The 2016–17

British and Irish Cup The British and Irish Cup was an annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs and the reserves or developing teams from professional clubs from Great Britain and Ireland. It took place for the first time in the 2009 ...

was the eighth season of the annual

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 ...

competition for second tier,

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...

clubs from Britain and Ireland.

London Welsh London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seasons, ...

were the defending champions having won the 2015–16 final against

Yorkshire Carnegie Leeds Tykes (formerly Leeds RUFC, Leeds Carnegie and Yorkshire Carnegie) is an English rugby union club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the National League 1. The club was founded as Headingley FC, but renamed in 1991 when it j ...

10–33 at

Headingley Carnegie Stadium Headingley Stadium is a stadium complex in Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, comprising two separate grounds; Headingley Cricket Ground and Headingley Rugby Stadium, linked by a two-sided stand housing common facilities. The grounds a ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

on 10 April 2016. There have been six different winners and six different losing finalists in the seven seasons of its existence. The format of the competition is similar to last season with Scottish clubs not competing. For the second consecutive season the four Welsh teams were the reserve sides of the teams competing in 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 ...

competition instead of clubs from the

Welsh Premier Division The Welsh Premier Division, () known for sponsorship reasons as the Indigo Group Premiership, (''Uwch Gynghrair grŵp indigo'') is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for the 1990–91 season. Compe ...

Competition format

The competition format is a pool stage followed by a knockout stage. The pool stage consists of five pools of four teams playing home and away matches. The top side in each pool, plus the three best runners-up, progress to the knockout stage. The eight quarter-finalists are ranked, with top four teams having home advantage. The four winning quarter-finalists progress to the semi-final draw. Most of the matches are played on the same weekends as the European Champions Cup and

European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

. First round matches began on 14 October 2016 and the final was held on the 21 April 2017.

Participating teams and locations

The allocation of teams is as follows: * – twelve clubs from

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men’s English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when ...

* – four Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams * – four Welsh regions represented by Premiership Select teams.

Pool stages

Pool 1

Round 4

----

Round 5

----

Round 6

Knock-out stage

The eight qualifiers were seeded according to performance in the pool stage. The four top seeds hosted the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 format. If two teams qualified from the same group they could not be drawn together despite the seeding, therefore, Jersey Reds did not play against Ulster A. The quarter-finals were held over the weekend of 10/11/12 March 2017, the semi-finals were held over the weekend of 31 March and 1 & 2 April 2017 and the final was played on 21/22/23 April 2017. Teams are ranked by: :1 – competition points (4 for a win, 2 for a draw) :2 – where competition points are equal, greatest number of wins :3 – where the number of wins are equal, aggregate points difference :4 – where the aggregate points difference are equal, greatest number of points scored

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was made on 23 January 2017, with the matches to be played on the weekend of 10–13 March 2017. ----

Semi-finals

----

Final

Attendances

Individual statistics

* Points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included).

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

Season records

Team

;Largest home win — 77 points 84 – 7 Ealing Trailfinders at home to Scarlets Premiership Select on 11 March 2017 ;Largest away win — 49 points 68 – 19 Leinster A away to Richmond on 15 October 2016 ;Most points scored — 84 points 84 – 7 Ealing Trailfinders at home to Scarlets Premiership Select on 11 March 2017 ;Most tries in a match — 12 Ealing Trailfinders at home to Scarlets Premiership Select on 11 March 2017 ;Most conversions in a match — 10 Ealing Trailfinders at home to Scarlets Premiership Select on 11 March 2017 ;Most penalties in a match — 5 Rotherham Titans at home to Doncaster Knights on 15 October 2016 ;Most drop goals in a match — 1 Richmond away to Leinster on 20 January 2017

Player

;Most points in a match — 26

Rory Clegg Rory Clegg (born 6 January 1990) is a former rugby union player. He played as a Fly-half. Early life Clegg was born on 6 January 1990 at the British Military Hospital in Hanover, Germany; his father was serving in the army. He attended Barnard ...

for Ealing Trailfinders at home to Scarlets Premiership Select on 11 March 2017 ;Most tries in a match — 4 Rob O'Donnell for Yorkshire Carnegie at home to Bedford Blues on 23 October 2016 ;Most conversions in a match — 10

for Ealing Trailfinders at home to Scarlets Premiership Select on 11 March 2017 ;Most penalties in a match — 5 Lloyd Evans for Rotherham Titans at home to Doncaster Knights on 15 October 2016 ;Most drop goals in a match — 1 Freddy Gabbitass for Richmond away to Leinster on 20 January 2017

Attendances

;Highest — 4,813 Ulster A at home to London Scottish on 13 January 2017 ;Lowest — 200 (x3) Ulster A at home to Jersey Reds on 14 October 2016
Connacht Eagles at home to Cornish Pirates on 16 October 2016
Newport Gwent Dragons Premiership Select at home to Ealing Trailfinders on 22 October 2016 ;Highest Average Attendance — 2,180 (London Irish) ;Lowest Average Attendance — 283 Scarlets Premiership Select)

References

External links

Unofficial British and Irish Cup website - latest news, teams etc
{{DEFAULTSORT:British and Irish Cup British and Irish Cup 2016–17 rugby union tournaments for clubs 2016–17 RFU Championship 2016–17 in Irish rugby union 2016–17 in Welsh rugby union 2016–17 in British rugby union