2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup

2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England  France  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and Knockout
Date	13 November 2015 – 14 May 2016
Tournament statistics
Teams	20
Matches played	60
Attendance	790,540 (13,176 per match)
Tries scored	302 (5.03 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Dan Biggar (Ospreys) Owen Farrell (Saracens) (73 points)
Top try scorer(s)	Vereniki Goneva Leicester Tigers Thomas Waldrom (Exeter Chiefs) Paul Williams (Stade Français) Chris Wyles (Saracens) (4 tries)
Final
Venue	Grand Stade de Lyon, Lyon
Official website	http://www.epcrugby.com
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The 2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup is the second European Rugby Champions Cup championship, the annual rugby union club competition for teams from the top six nations in European rugby. The European Rugby Champions Cup 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]

As a result of the 2015 Rugby World Cup being held in England, the tournament started slightly later than in previous seasons, with the opening round taking place on the weekend of 13/14/15 November 2015. The final will take place on the 14 May 2016, at the Stade des Lumières in Lyon.^[2][3]

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, with the final team coming from a play-off.

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 Bordeaux Bègles won the play-off series against Gloucester for entry into the European Rugby Champions Cup. (1 club)
• Ireland, Italy, Scotland & Wales: 7 clubs, based on performance in the Pro12.
  • The best placed club from each nation. (4 clubs)
  • The 3 highest ranked clubs not qualified thereafter. (3 clubs)

Aviva Premiership	Top 14	Pro 12
England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales
Northampton Saints Bath Leicester Tigers Saracens Exeter Chiefs Wasps	Toulon Clermont Toulouse Stade Français Racing 92 Oyonnax Bordeaux Bègles (7th Place play-off)	Munster Ulster Leinster	Benetton Treviso	Glasgow Warriors	Ospreys Scarlets

20th team play-off

The following teams took part in play-off matches to decide the final team in the Champions Cup. The play-off was held between Premiership side Gloucester, as Challenge Cup winners, and teams from the Pro12 and Top 14. The losers of this play-off join the Challenge Cup.

Aviva Premiership	Top 14	Pro 12
England	France	Ireland
Gloucester	Bordeaux Bègles	Connacht

The play off was a two-match series, with the winner of the first match, Gloucester, progressing to the second, and the winner of that second match, Bordeaux Bègles, qualifying for the Champions Cup.

24 May 2015 15:30 GMT

Gloucester	40−32 (a.e.t.)	Connacht
	Report

Kingsholm Stadium, Gloucester Attendance: 7,633 Referee: Romain Poite (FFR)

31 May 2015 17:00 GMT

Gloucester	22−23	Bordeaux Bègles

Sixways Stadium, Worcester Referee: Leighton Hodges (WRU)

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
Bath	Mike Ford	Stuart Hooper	Recreation Ground	13,500	Aviva Premiership top 6 (2nd) (RU)
Benetton Treviso	Marius Goosen (For Umberto Casellato) [lower-alpha 1]	Alessandro Zanni	Stadio Comunale di Monigo	6,700	Pro12 top Italian team (11th)
Bordeaux Bègles	Raphaël Ibañez	Matthew Clarkin	Stade Chaban-Delmas	34,694	7th Place play-off winner
Clermont	Franck Azéma	Damien Chouly	Stade Marcel-Michelin	18,000	Top 14 top 6 (2nd) (RU)
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Jack Yeandle	Sandy Park	12,600	Aviva Premiership top 6 (5th)
Glasgow Warriors	Gregor Townsend	Jonny Gray	Scotstoun Stadium	9,708	Pro12 top Scottish team (1st) (CH)
Leicester Tigers	Richard Cockerill	Ed Slater	Welford Road	24,000	Aviva Premiership top 6 (3rd) (SF)
Leinster	Leo Cullen	Isa Nacewa	RDS Arena Aviva Stadium	18,500 51,700	Pro12 top 7 (5th)
Munster	Anthony Foley	Peter O'Mahony	Thomond Park	25,600	Pro12 top Irish team (2nd) (RU)
Northampton Saints	Jim Mallinder	Lee Dickson	Franklin's Gardens	13,600	Aviva Premiership top 6 (1st) (SF)
Ospreys	Steve Tandy	Alun Wyn Jones	Liberty Stadium	20,532	Pro12 top Welsh Team (3rd) (SF)
Oyonnax	Olivier Azam, then Johann Authier	Florian Denos	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,400	Top 14 top 6 (6th) (QF)
Racing 92	Laurent Labit Laurent Travers	Dimitri Szarzewski	Stade Yves-du-Manoir	14,000	Top 14 top 6 (5th) (QF)
Saracens	Mark McCall	Alistair Hargreaves	Allianz Park	10,000	Aviva Premiership top 6 (4th) (CH)
Scarlets	Wayne Pivac	Ken Owens Scott Williams	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	Pro12 top 7 (6th)
Stade Français	Gonzalo Quesada	Sergio Parisse	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000	Top 14 top 6 (4th) (CH)
Toulon	Bernard Laporte	Juan Smith Jocelino Suta	Stade Mayol	15,400	Top 14 top 6 (1st) (SF)
Toulouse	Ugo Mola	Thierry Dusautoir	Stade Ernest-Wallon Stadium Municipal	19,500 35,575	Top 14 top 6 (3rd) (SF)
Ulster	Les Kiss	Rory Best	Kingspan Stadium	18,196	Pro12 top 7 (4th) (SF)
Wasps	Dai Young	James Haskell Matt Mullan	Ricoh Arena	32,609	Aviva Premiership top 6 (6th)

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] This represents a change for the Aviva Premiership, who last year seeded teams without reference to their play-off performance, meaning Northampton Saints, who came top in the Aviva Premiership, are seeded third - as the highest ranked losing semi-finalist. As a knock on from this, Leicester Tigers, who came third in the league, drop to fourth.

