2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup

2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England  France  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and Knockout
Date	14 October 2016 – 13 May 2017
Tournament statistics
Teams	20
Matches played	19
Highest Attendance	26,500 Munster v Glasgow Warriors 22 October 2016
Attendance	239,999 (12,632 per match)
Lowest Attendance	3,000 Zebre v Connacht 23 October 2016
Tries scored	53 (2.79 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Owen Farrell (Saracens) (16 points)
Top try scorer(s)	Sean Cronin (Leinster Wesley Fofana (Clermont Rob Miller (Wasps Federico Ruzza (Zebre) Leonardo Sarto (Glasgow Warriors) Joe Simpson (Wasps D. T. H. van der Merwe (Scarlets (2 tries)
Final
Venue	BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Official website	http://www.epcrugby.com
← 2015–16 (Previous) (Next) 2017–18 →

The 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup is the third European Rugby Champions Cup championship, the annual rugby union club competition for teams from the top six nations in European rugby. The competition replaced the Heineken Cup, which was Europe's top-tier competition for rugby clubs for the first nineteen years of professional European rugby union.^[1]

English side Saracens are the reigning champions, having beaten Racing 92 of France in the 2016 final in Lyon.

The opening round of the tournament will take place on the weekend of 14/15/16 October 2016. The final will take place on the 13 May 2017, at BT Murrayfield in Edinburgh.^[2][3]

Teams

Twenty clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues will compete in the Champions Cup. Nineteen of these will qualify directly as a result of their league performance.

The distribution of teams is:

• England: 6 clubs
  • The top 6 clubs in the Aviva Premiership. (6 clubs)
• France: 7 clubs
  • The top 6 clubs in the Top 14. (6 clubs)
  • There will be a seventh club from France, after Montpellier won the 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup. (1 club)
• Ireland, Italy, Scotland & Wales: 7 clubs, based on performance in the Guinness Pro12.
  • The best placed club from each nation. (4 clubs)
  • The 3 highest ranked clubs not qualified thereafter. (3 clubs)

Due to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, it was decided that the play-off system that had previously decided the final team would be suspended, and that this year the winner of the 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup would automatically qualify for the tournament. In the event this team had already qualified, the team's domestic league would be allocated an extra qualifying place.^[4]

The following teams qualified for the 2016–17 tournament.

Aviva Premiership	Top 14	Pro 12
England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales
Saracens Exeter Chiefs Wasps Leicester Tigers Northampton Saints Sale Sharks	Racing 92 Toulon Clermont Montpellier Toulouse Castres Bordeaux Bègles	Connacht Leinster Ulster Munster	Zebre	Glasgow Warriors	Scarlets

This is the first time all four Irish provinces have qualified for Europe's top club competition on their own merits, as Connacht's two previous appearances in the former Heineken Cup had been as a result of Leinster winning that cup the previous season.

