	4	0	24
Grenoble	6	2	0	4	161	160	+1	19	21	3	1	12
Rovigo Delta	6	0	0	6	77	329	-252	8	50	0	1	1

Pool 2

Team v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Exeter Chiefs (2)	6	5	0	1	212	97	+115	26	11	4	1	25
Connacht (8)	6	4	0	2	186	144	+42	23	16	4	0	20
Bayonne	6	2	0	4	106	162	–59	10	18	0	1	9
La Rochelle	6	1	0	5	84	182	−98	10	24	0	0	4

Pool 3

Team v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Newport Gwent Dragons (3)	6	5	0	1	240	127	+113	31	15	4	1	25
Newcastle Falcons (7)	6	4	0	2	208	149	+59	29	20	4	1	21
Stade Français	6	3	0	3	155	143	+12	19	13	2	1	15
București Wolves	6	0	0	6	77	261	−184	8	39	0	1	1

Pool 4

Team v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Edinburgh (5)	6	5	0	1	146	90	+56	14	8	1	1	22
Lyon	6	4	0	2	149	139	+10	17	15	2	0	18
Bordeaux Bègles	6	3	0	3	176	142	+34	22	14	3	1	16
London Welsh	6	0	0	6	72	172	−100	7	23	0	1	1

Pool 5

Team v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Gloucester (1)	6	6	0	0	211	64	+147	25	6	5	0	29
Oyonnax	6	4	0	2	123	124	-1	12	13	0	0	16
Zebre	6	2	0	4	102	154	−52	10	18	0	0	8
Brive	6	0	0	6	93	187	−94	11	21	0	2	2

Seeding and runners-up

Seed	Pool Winners	Pts	TF	+/−
1	Gloucester	29	25	+147
2	Exeter Chiefs	25	26	+115
3	Newport Gwent Dragons	25	31	+113
4	London Irish	24	30	+97
5	Edinburgh	22	14	+56
Seed	Pool Runners–up	Pts	TF	+/−
6	Cardiff Blues	24	35	+154
7	Newcastle Falcons	21	29	+59
8	Connacht	20	23	+42
9	Lyon	18	17	+10
10	Oyonnax	16	12	-1

Knock-out stage

The eight qualifiers will be seeded according to performance in the pool stage, and compete in the quarter-finals, which will be held on the 3/4/5 April 2015. The four top seeds will host the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 format.

The semi-finals, to be contested by the quarter-final winners, will take place on the weekend of 17/18/19 April 2015.

The winners of the semi-finals will contest the final, at The Twickenham Stoop, on the weekend of 1 May 2015.^[3]

Bracket

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
	4	London Irish	18
	5	Edinburgh	23
						4	Edinburgh	45
						3	Newport Gwent Dragons	16
	3	Newport Gwent Dragons	25
	6	Cardiff Blues	21
											4	Edinburgh	13
											1	Gloucester	19
	1	Gloucester	14
	8	Connacht	7
						1	Gloucester	30
						2	Exeter Chiefs	19
	2	Exeter Chiefs	48
	7	Newcastle Falcons	13

Quarter-finals

3 April 2015 19:45

Gloucester	14–7	Connacht
Try: Sharples 20' c Meakes 30' c Con: Laidlaw (2/2) 21', 31'	Report^[15]	Try: Penalty try 65' c Con: Carty (1/1) 66'

Kingsholm Stadium, Gloucester Attendance: 13,236 Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)

---

4 April 2015 12:45

Newport Gwent Dragons	25–21	Cardiff Blues
Try: Amos 35' c Cudd 45' m Penalty try 50' c Con: Prydie (2/3) 35', 51' Pen: Prydie (1/3) 8' D. Jones (1/1) 67'	Report^[16]	Try: L. Williams 4' c Anscombe 25' c Navidi 74' c Con: Anscombe (3/3) 5', 26', 74'

Rodney Parade, Newport Attendance: 8,119 Referee: JP Doyle (England)

