The 2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the fifth season of 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 ...

, 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 its m ...

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 Chal ...

(ECPR) for teams from the top six nations in Europe. It is the 24th season of pan-European professional club rugby competition. This competition is the first to be sponsored by

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Febr ...

since the 2013–14 season. The tournament started on 12 October 2018. The

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, featuring the last two winners of the event,

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 ...

and

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

, took place on 11 May 2019 at

St James' Park St James' Park is a football stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Premier League club Newcastle United F.C. With a seating capacity of 52,305 seats, it is the eighth largest football stadium in England. St James' Park ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, with Saracens being crowned champions for the third time.

Teams

Twenty clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues competed in the Champions Cup. Nineteen of these qualified directly as a result of their league performance. In a change to previous seasons, the play-off to decide the 20th team was not held. The final place in the Champions Cup is now directly awarded in the following order: # Champions Cup winner, if not already qualified # Challenge Cup winner, if not already qualified # Challenge Cup losing finalist, if not already qualified # Challenge Cup semi-finalist, if not already qualified, or the winner of a play-off between both semi-finalists, if both have not already qualified # Highest ranked non-qualified club by virtue of league position from the same league as the Champions Cup winner The distribution of teams is: * England: 7 clubs ** The top 6 clubs in the

English Premiership The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

. (6 clubs) ** The runner-up of the 2017–18 Challenge Cup Final,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

. (1 club) * France: 6 clubs ** The top 6 clubs in 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 ...

. (6 clubs) * Ireland, Scotland & Wales: 7 clubs, based on performance in 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 ...

. **Following the inclusion of 2

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n teams into the Pro14, the tournament format and qualification process was changed. **The top 3 sides in each Pro14 conference (not including the South African sides, who are not eligible for European competition), automatically qualify for the Champions Cup. The previous requirement for each country (Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales) to be represented was waived beginning with this season. (6 Teams) **The next best placed eligible team in each conference compete in a one-off play-off game to determine the 7th Pro14 team. (1 Team) The following teams qualified for the 2018–19 tournament.

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

The twenty competing teams are seeded and split into four tiers, each containing five teams. For the purpose of creating the tiers, clubs are ranked based on their domestic league performances and on their qualification for the knockout phases of their championships. For example, a losing quarter-finalist would be seeded below a losing semi-finalist, even if they finished above them in the regular season.http://archive.ercrugby.com/news/28791.php ERCRugby.com. Accessed 8 June 2014 Based on these seedings, teams are placed into one of the four tiers, with the top seed clubs being put in Tier 1. The nature of the tier system means that a draw is needed to allocate two of the three second seed clubs to Tier 1 and to allocate one of the three fourth seed clubs to Tier 2. The tiers are shown below. Brackets show each team's seeding and their league (for example, "1 Top 14" indicates the team was seeded 1st from the Top 14). The following restrictions will apply to the draw: * Each pool will consist of four clubs, one from each Tier in the draw. * Each pool must have one from each league drawn from Tier 1, 2, or 3. No pool will have a second team from the same league until the allocation of Tier 4 takes place. * Where two Pro14 clubs compete in the same pool, they must be from different countries.

Pool stage

The draw took place on 20 June 2018, 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-74), ...

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 ...

. Teams in the same pool play each other twice, at home and away, in the group stage that begins on the weekend of 12–14 October 2018, and continues through to 18–20 January 2019. The five pool winners and three best runners-up progress to the quarter finals. 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. In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers are used, as directed by EPCR: # Where teams have played each other ## 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. # Where teams remain tied and/or have not played each other in the competition (i.e. are from different pools) ## The club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage. ## If equal, 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

Pool 2

Pool 3

Pool 4

Pool 5

Ranking of pool leaders and runners-up

Knock-out stage

Format

The eight qualifiers are ranked according to their performance in the pool stage and compete in the quarter-finals which will be held on the weekend of 28–31 March 2019. The four top teams will host the quarter-finals against the four lower teams in a 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 format. The semi-finals were played on the weekend of 19–21 April 2019. As in recent seasons, a fixed semi-final bracket was set in advance. Beginning this season, the higher-seeded team received home country/venue advantage for each semi-final, regardless of whether they won their quarter-final at home or on the road. Also new for this season was the EPCR's use of discretion to allow semi-finals to be played at a qualified club's home venue. The winners of the semi-finals contested the final, at

, on 11 May 2019.

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Attendances

*Does not include the attendance at the final as it takes place at a neutral venue.

Player scoring

* Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included).

Most points

Most tries

Season records

Team

;Largest home win – 49 points 52–3 Leinster at home to Wasps on 12 October 2018 ;Largest away win – 26 points 41–15 Munster away to Gloucester on 11 January 2019 ;Most points scored – 56 points 56–27 Saracens at home to Glasgow Warriors on 30 March 2019 ;Most tries in a match – 8 Leinster at home to Wasps on 12 October 2018 ;Most conversions in a match – 6 (3) Leinster at home to Wasps on 12 October 2018
Leinster at home to Bath on 15 December 2018
Saracens at home to Glasgow Warriors on 30 March 2019 ;Most penalties in a match – 6 Saracens at home to Munster on 20 April 2019 ;Most drop goals in a match – 1 Castres at home to Exeter Chiefs on 20 October 2018
Lyon at home to Saracens on 13 January 2019

Player

;Most points in a match – 26

Joey Carbery Joseph Carbery (born 1 November 1995) is an Irish rugby union player who plays for Munster in the United Rugby Championship and European Rugby Champions Cup and for the Ireland national team. He plays primarily as a fly-half, but can also p ...

for Munster at away to Gloucester on 11 January 2019 ;Most tries in a match – 2 Multiple players ;Most conversions in a match – 6 Alex Lozowski for Saracens at home to Glasgow Warriors on 30 March 2019 ;Most penalties in a match – 6

Owen Farrell Owen Andrew Farrell (born 24 September 1991) is an English professional rugby union player, currently captain of Gallagher Premiership side Saracens. Farrell has played international rugby for England since 2012. Farrell is one of the top poi ...

for Saracens at home to Munster on 20 April 2019 ;Most drop goals in a match – 1 (2) Julien Dumora for Castres at home to Exeter Chiefs on 20 October 2018

Jonathan Wisniewski Jonathan Wisniewski (born 16 July 1985) is a former French rugby union player who played as a fly-half. He is of Polish descent and is a grandnephew of Maryan Wisniewski. Club career Wisniewski started playing rugby at a youth level for Gaillac ...

for Lyon at home to Saracens on 13 January 2019

Attendances

;Highest – 51,930 Saracens versus Leinster on 11 May 2019 (Final) ;Lowest – 6,383 Newcastle Falcons at home to Montpellier on 21 October 2018 ;Highest average attendance — 34,285 Leinster ;Lowest average attendance — 6,750 Newcastle Falcons

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2018-19 Rugby Champions Cup Champions Cup

European Rugby Champions Cup seasons

Teams

Team details

Seeding

Pool stage

Pool 1

Pool 2

Pool 3

Pool 4

Pool 5

Ranking of pool leaders and runners-up

Knock-out stage

Format

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Attendances

Player scoring

Most points

Most tries

Season records

Team

Player

Attendances

See also

Notes

References