The 1997–98 Tetley's Bitter Cup was the 27th edition of England's top

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club competition.

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

won the competition, for the first time by defeating

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. Th ...

, who lost in the final for the third time. The first two rounds were unsponsored and by the third round

Tetley's Brewery Tetley's Brewery (Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd) was an English regional brewery founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Hunslet, now a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire. The beer was originally produced at the Leeds Brewery, which was later renamed the L ...

took over the sponsorship; the previous nine years had been sponsored by

Pilkington Pilkington is a glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, England. It includes several legal entities in the UK, and is a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG). It was formerly an independent company ...

. The final was held at

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium (; usually known as Twickenham, and for sponsorship purposes known as the Allianz Stadium Twickenham) is a rugby union stadium in Twickenham, London, England. It is owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the English rugby u ...

Draw and results

First round (13 September)

* Cheltenham's 138 – 0 win over Okehampton was a record score for the competition.

Second round (4 October)

Third round (1 November)

Fourth round (3 & 4 January)

Fifth round (24 January)

Quarter-finals (28 February & 1 March)

Semi-finals (28 March)

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tetley's Bitter Cup 1996-97 1997–98 rugby union tournaments for clubs 1997–98 in English rugby union