---

4 April 2015 20:00

Exeter Chiefs	48–13	Newcastle Falcons
Try: Ewers 12' c Penalty try 19' c Waldrom 41' c McGuigan 58' c Hill 69' c Mumm 71' c Con: Slade (4/4) 13', 20', 41', 58' Steenson (2/2) 70', 73' Pen: Slade (2/2) 35', 54'	Report^[17]	Try: Harris 66' c Con: Catterick (1/1) 68' Pen: Catterick (2/2) 33', 39'

Sandy Park, Exeter Attendance: 10,022 Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)

---

5 April 2015 17:45

London Irish	18–23	Edinburgh
Try: Gilsenan 40' c Steele 52' m Con: Geraghty (1/2) 40' Pen: Geraghty (2/4) 32', 45'	Report^[18]	Try: Nel 10' c McKenzie 59' c Con: Hidalgo-Clyne (2/2) 11', 61' Pen: Hidalgo-Clyne (3/3) 1', 18', 20'

Madejski Stadium, Reading Attendance: 4,728 Referee: Pascal Gaüzère (France)

Semi-finals

17 April 2015 19:45

Edinburgh	45–16	Newport Gwent Dragons
Try: McInally 14' c Visser 22' m B. Toolis 54' c Hidalgo-Clyne 60' c Fife 67' c Con: Hidalgo-Clyne (4/5) 16', 56', 61', 69' Pen: Hidalgo-Clyne (4/5) 10', 33', 40+2', 58'	Report^[19]	Try: Harris 43' c Con: D. Jones (1/1) 44' Pen: D. Jones (3/3) 3', 18', 30'

Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh Attendance: 8,231 Referee: JP Doyle (England)

---

18 April 2015 19:45

Gloucester	30–19	Exeter Chiefs
Try: Meakes 30' c Savage 67' c May 77' c Con: Laidlaw (3/3) 31', 68', 78' Pen: Laidlaw (2/3) 17', 71' Hook (1/1) 38'	Report^[20]	Try: Taione 75' c Con: Steenson (1/1) 76' Pen: Slade (4/4) 20', 40', 45', 60'

Kingsholm Stadium Attendance: 11,907 Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)

Final

1 May 2015 19:45 BST

Edinburgh	13–19	Gloucester
Try: Ford 65' c Con: Hidalgo-Clyne (1/1) 65' Pen: Hidalgo-Clyne (2/3) 2', 35'	Report^[21]	Try: Twelvetrees 10' c Con: Laidlaw (1/1) 11' Pen: Laidlaw (4/5) 8', 36', 49', 53'

Twickenham Stoop, London Attendance: 14,316 Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)

See also

• 2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup

Notes

1. Mark Hammett began the tournament as Cardiff Blues head coach, but resigned for personal reasons on 25 February 2015, and replaced by Hammett's assistants, Paul John and Dale McIntosh who will oversee the Blues from the Quarter-finals onwards.^[10]
2. Although Murrayfield's full capacity is 67,800, only the lower section of the West Stand, with a capacity of 12,464, is generally opened for Edinburgh fixtures.

References

1. (Press release). Rugby Football Union. 10 April 2014. Archived from the original on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
3. Inaugural EPCR finals set for London 2014-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
4. "Gloucester hold on to beat Edinburgh despite Billy Meakes' mad moment". Guardian. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
5. "Edinburgh 13-19 Gloucester". BBC Sport. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
6. (Press release). Rugby Football Union. 9 May 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-05-12. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
7. . Archived from the original on 2014-04-30. Retrieved 2014-04-29.
8. European Rugby Champions Cup play-off draw, Premiership Rugby
9. . Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
10. "Cardiff Blues: Mark Hammett leaves as director of rugby" [Press Release Zebre]. BBC Sport. BBC Sport. 25 February 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
11. http://archive.ercrugby.com/news/28791.php 2014-08-13 at the Wayback Machine ERCRugby.com. Accessed 8 June 2014
12. Irish Times - Rugby’s European Champions Cup draw to place on June 10th. Accessed 31/5/14
13. EPCRugby.com - 2014/15 EPCR Pool Draws 2014-07-25 at the Wayback Machine
14. . Archived from the original on 2014-10-11. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
15. . Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
16. . Archived from the original on 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
17. . Archived from the original on 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
18. . Archived from the original on 2015-04-07. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
19. . Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
20. . Archived from the original on 21 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
21. . Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.