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
Bordeaux Bègles	Raphaël Ibañez	Hugh Chalmers	Stade Chaban-Delmas	34,694	Top 14 top 7 (7th)
Castres	Christophe Urios	Rodrigo Capo Ortega	Stade Pierre-Antoine	11,500	Top 14 top 7 (6th) (QF)
Clermont	Franck Azéma	Damien Chouly	Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin	18,030	Top 14 top 7 (1st) (SF)
Connacht	Pat Lam	John Muldoon	Galway Sportsgrounds	8,100	Pro12 top 7 (2nd) (CH)
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Jack Yeandle	Sandy Park	12,600	Aviva Premiership top 6 (2nd) (RU)
Glasgow Warriors	Gregor Townsend	Jonny Gray	Scotstoun Stadium	10,000	Pro 12 top Scottish team (3rd) (SF)
Leicester Tigers	Richard Cockerill	Tom Youngs	Welford Road	25,800	Aviva Premiership top 6 (4th) (SF)
Leinster	Leo Cullen	Isa Nacewa	RDS Arena	18,500	Pro 12 top Irish team (1st) (RU)
Montpellier	Jake White	Fulgence Ouedraogo	Altrad Stadium	14,700	Challenge Cup winner, Top 14 top 7 (3rd) (SF)
Munster	Rassie Erasmus	Peter O'Mahony	Thomond Park	25,600	Pro12 top 7 (6th)
Northampton Saints	Jim Mallinder	Tom Wood	Franklin's Gardens	15,500	Aviva Premiership top 6 (5th)
Racing 92	Laurent Labit Laurent Travers	Dimitri Szarzewski	Stade Yves-du-Manoir	14,400	Top 14 top 7 (4th) (CH)
Sale Sharks	Steve Diamond	Josh Beaumont	AJ Bell Stadium	12,000	Aviva Premiership top 6 (6th)
Saracens	Mark McCall	Brad Barritt	Allianz Park	10,000	Aviva Premiership top 6 (1st) (CH)
Scarlets	Wayne Pivac	Ken Owens	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	Pro 12 top Welsh team (5th)
Toulon	Diego Domínguez	Juan Smith	Stade Mayol	15,820	Top 14 top 7 (2nd) (RU)
Toulouse	Ugo Mola	Thierry Dusautoir	Stade Ernest-Wallon	19,500	Top 14 top 7 (5th) (QF)
Ulster	Les Kiss	Andrew Trimble	Kingspan Stadium	18,196	Pro12 top 7 (4th) (SF)
Wasps	Dai Young	Joe Launchbury	Ricoh Arena	32,609	Aviva Premiership top 6 (3rd) (SF)
Zebre	Gianluca Guidi	George Biagi	Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000	Pro 12 top Italian team (11th)

Seeding

The 20 competing teams are seeded and split into four tiers, each containing 5 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, so a losing quarter-finalist in the Top 14 would be seeded below a losing semi-finalist, even if they finished above them in the regular season.^[5]

Rank	Top 14	Premiership	Pro 12
1	Racing 92	Saracens	Connacht
2	Toulon	Exeter Chiefs	Leinster
3	Clermont	Wasps	Glasgow Warriors
4	Montpellier	Leicester Tigers	Ulster
5	Toulouse	Northampton Saints	Scarlets
6	Castres	Sale Sharks	Munster
7	Bordeaux Bègles		Zebre

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. Exeter Chiefs and Leinster were drawn into Tier 1, meaning the remaining side - Toulon went into Tier 2. As a result of this draw, Montpellier also entered Tier 2, as the fourth seed from the league of the second seed placed in Tier 2. The other two fourth rankes sides fell into Tier 3.^[6]

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 AP)	Connacht (1 Pro12)	Racing 92 (1 Top 14)	Exeter Chiefs (2 AP)	Leinster (2 Pro12)
Tier 2	Toulon (2 Top 14)	Wasps (3 AP)	Glasgow Warriors (3 Pro12)	Clermont (3 Top 14)	Montpellier (4 Top 14)
Tier 3	Leicester Tigers (4 AP)	Ulster (4 Pro12)	Northampton Saints (5 AP)	Scarlets (5 Pro12)	Toulouse (5 Top 14)
Tier 4	Sale Sharks (6 AP)	Munster (6 Pro12)	Castres (6 Top 14)	Zebre (7 Pro12)	Bordeaux Bègles (7 Top 14)

The following restrictions will apply to the draw:^[6]

• 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 PRO12 clubs compete in the same pool, they must be from different countries.