Rank	Top 14	Premiership	Pro 12
1	Stade Français	Saracens	Glasgow Warriors
2	Clermont	Bath	Munster
3	Toulon	Northampton Saints	Ospreys
4	Toulouse	Leicester Tigers	Ulster
5	Racing 92	Exeter Chiefs	Leinster
6	Oyonnax	Wasps	Scarlets
7	Bordeaux Bègles		Benetton Treviso

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.^[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)	Glasgow (1 Pro12)	Stade Français (1 Top 14)	Clermont (2 Top 14)	Bath (2 AP)
Tier 2	Munster (2 Pro12)	Northampton Saints (3 AP)	Ospreys (3 Pro12)	Toulon (3 Top 14)	Ulster (4 Pro12)
Tier 3	Toulouse (4 Top 14)	Leicester Tigers (4 AP)	Exeter Chiefs (5 AP)	Leinster (5 Pro12)	Racing 92 (5 Top 14)
Tier 4	Scarlets (6 Pro12)	Wasps (6 AP)	Oyonnax (6 Top 14)	Benetton Treviso (7 Pro12)	Bordeaux (Play-Off)

The pool draw will take place 17 June, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.^[6]

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

• The 5 pools will each consist of four clubs, one from each of the 4 Tiers.
• Each pool must have one Aviva Premiership club from Tier 1,2 or 3, one Top 14 club from Tier 1,2 or 3, and one PRO12 club from Tier 1,2 or 3 (with a second Aviva or Top 14 or PRO12 club coming from Tier 4).
• If there are two PRO12 clubs in the same pool, they must be from different countries. (There are 3 Irish, 2 Welsh, 1 Scottish and 1 Italian teams this year).

Pool Stage

The draw took place on 17 June 2015.^[7][8]

Teams will play each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that will begin on weekend of 13/14/15 November 2015, and continued through to 22/23/24 January 2016, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progressed to the quarter finals.^[7]

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.^[9]

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
Saracens (1)	6	6	0	0	220	73	+147	26	8	4	0	28
Ulster	6	4	0	2	169	109	+60	21	12	2	0	18
Oyonnax	6	1	0	5	99	218	–119	10	30	1	2	7
Toulouse	6	1	0	5	85	173	–88	11	18	0	1	5

Pool 2

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Exeter Chiefs (5)	6	3	0	3	148	151	–3	18	18	3	1	16
Bordeaux Bègles	6	3	0	3	149	163	–14	18	19	3	1	16
Ospreys	6	3	0	3	138	142	–4	12	16	2	2	16
Clermont	6	3	0	3	159	138	+21	19	14	3	0	15

Pool 3

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Racing 92 (3)	6	4	1	1	174	70	+104	23	6	4	0	22
Northampton Saints (8)	6	4	1	1	94	93	+1	12	9	1	0	19
Glasgow Warriors	6	3	0	3	114	96	+18	10	11	1	1	14
Scarlets	6	0	0	6	59	182	–123	7	25	0	2	2

Pool 4

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Leicester Tigers (2)	6	5	0	1	185	91	+94	24	11	3	0	23
Stade Français (7)	6	4	0	2	186	118	+68	25	17	3	0	19
Munster	6	3	0	3	118	100	+18	15	11	3	0	15
Benetton Treviso	6	0	0	6	53	233	–180	8	33	0	0	0

Pool 5

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Wasps (4)	6	4	0	2	186	72	+114	19	8	2	2	20
Toulon (6)	6	5	0	1	96	91	+5	9	7	0	0	20
Bath	6	2	0	4	88	131	–43	7	8	0	2	10
Leinster	6	1	0	5	82	158	–76	5	17	0	2	6

Seeding and runners-up

Seed	Pool Winners	Pts	TF	+/−
1	Saracens	28	26	+147
2	Leicester Tigers	23	21	+109
3	Racing 92	22	23	+104
4	Wasps	20	19	+114
5	Exeter Chiefs	16	18	–3
Seed	Pool Runners–up	Pts	TF	+/−
6	Toulon	20	9	+5
7	Stade Français	19	25	+68
8	Northampton Saints	19	12	+1
9	Ulster	18	21	+60
10	Bordeaux Bègles	16	18	–4

Knock-out stage

The eight qualifiers are seeded according to their ranking in the pool stages and compete in the quarter-finals which will be held on the weekend of 8/9/10 April 2016. The four top seeds will host the quarter-finals against the lower seeds in a 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 format.

The semi-finals will played on the weekend of 23/24 April 2016. 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:^[9]

The winners of the semi-finals will contest the final, at Stade des Lumières, on 14 May 2016.^[10]

Quarter-finals

9 April 2016 17:45

Saracens (1)	v	(8) Northampton Saints

Allianz Park

9 April 2016 15:15

Wasps (4)	v	(5) Exeter Chiefs

Ricoh Arena

10 April 2016 17:15

Racing 92 (3)	v	(6) Toulon

Stade Yves du Manoir

10 April 2016 13:45

Leicester Tigers (2)	v	(7) Stade Français

Welford Road

Semi-finals

Final

See also

• 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup

Notes

References