The 1997–98 Tetley's Bitter Cup was the 27th edition of England's top

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

club competition.

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

won the competition, for the first time by defeating

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. T ...

, who lost in the final for the third time. The first two rounds were unsponsored and by the third round

Tetley's Brewery Tetley's Brewery (Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd) was an English regional brewery founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Hunslet, now a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire. The beer was originally produced at the Leeds Brewery, which was later renamed the Le ...

took over the sponsorship; the previous nine years had been sponsored by

Pilkington Pilkington is a Japanese-owned glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, United Kingdom. In the UK it includes several legal entities and is a subsidiary of Japanese company NSG Group. Prior to its acquisition by NSG i ...

. The final was held at

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium () in Twickenham, south-west London, England, is a rugby union stadium owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), English rugby union governing body, which has its headquarters there. The England national rugby union team play ...

Draw and results

First round (13 September)

* Cheltenham's 138 – 0 win over Okehampton was a record score for the competition.

Second round (4 October)

Third round (1 November)

Fourth round (3 & 4 January)

Fifth round (24 January)

Quarter-finals (28 February & 1 March)

Semi-finals (28 March)

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tetley's Bitter Cup 1996-97 1997–98 rugby union tournaments for clubs 1997–98 in English rugby union