The 2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the eighth season of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the annual 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 it ...

competition run by

European Professional Club Rugby European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) is the governing body and organiser of the two major European rugby union club tournaments: the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup. A third tournament, the European Rugby Chall ...

(EPCR) for teams from the top six nations in European rugby. It is be the 27th season of pan-European professional club rugby competition. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the 24-team, two pool tournament format adopted for the previous season remained. This is the final year, under the current sponsorship deal, with Dutch beer brand Heineken, after a four-year deal was agreed starting from the 2018/19 season. The tournament commenced in December 2021, with the final scheduled for 28 May 2022 at Stade de Marseille in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Teams

Twenty-four clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues are competing in the Champions Cup. The distribution of the teams are: * England: eight clubs ** The top eight clubs from

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

* France: eight clubs ** The top seven clubs from 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 ...

** Montpellier automatically qualify as Challenge Cup champions despite not finishing in the top 8. * Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales: eight clubs ** The top four sides in each conference from the previous season's

Pro14 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 ...

(now known as

United Rugby Championship 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 ...

). The following teams have qualified for the tournament as of 12 June 2021.

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, QF for losing Quarter-finalist, and PO for the

7th place play-off winner.

Seeding and draw

The twenty four teams are seeded based on their finishing position in end of season playoffs and league positions. This follows the format from the previous season with the number 1 and number 2 ranked clubs from each league in Tier 1, the number 3 and number 4 ranked clubs in Tier 2, the number 5 and 6 ranked clubs in Tier 3, and the number 7 and number 8 ranked clubs in Tier 4. The draw took place on 21 July 2021 at the in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

, Switzerland.

Pool Stage

Teams are awarded group points based on match performances. Four points are awarded for a win, two points for a draw, one attacking bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and one defensive bonus point for losing a match by seven points or fewer.

Pool A

Pool B

Knockout stage

The knockout stage will commence across the 8/9/10 April with a home and away round of 16 matches consisting of the top 8 ranked teams from each pool.

Bracket

Round of 16

First leg

Second leg

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2021-22 Champions Cup Champions Cup European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Champions Cup seasons