The 2022–23 EPCR Challenge Cup was the 9th edition of the

EPCR 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 ...

, an annual second-tier

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 professional clubs. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this is the 27th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition. The tournament commenced in December 2022, and concluded with the final on 19 May 2023 at

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium (also known as Lansdowne Road) is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,700 spectators (all seated). It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and r ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland, which was contested between

Glasgow Warriors Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and became t ...

(their first European final) and

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

who made their fourth appearance in a European final. This was the first year that teams from South Africa could qualify, following the inaugural

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 ...

season, with Johannesburg-based

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

making their inaugural appearance in European club rugby. In addition, another South African team, the Bloemfontein-based

Cheetahs The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

franchise, formerly of the URC predecessor competition the

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 ...

, had been invited to enter, having been excluded from European competition during their Pro14 tenure.

Teams

Seventeen teams qualified for the 2022–23 EPCR Challenge Cup 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 ...

, 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 ...

and the

as a direct result of their domestic league performance having not qualified for the Heineken Champions Cup. Plus one invited sides making 18 teams. The distribution of teams were: * England: three teams ** Remaining teams in the Premiership that do not qualify for the

2022–23 European Rugby Champions Cup The 2022–23 European Rugby Champions Cup is the ninth season of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the annual club rugby union competition run by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) for teams from the top five nations in European rugby and ...

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union club, based in Worcester, England, that is currently in Administration (law), administration and which has been suspended and will be relegated from Premiership Rugby, the top ...

and

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 ...

had previously qualified but were both suspended after entering administration. * France: six teams ** Teams taking part in the

2022–23 Top 14 season The 2022–23 Top 14 competition is the 124th French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Teams Fourteen clubs will compete in the 2022-23 Top 14 season, 13 of them returning. Biarritz were r ...

that did not qualify for the Champions Cup * Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales, South Africa: nine teams ** The bottom seven teams in the

and the Glasgow Warriors as the Welsh shield winners (the Ospreys) were not in the top 8 teams in the URC.

Ospreys The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

finished in the bottom 8 teams, but qualified for the European rugby Champions Cup as Welsh Shield champions. **

(invited to participate)

Team details

Pool stage

Teams were awarded four points for a win, two for a draw, one for scoring four tries in a game, and one for losing by less than eight points.

Pool A

Pool B

Knockout stage

The knockout stage was played across 31 March/1/2 April with a single leg round of 16 matches consisting of the top six ranked teams from each pool and the teams ranked 9th and 10th in each pool of the

( Clermont,

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

Racing 92 Racing 92 () is a French rugby union club based in suburban Paris that was formed in 2001 with the collaboration of the Racing Club de France and US Métro. They were called Racing Métro 92 between 2001 and 2015, when they changed the name to ...

and

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks is a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Originally founded in 1861 as Sale Football Club, now a distinct amateur club, they adopted the n ...

denoted by * in the bracket). The Round of 16 followed a pre-determined format, while the quarter-finals and semi-finals always guaranteed home advantage to the higher ranked team. The last-16 were dominated by clubs from

(eight) and the United Rugby Championship (six), with only two English clubs reaching the knockout stages - both eliminated in the first play-off round along with the only Irish team,

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Delbhn ...

, while both south African clubs departed by the quarter-finals.

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

became the first Italian side to reach a European semi-final, as three URC teams from three different countries(Italy, Scotland and Wales) reached the final four along with French giant Toulon.

Round of 16

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Quarter-finals

---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

The higher-ranked club gained home stadium advantage, however, in the event that a South African team had been the higher ranked side, the game would have been located in Europe. ----

Final

Leading scorers

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

Most points

Source:

Most tries