Contents

2019–20 European Rugby Challenge Cup

Second-tier rugby union competition

2019–20 European Rugby Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England  France  Italy  Russia  Scotland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and Knockout
Date	15 November 2019 - 16 October 2020
Tournament statistics
Teams	20
Matches played	60
Attendance	374,846 (6,247 per match)
Highest attendance	17,553 - Bordeaux Bègles v Edinburgh (11 January 2020)
Lowest attendance	100 - Enisey-STM v Castres (6 December 2019)
Tries scored	376 (6.27 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Jamie Shillcock (Worcester Warriors) 67 points
Top try scorer(s)	Jamie Shillcock (Worcester Warriors) 5 tries
Final
Venue	Stade Maurice David
Champions	Bristol Bears (1st title)
Runners-up	Toulon
← 2018–19 (Previous) (Next) 2020–21 →

The 2019–20 European Rugby Challenge Cup was the sixth edition of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, an annual second-tier rugby union competition for professional clubs. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this was the 24th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition. Clubs from six European nations competed, including Russian and Italian clubs who qualified via the Continental Shield.

The tournament began in November 2019. The knock-out stages, originally planned to take place between March and May 2020, were delayed until later in the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. The final took place on 16 October at the Stade Maurice DavidinAix-en-Provence.^[1]

Teams[edit]

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 competition[edit]

Six teams were split into two pools of three to compete in the pool stage of the European Rugby Continental Shield. Each team played the other two teams in its pool twice on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each pool faced each other in a two-legged play-off for a place in the Challenge Cup.

A further place was awarded to the winner of a two-legged playoff between the two sides competing in the 2018–19 Challenge Cup.

Qualifying play-offs[edit]

Calvisano	29 – 13	Rugby Rovigo Delta

Timișoara Saracens	20 – 18	Enisey-STM

Enisey-STM	40 – 32	Timișoara Saracens

Rugby Rovigo Delta	30 – 28	Calvisano

Team details[edit]

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[a]	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	Blair Cowan	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)[b]
Stade Français	Heyneke Meyer (for Laurent Sempéré and Julien Arias)[c]	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	Lee Blackett	Dan Robson Thomas Young	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)

Seeding[edit]

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.^[3]

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)

Pool stage[edit]

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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.^[4]

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[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Castres (5)	6	5	0	1	159	103	+56	22	12	3	0	23
2	Dragons (7)	6	4	0	2	194	136	+58	24	17	3	1	20
3	Worcester Warriors	6	3	0	3	209	127	+82	27	14	3	1	16
4	Enisey-STM	6	0	0	6	73	269	−196	10	40	0	0	0

Pool 2[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Toulon (1)	6	6	0	0	177	87	+90	25	8	4	0	28
2	Scarlets (8)	6	4	0	2	149	90	+59	17	11	2	1	19
3	Bayonne	6	1	0	5	93	190	−97	12	28	2	1	7
4	London Irish	6	1	0	5	122	174	−52	16	23	1	2	7

Pool 3[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Bordeaux Bègles (3)	6	5	1	0	221	72	+149	28	6	4	0	26
2	Edinburgh (6)	6	4	1	1	140	85	+55	16	9	3	0	21
3	Wasps	6	2	0	4	141	145	−4	18	16	2	1	11
4	Agen	6	0	0	6	57	257	−200	6	37	0	0	0

Pool 4[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Bristol Bears (2)	6	5	1	0	209	58	+151	27	6	4	0	26
2	Brive	6	3	0	3	111	165	−54	14	22	1	1	14
3	Zebre	6	2	1	3	106	151	−45	15	19	2	1	13
4	Stade Français	6	1	0	5	104	156	−52	11	20	1	3	8

Pool 5[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Leicester Tigers (4)	6	5	0	1	181	95	+86	23	10	2	1	23
2	Pau	6	4	0	2	208	170	+38	29	23	3	0	19
3	Cardiff Blues	6	3	0	3	216	119	+97	30	13	4	2	18
4	Calvisano	6	0	0	6	68	289	−221	7	43	0	1	1

Ranking of pool leaders and runners-up[edit]

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

Knock-out stage[edit]

Bracket[edit]

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
	1	Toulon	11
	8	Scarlets	6
						Toulon		34
						Leicester Tigers		19
	4	Leicester Tigers	Bye
	5	Castres
											Toulon		19
											Bristol Bears		32
	2	Bristol Bears	56
	7	Dragons	17
						Bristol Bears (a.e.t.)		37
						Bordeaux Bègles		20
	3	Bordeaux Bègles	23
	6	Edinburgh	14

Quarter-finals[edit]

