The 2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage was the first stage of the 21st season of European club

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 ...

, and the second under the

European Rugby Champions Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

format. It involved 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 began on the weekend of 13 November 2015 but several games were postponed following the

November 2015 Paris attacks The November 2015 Paris attacks () were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15p.m., three suicide bombers ...

. It was completed on the weekend of 23–25 January 2016.

Seeding

Twenty teams were seeded based on their performance in the three major European domestic leagues - the Premiership, the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

and the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

. Teams were seeded based on their performance in the regular season, and, where applicable, subsequent play-off to determine a league champion. Where teams were eliminated in the same round of a knock-out tournament, their league position at the end of the regular season determined which team received a higher seed. Teams were then placed into 4 Tiers, each containing 5 teams, based on their seeding. A draw determined which two second seeded teams completed Tier 1, and based on this, the fourth seeded teams were allocated to either Tier 2 and Tier 3.European Rugby Pool Draws for 2015/16 season - EPCRugby.com
/ref> 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).

Pool stage

The draw took place on 17 June 2015, at the Château de Neuchâtel, in

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. During the pool stage, the teams will play the 3 other teams in their pool twice, both at home and away, Based on the result of the match, teams receive competition points as follows: * 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 (the three of the five runners-up with the highest number of competition points). To seed the quarter-finals, the five pool winners will be ranked 1st to 5th and the three best-placed runners-up ranked 6th to 8th, based on who got the most competition points. In the event of a tie between two or more teams from the same pool, the following criteria would be used as tie-breakers: # The club with the greater number of competition points from ''only'' matches involving tied teams. # If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches. # If equal, the club that scored the most tries in those matches. If this did not separate teams, and/or the tie related to teams that did not play each other (i.e., in different pools), the following tie breakers would be used: # If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage. # The club that scored the most tries in the pool stage. # If equal, the club with the fewest players suspended in the pool stage. # If equal, the drawing of lots will determine a club's ranking.

Pool 1

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Pool 2

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Pool 3

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Pool 4

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Pool 5

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Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:pool stage 2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup 2015-16