The 2012–13
British and Irish Cup
The British and Irish Cup was an annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs and the reserves or developing teams from professional clubs from Great Britain and Ireland. It took place for the first time in the 2009†...
was the fourth season of the annual
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 ...
competition for second tier,
semi-professional
Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...
clubs from Britain and Ireland. The final was contest on 17 May 2013 and won by
Leinster A with a 78th minute
penalty
Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to:
Sports
* Foul (sports)
** Penalty (golf)
** Penalty (gridiron football)
** Penalty (ice hockey)
** Penalty (rugby)
** Penalty (rugby union)
** Penalty kick (assoc ...
by
Noel Reid to beat
Newcastle Falcons
Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union.
The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...
18–17 at their home ground
Kingston Park
Kingston Park is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, about north west of the city centre.
It is home to several large retailers, the largest being one of Tesco's flagship stores—at 11,055 square metres (119,000 sq ft) which was also t ...
. The defending champions
Munster A were eliminated in the semi–finals by the eventual winners and
Bedford Blues
Bedford Blues are a semi-professional rugby union club in the town of Bedford, England, currently playing in the RFU Championship.
History
Foundation and 19th century
Bedford RUFC was founded in 1886 after an amalgamation between Bedford Rove ...
was the other losing semi–finalists.
There has been four different winners and four different losing finalist of the competition. The format of the competition has been considerably revamped, with expansion to 32 teams playing each other home ''and'' away in the pool stages. Previously, 24 teams played home ''or'' away in the pool stages. First round matches began on the weekend of 13/14 October 2012 and the final was held on 17 May 2013.
Teams
The allocation of teams was as follows:
* – 12 clubs from
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 Eng ...
* – 4 Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams
* – 4 top clubs from the
Scottish Premiership
The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...
* – 12 clubs from the
Welsh Premier Division
The Welsh Premier Division, () known for sponsorship reasons as the Admiral 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.
2025–26 se ...
Competition format
The pool stage saw a considerable change in format and consisted of eight pools of four teams playing home and away matches. Pool matches took place on the same weekends as the
Heineken
Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch 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 February 1864, ...
and
Amlin
MS Amlin Ltd is an insurer operating in the Lloyd's, UK, Continental Europe and Bermudian markets. Specialising in providing insurance cover to commercial enterprises and reinsurance protection to other insurance companies around the world, MS ...
Cups. The top team from each pool qualified for the quarter-finals.
Pool stages
The fixture weekends have been announced.
Round 6 matches were badly affected by adverse weather. Pitches were frozen or snow-covered, or teams were unable to travel.
Pool 1
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* This match was postponed from 20 January 2013 as the pitch was deemed frozen and the surrounding areas unsafe for supporters.
* Match postponed from 19 January 2013 as Ulster were unable to fly due to the bad weather. Despite this match being a
dead rubber
Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...
(the outcome of this game will have no bearing on qualification for the knockout stages nor on the ranking of the qualifiers), the match was rearranged as Bridgend would lose revenue otherwise.
Pool 2
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* This match was originally scheduled to be played on 19 January 2013. Due to bad weather, the Bedwas team was unable to travel to Bedford.
Pool 3
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Pool 4
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* This match was postponed as the Newport team were unable to fly out of Bristol on 18 January due to snow
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* This match was originally scheduled to be played on 19 January 2013 but was postponed due to heavy snow. The match was a
dead rubber
Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...
and the outcome had no bearing on qualification for the knockout stages nor on the ranking of the qualifiers.
Pool 5
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* This fixture was moved to
South Leeds Stadium
The John Charles Centre for Sport is a multi-purpose sports facility in South Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It consists of the South Leeds Stadium (a rugby league, football, and athletics stadium), an aquatics centre, indoor athletics centre, ...
as 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 Eng ...
game against Plymouth (on 6 January 2013) went to uncontested scrums within 16 minutes on the new pitch at
Headingley
Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...
. Subsequently, the match was moved to West Park Leeds RUFC as the pitch at South Leeds Stadium was uncovered and frozen. Finally, the game went ahead on the 3G pitch.
* This match, originally scheduled for 19 January, was postponed due to the ground being under a seven to nine inch layer of snow and unplayable. Despite this match being a
dead rubber
Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...
(the outcome of this game will have no bearing on qualification for the knockout stages nor on the ranking of the qualifiers), the match was rearranged.
Pool 6
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Pool 7
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* This match was postponed from 19 January 2013 due to a frozen pitch. Although this match is a
dead rubber
Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...
(the outcome of this game will have no bearing on qualification for the knockout stages nor on the ranking of the qualifiers), a new date was arranged.
Pool 8
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* This match was postponed from 19 January after a pitch inspection deemed it unfit.
Knock–out stages
Qualifiers
The eight pool winners proceed to the knock out stages. The quarter-final matches were:
*Seed 1 v Seed 8
*Seed 2 v Seed 7
*Seed 3 v Seed 6
*Seed 4 v Seed 5
Teams are ranked by
:1. Competition Points (4 for a win, 2 for a draw, etc)
:2. where Competition Points are equal, greatest number of wins
:3. where these are equal, aggregate points difference
:4. where these are equal, greatest number of points scored
There are further criteria that can be applied if necessary.
Quarter-finals
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Semi-finals
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Final
Top scorers
Top points scorers
Top try scorers
Geography
;Notes
Notes
References
External links
Unofficial British and Irish Cup website - latest news, teams etc
{{DEFAULTSORT:British and Irish Cup
British and Irish Cup
2012–13 rugby union tournaments for clubs
2012–13 RFU Championship
2012–13 in Irish rugby union
2012–13 in Welsh rugby union
2012–13 in Scottish rugby union
2012–13 in British rugby union