Bristol Bears (2)	56–17	(7) Dragons
Try: Hughes 20' c Earl (2) 24' c, 26' c Radradra 43' c Vui 74' c Malins 75' c D. Thomas 77' c Con: Sheedy (6/7) 21', 25', 26', 44', 74', 76' Pen: Sheedy (3/4) 31', 54', 70'	Report	Try: Hewitt 13' c R. Williams 51' c Con: S. Davies (2/2) 14', 51' Pen: S. Davies (1/1) 11'

Bordeaux Bègles (3)	23–14	(6) Edinburgh
Try: Cordero 4' c Dubié 9' c Con: Jalibert (2/2) 5', 10' Pen: Jalibert (2/3) 50', 58' Botica (1/1) 80'+1	Report	Try: Hoyland 53' m Pen: van der Walt (2/3) 32', 46' Kinghorn (1/1) 71'

Toulon (1)	11–6	(8) Scarlets
Try: Parisse 56' m Pen: Carbonel (2/2) 54', 73'	Report	Pen: Halfpenny (2/3) 3', 30'

Leicester Tigers (4)	Cancelled[d]	(5) Castres

Semi-finals[edit]

Bristol Bears (2)	37–20 (a.e.t.)	(3) Bordeaux Bègles
Try: Luatua 38' c Malins (2) 51' c, 86' c O'Conor 82' c Con: Sheedy (4/4) 39', 52', 83', 88' Pen: Sheedy (3/4) 58', 62', 97'	Report	Try: Jalibert 11' c Dweba 67' c Con: Lucu (1/1) 13' Botica (1/1) 68' Pen: Jalibert (2/2) 27', 30'

Toulon (1)	34–19	(4) Leicester Tigers
Try: Heem 8' c Villière (2) 20' c, 66' c Isa 58' c Con: Carbonel (4/4) 10', 22', 60', 67' Pen: Carbonel (2/2) 18', 34'	Report	Try: Nadolo 37' m Potter 74' m Pen: Ford (3/3) 3', 25', 45'

Final[edit]

Toulon (1)	19–32	(2) Bristol Bears
Try: Heem 11' c Con: Carbonel (1/1) 13' Pen: Carbonel (4/5) 21', 37', 40', 53'	Report	Try: Randall 1' c Malins 60' c Con: Sheedy (2/2) 2', 61' Pen: Sheedy (6/6) 4', 48', 56', 59', 75', 79'

FB 15 Gervais Cordin RW 14 Bryce Heem  32' OC 13 Isaia Toeava IC 12 Duncan Paia'aua LW 11 Gabin Villière FH 10 Louis Carbonel SH 9 Baptiste Serin  45' N8 8 Sergio Parisse OF 7 Raphaël Lakafia  60' BF 6 Charles Ollivon RL 5 Romain Taofifénua  52' LL 4 Eben Etzebeth  47' TP 3 Beka Gigashvili  58'  77' HK 2 Anthony Étrillard (c)  55' LP 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros  55' Substitutions: HK 16 Bastien Soury  55' PR 17 Florian Fresia  55' PR 18 Emerick Setiano  58'  77' LK 19 Brian Alainu'uese  52' FL 20 Swan Rebbadj  47' SH 21 Julien Ory  60' FH 22 Sonatane Takulua WG 23 Masivesi Dakuwaqa  32' Coach: Patrice Collazo

FB 15 Max Malins RW 14 Luke Morahan  78' OC 13 Semi Radradra  60' IC 12 Siale Piutau (c) LW 11 Alapati Leiua FH 10 Callum Sheedy SH 9 Harry Randall  78' N8 8 Ben Earl OF 7 Dan Thomas BF 6 Chris Vui  40' RL 5 Joe Joyce  70' LL 4 Dave Attwood TP 3 Kyle Sinckler  55' HK 2 Harry Thacker  78' LP 1 Yann Thomas  55' Substitutions: HK 16 George Kloska  78' PR 17 Jake Woolmore  55' PR 18 John Afoa  55' LK 19 Ed Holmes  70' FL 20 Jake Heenan  40' SH 21 Tom Kessell  78' FH 22 Piers O'Conor  60' CE 23 Niyi Adeolokun  78' Coach: Pat Lam

Attendances[edit]

Does not include the attendance at the final as it takes place at a neutral venue, or the attendances of matches played in empty stadiums due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

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%

^[6]

Player scoring[edit]

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

Most points[edit] 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 [7]

Most tries[edit] 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 [7]

Season records[edit]

See also[edit]

• 2019–20 European Rugby Champions Cup

Notes[edit]

References[edit]