Pool stage

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

Teams will play each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that will begin on weekend of 14/15/16 October 2016, and continue through to 20/21/22 January 2017, 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 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.^[7]

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
Munster	1	1	0	0	38	17	+21	5	2	1	0	5
Glasgow Warriors	2	1	0	1	59	51	+8	7	6	1	0	5
Leicester Tigers	2	1	0	1	40	59	–19	3	7	0	0	4
Racing 92	1	0	0	1	17	27	–10	2	2	0	0	0

Pool 2

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Connacht	2	2	0	0	75	28	+47	11	3	1	0	9
Wasps	2	1	1	0	102	34	+68	14	4	1	0	7
Toulouse	2	0	1	1	41	43	–2	4	5	0	1	3
Zebre	2	0	0	2	21	134	−113	3	20	0	0	0

Pool 3

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Saracens	2	2	0	0	75	49	+26	8	4	1	0	9
Toulon	2	1	0	1	38	36	+2	4	4	0	0	4
Scarlets	2	1	0	1	54	55	–1	5	6	0	0	4
Sale Sharks	2	0	0	2	16	43	–27	2	5	0	0	0

Pool 4

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Leinster	2	1	0	1	49	37	+12	6	5	1	1	6
Castres	2	1	0	1	56	40	+16	7	6	1	0	5
Montpellier	2	1	0	1	36	32	+4	4	2	0	1	5
Northampton Saints	2	1	0	1	23	55	–32	2	6	0	0	4

Pool 5

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Clermont	2	2	0	0	84	41	+43	11	6	2	0	10
Bordeaux Bègles	2	1	0	1	61	62	–1	8	7	1	0	5
Ulster	2	1	0	1	32	46	–14	2	3	0	0	4
Exeter Chiefs	2	0	0	2	26	54	–28	1	6	0	1	1

Seeding and runners-up

Updated to 23 October 2016, post Leicester Tigers v Racing 92

Seed	Pool Winners	Pts	TF	+/−
1	Clermont	10	11	+43
2	Connacht	9	11	+47
3	Saracens	9	8	+26
4	Leinster	6	6	+12
5	Munster*	5	5	+21
Seed	Pool Runners–up	Pts	TF	+/−
6	Wasps	7	14	+68
7	Bordeaux Bègles	5	8	-1
8	Castres	5	7	+16
9	Glasgow Warriors	5	7	+8
10	Toulon	4	4	+2

Munster have 1 game in hand.*

Knock-out stage

The eight qualifiers are ranked according to their performance in the pool stage and compete in the quarter-finals which will be held on the weekend of 31 March, 1/2 April 2017. The four top teams will host the quarter-finals against the four lower teams in a 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 format.

The semi-finals will played on the weekend of 22/23 April 2017. In lieu of the draw that used to determine the semi-final pairing, EPCR announced that a fixed semi-final bracket would be set in advance, and that the home team would be designated based on "performances by clubs during the pool stages as well as the achievement of a winning a quarter-final match away from home". Semi-final matches must be played at a neutral ground in the designated home team's country.

Home country advantage will be awarded as follows:^[7]

The winners of the semi-finals will contest the final, at BT Murrayfield, on 13 May 2017.^[3]

Attendances

• Does not include the final as this is played at a neutral venue.

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bordeaux Bègles	1	21,132	21,132	21,132	21,132
Castres	1	8,405	8,405	8,405	8,405
Clermont	1	17,965	17,965	17,965	17,965
Connacht	1	8,091	8,091	8,091	8,091
Exeter Chiefs	1	9,879	9,879	9,879	9,879
Glasgow Warriors	1	7,351	7,351	7,351	7,351
Leicester Tigers	1	19,048	19,048	19,048	19,048
Leinster	1	13,890	13,890	13,890	13,890
Montpellier	1	10,679	10,679	10,679	10,679
Munster	1	25,600	25,600	25,600	25,600
Northampton Saints	1	14,099	14,099	14,099	14,099
Racing 92	0	0	0	0	0
Sale Sharks	1	9,402	9,402	9,402	9,402
Saracens	1	9,084	9,084	9,084	9,084
Scarlets	1	6,521	6,521	6,521	6,521
Toulon	1	14,103	14,103	14,103	14,103
Toulouse	1	14,206	14,206	14,206	14,206
Ulster	1	16,843	16,843	16,843	16,843
Wasps	1	10,701	10,701	10,701	10,701
Zebre	1	3,000	3,000	3,000	3,000

^[8]

See also

• 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup

References