The British and Irish Cup was an 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 it ...

competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs and the reserves or developing teams from

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

clubs from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It took place for the first time in the 2009–10 season, and ran for 9 seasons. After clubs from the English Championship decided to withdraw from the 2018-19 season, the competition was abolished. The Welsh and Irish rugby unions thereafter reinstituted the Celtic Cup competition for its development sides.

Leinster A Leinster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Laighean) is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland and the most successful Irish team domestically. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby ...

and

Munster A Munster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Mumhan) is one of the four professional provincial rugby union, rugby teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the Iris ...

were the most successful sides in the competition, winning the trophy twice each. Five English clubs shared the remaining competition wins.

Format

A total of twenty-four teams from England (twelve), Ireland (three), Scotland (three) and Wales (six) competed in the inaugural competition. This remained the case for the first three seasons, though the format varied slightly in each season. For the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, the competition was expanded to 32 teams; England (twelve), Ireland (four), Scotland (four), and Wales (twelve) and for the first time, pool stage games were played on a "home and away" basis. For the 2013–14 season the number of teams competing was reduced to 24, with the Welsh entrants reduced from twelve to four, and the following season the competition was reduced to twenty teams with the withdrawal of the Scottish clubs. From the 2015–16 season to its end in 2018, Wales was represented by regional Premiership Select sides from the four Welsh regions.

Finals

Teams

History

2009–10 Competition

The inaugural competition was contested by 24 teams: *12 teams from the

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 ...

, the second tier of English rugby *3 Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams *3 Scottish sides, 2 top clubs from the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

and Gael Force, a side made up of a combination of National Academy players *6 top clubs from the

Principality Premiership 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 ...

, the second tier of Welsh rugby. The teams were divided into four pools of six, playing over five weekends during the Autumn International and Six Nations windows, with semi-finals on 24 and 25 April and the final on 16 May. Each team played each of the other five teams in its pool once (home or away). Two English teams (

Cornish Pirates The Cornish Pirates ( kw, An Vorladron Gernewek) are a professional rugby union team who play in the Championship, the second level of the English rugby union pyramid, and are the premier Cornish rugby club. Formerly known as Penzance & Newlyn ...

and

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

) and two Irish teams (

and

Ulster Ravens Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU Ulster Branch, which is one of t ...

) topped their respective pools leading to an all-English semi-final and an all-Irish semi-final.

defeated

in the inaugural final.

2010–11 Competition

The allocation of teams for the second season was very similar to that of the first: *12 teams from the

, the second tier of English rugby *3 Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams *3 top clubs from the

, the second tier of Scottish rugby *6 top clubs from the

, the second tier of Welsh rugby. The format closely mirrored that of the first season, the only difference being the introduction of a quarter final stage The teams were divided into four pools of six, playing over five weekends during the Autumn International and Six Nations windows, with quarter-finals on 5 or 6 March, semi-finals on 23 April and the final on 7 May. Each team played each of the other five teams in its pool once (home or away), with the top two teams in each pool qualifying for the knock-out stages:

2011–12 Competition

The allocation of teams for the third season was identical to that of the second season: *12 teams from the

, the second tier of English rugby *3 Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams *3 top clubs from the

, the second tier of Scottish rugby *6 top clubs from the

, the second tier of Welsh rugby. The pool stage saw a change in format and consisted of six pools of four teams playing cross-pool matches, giving each team two home and two away matches. Matches between English teams were played mid-week. Pool matches took place from 21 September to 18 December. The top team from each pool qualified for the quarter-finals, together with the two runners–up with the best records.

2012–13 Competition

The competition was considerably revamped, with expansion from 24 to 32 teams playing each other home ''and'' away in the pool stages (previously, pool matches were played home ''or'' away). The allocation of teams for the fourth season was therefore: *12 teams from the

, the second tier of English rugby *4 Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams *4 top clubs from the

, the second tier of Scottish rugby *12 clubs from the

, the second tier of Welsh rugby. The pool stage saw a considerable change in format and consisted of eight pools of four teams, giving each team three home and three away matches. Pool matches took place on the same weekends as the

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 Feb ...

and Amlin Cups. The top team from each pool qualified for the quarter-finals. The final round of pool matches, due to be played on the weekend of 18/19/20 January, was considerably disrupted. Of 16 matches, 7 were postponed: Connacht Eagles v Newport was not played until 27 April, the weekend of the semi-finals.

2013–14 Competition

The number of teams playing in the fifth competition was reduced from 32 to 24, with a reduction of Welsh teams from twelve to four: * 12 teams from the

, the second tier of English rugby * 4 Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams * 4 top clubs from the

, the second tier of Scottish rugby * 4 clubs from the

, the second tier of Welsh rugby. The twelve Principality Premiership Teams participated in regional play-offs which saw

Aberavon Aberavon ( cy, Aberafan) is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a distr ...

, Cross Keys,

Llanelli Llanelli (" St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarth ...

, and

Pontypridd () ( colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng ( Trallwn) and Treforest (). ...

qualify for the competition proper. The pool stage consisted of six pools of four teams, giving each team three home and three away matches. The top team from each group qualified for the quarter-finals, along with two runners-up with the best playing records. The ranking criteria of the quarter finalists has been altered slightly from earlier seasons. Previously, the six pool winners were seeded 1-6 and the two runners up as 7 and 8. This meant that the best runners-up were automatically ranked 7 and 8 even if they had a better playing record than some of the teams ranked 1-6. This is no longer the case. The draw for the knockout stage was carried out on 27 January 2014. The top four seeds (

Leeds Carnegie Leeds Carnegie was a brand name used by several sports teams associated with the Carnegie School of Physical Education, now part of Leeds Beckett University. These include: Current * Leeds Carnegie Handball Club Changed name * Leeds Carnegie ...

and

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

) had home advantage in the quarter-finals. On 14 April, it was announced that the final would be played at the home of the winner of the Pontypridd / Leinster A semi-final. This game ended as a 22 all draw after extra time; Leinster won on tries scored (3 – 1). Leinster A beat Leeds Carnegie 44 – 17 in the final and retained the cup they won in the previous season – the first team to win the cup for a second time.

2014–15 Competition

The number of teams playing in the sixth competition is reduced from twenty-four to twenty with the withdrawal of the Scottish teams: * 12 teams from the

, the second tier of English rugby * 4 Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams * 4 clubs from the

, the second tier of Welsh rugby. The twelve Principality Premiership Teams participating in regional play-offs which saw

, Carmarthen Quins, Cross Keys and

qualify for the competition proper. The Scottish clubs withdrew because of an increase in the number of the pool matches before Christmas, from four to six. Scottish Rugby felt that Scottish teams would not be able to compete fully in both the British and Irish cup and the BT Premiership; the premier competition for clubs in Scotland.

2015–16 Competition

Remaining with 20 teams. * – twelve clubs from

* – four Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams * – four Welsh regions represented by Premiership Select teams. Five pools of 4 teams, with the pool winners and the top three runners up going through to the knockout competition.

Notes

References

External links

Unofficial British and Irish Cup website - latest news, teams etc

Results from the BBC

rugbyweek.com - BritishandIrishCup
{{DEFAULTSORT:British And Irish Cup Rugby union competitions in the United Kingdom Rugby union competitions in Ireland RFU Championship Recurring sporting events established in 2009 2009 establishments in Ireland 2009 establishments in the United Kingdom Rugby union competitions in Europe for clubs and provinces 2018 disestablishments in Ireland 2018 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2018 Multi-national professional rugby union leagues