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
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.

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.

Teams

20 clubs, from the three major European domestic leagues, will compete in the Champions Cup, 19 of the clubs will qualify directly as a result of their domestic league performance.

The distribution of teams are as follows:

• 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 has 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.

The following teams have 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	Clermont Toulon Montpellier Racing 92 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.

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.

Rank	Top 14	Premiership	Pro 12
1		Saracens	Connacht
2		Exeter Chiefs	Leinster
3		Wasps	Glasgow Warriors
4		Leicester Tigers	Ulster
5		Northampton Saints	Scarlets
6		Sale Sharks	Munster
7			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, the remaining side being put into Tier 2 - this draw determines which fourth seed also enters Tier 2, the place being given to the fourth seed from the league of the second seed placed in Tier 2. The other two sides fall into Tier 3.

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)	(1 Top 14)	(2 TBC)	(2 TBC)
Tier 2	(2 TBC)	Wasps (3 AP)	Glasgow Warriors (3 Pro12)	(3 Top 14)	(4 TBC)
Tier 3	(4 TBC)	(4 TBC)	Northampton Saints (5 AP)	Scarlets (5 Pro12)	(5 Top 14)
Tier 4	Sale Sharks (6 AP)	Munster (6 Pro12)	(6 Top 14)	Zebre (7 Pro12)	(7 Top 14)

The following restrictions will apply to the draw:

• 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

Main article: 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage

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.

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.

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:

Winner of QF		Semi-Final 1 (Home v Away)
1	4	1 v 4
1	5	5 v 1
8	4	8 v 4
8	5	5 v 8

Winner of QF		Semi-Final 2 (Home v Away)
3	2	2 v 3
3	7	7 v 3
6	2	6 v 2
6	7	6 v 7

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

See also

• 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup