2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup pool stage

2016–17 European Rugby Chamllenge Cup pool stage
Season	2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup
Date	13 October 2016 – 22 January 2017
Qualifiers
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The 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup pool stage will be the first stage of competition in the third season of the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

It will involve 20 teams competing, across 5 pools of 4 teams, for 8 quarter-final places – awarded to the 5 pool winners and the 3 top-ranked pool runners-up.

The pool stage will begin on 13 October 2016 It is due to be completed on the weekend of 19–22 January 2017.

Seeding

The 20 competing teams were seeded and split into four tiers; seeding was based on performance in their respective domestic leagues. Where promotion and relegation is in effect in a league, the promoted team was seeded last, or (if multiple teams are promoted) by performance in the lower tier.^[1]

Rank	Top 14	Premiership	Pro 12	Qualifying Competition
1	Brive	Harlequins	Cardiff Blues	Enisey-STM
2	La Rochelle	Gloucester	Ospreys	Timișoara Saracens
3	Grenoble	Bath	Edinburgh
4	Pau	Worcester Warriors	Newport Gwent Dragons
5	Stade Français	Newcastle Falcons	Treviso
6	Lyon	Bristol
7	Bayonne

Teams will be taken from a league in order of rank and put into a tier. A draw was used to allocate two second seeds to Tier 1; the remaining team went into Tier 2. This allocation indirectly determined which fourth-seeded team entered Tier 2, while the others entered 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 were automatically included in Tier 4, despite officially being ranked 1/2 from that competition.

The 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	Harlequins (1 AP)	Cardiff Blues (1 Pro12)	Brive (1 Top 14)	Ospreys (2 Pro12)	La Rochelle (2 Top 14)
Tier 2	Gloucester (2 AP)	Bath (3 AP)	Edinburgh (3 Pro12)	Grenoble (3 Top 14)	Worcester Warriors (4 AP)
Tier 3	Pau (4 Top 14)	Newport Gwent Dragons (4 Pro12)	Newcastle Falcons (5 AP)	Treviso (5 Pro12)	Stade Français (5 Top 14)
Tier 4	Bristol (6 AP)	Lyon (6 Top 14)	Bayonne (7 Top 14)	Enisey-STM (QC 1)	Timișoara Saracens (QC 2)

The following restrictions apply to the draw:

• The 5 pools each contain four clubs, one from each of the 4 Tiers.
• Each pool is required to have one club from each league, drawn from Tier 1, 2 or 3. A second team will only be added to a pool during the Tier 4 allocation.

Pool stage

The draw took place on 29 June 2016 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

During the pool stage, the teams will play the 3 other teams in their pool twice, both at home and away,^[2] Based on the result of the match, teams receive:^[3]

• 4 points for a win,
• 2 points for a draw,
• 1 attacking bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match,
• 1 defensive bonus point for losing a match by seven points or less.

Following the pool stage, the five winners from each group progress to the quarter-finals, along with the three best pool runners-up from the competition. In the event of a tie between two or more teams from the same pool, the following criteria were used as tie-breakers:^[3]

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.

If this id not separate teams, and/or the tie related to teams that did not played each other (i.e., in different pools), the following tie breakers were used:

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.
	Cannot advance to the quarter-finals.

Pool 1

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
La Rochelle	2	2	0	0	92	34	+58	13	4	2	0	10
Gloucester	2	2	0	0	84	35	+49	10	4	2	0	10
Bayonne	2	0	0	2	51	98	–47	6	14	0	0	0
Benetton Treviso	2	0	0	2	18	78	–60	2	9	0	0	0

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Pool 2

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Ospreys	2	2	0	0	76	13	+60	11	2	2	0	10
Lyon	2	1	0	1	52	44	+8	6	5	1	0	5
Newcastle Falcons	2	1	0	1	50	52	–2	8	8	1	0	5
Grenoble	2	0	0	2	20	89	–69	2	12	0	0	0

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Pool 3

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Enisey-STM	2	2	0	0	57	30	+27	6	3	1	0	9
Newport Gwent Dragons	2	1	0	1	55	54	+1	7	6	1	0	5
Brive	2	1	0	1	41	61	–20	4	8	0	0	4
Worcester Warriors	2	0	0	2	36	44	–8	5	4	0	2	2

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Pool 4

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Cardiff Blues	2	2	0	0	60	32	+28	7	4	1	0	9
Bath	2	2	0	0	47	28	+19	2	3	0	0	8
Pau	2	0	0	2	34	52	–18	5	4	0	1	1
Bristol	2	0	0	2	26	55	–29	2	5	0	0	0

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Pool 5

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Edinburgh	2	2	0	0	95	52	+43	15	7	2	0	10
Harlequins	2	1	0	1	78	57	+21	12	9	2	1	7
Stade Français	2	1	0	1	48	43	+5	7	7	1	0	5
Timișoara Saracens	2	0	0	2	17	86	–69	2	13	0	0	0

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See also

• 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup

Notes

References