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The 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup was the first season of the
European Rugby 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 i ...
, 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. It is the 19th season of second tier pan-European club competition in general, as the competition replaces the
European 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 ...
. The competition began with the first round of the group stage, on the weekend of 16 October 2014, and ended with the final on 1 May 2015 at the
Twickenham Stoop Twickenham Stoop Stadium (informally referred to as The Stoop) is a stadium located in south-west London, England, situated just across the road from Twickenham Stadium. The stadium is home to the Harlequins in Premiership Rugby and has a c ...
., utmccn=%28referral%29, utmcmd=referral, utmcct=/mCsEgmuUXy&__utmv=-&__utmk=101943746 EPCRugby.com - 10 things you may not know about EPCR
/ref>Inaugural EPCR finals set for London
Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...
became the first ever champions of the newly formatted competition, beating
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, who became the first ever Scottish team to make a European final, 19–13, with 14 men on the pitch for the final 17 minutes after centre Bill Meakes was sent off because of a dangerous high tackle off the ball on Edinburgh centre Sam Beard.


Teams

Twenty teams qualified for the 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup, based on their performance in their respective domestic leagues the previous season. The distribution of teams is as follows: * England: 5 teams ** Any teams finishing between 8th-11th position in the
Aviva Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby u ...
. (4 Teams) ** The champion of the 2013–14 Greene King IPA Championship. (1 Team) * France: 8 teams ** Any teams finishing between 8th-12th position 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 National Rugby League (France), France National Rugby League, also ...
. (5 Teams) ** The champion, and the winner of the promotion play-off, from the
Pro D2 The Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was introduced in 2000. It ...
. (2 Teams) ** There will be an 8th team from France, as
Stade Français Stade Français Paris (known commonly as Stade Français, ) is a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and is one of the most successful French ...
lost the 7th-place play-off for entry into the European Rugby Champions Cup. (1 team) * Ireland, Italy, Scotland & Wales: 5 teams ** Any teams that did not qualify for the European Rugby Champions Cup through the 2013–14 RaboDirect Pro12 * Other European Nations: 2 teams ** Two teams will qualify through the Qualifying Competition, which will take place in September. So far, the following 18 teams have qualified.


Champions Cup play-off

The following teams took part in the play-off to decide the final team in the Champions Cup. The play-off was held between the seventh-placed teams in the English Premiership and the Top 14. The loser of this play-off entered the Challenge Cup. On 29 April 2014, it was announced that this play-off would take place over two legs, on the weekends of 17/18 May and 24/25 May, with a draw being used to determine home advantage for each leg. The draw took place in Heathrow on 6 May 2014. Following the draw, the fixtures were announced as follows: Stade Français lost the play-off 35–50 on aggregate, and will play in the Challenge Cup.


Qualifying Competition

On 14 August 2014, EPCR announced the format for the first Qualifying Competition. Given the amount of time until the start of the Challenge Cup, it was announced that this first competition will consist of two ties, played over two legs, with the aggregate winner of each taking a place in either pool. The first legs took place on 20 September, with the return legs taking place on 27 September


Rugby Europe 1 play-off

* Rovigo Delta won the play-off 46–39 on aggregate, and qualify for Pool 1.


Rugby Europe 2 play-off

* București Wolves won the play-off 28–26 on aggregate, and qualify for Pool 3


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 and QF for losing quarter-finalist.


Seeding

The 20 competing teams will be seeded and split into four tiers, seeding will be based on performance in their respective domestic leagues. Where promotion and relegation is in effect in a league, the promoted team will be seeded last, or (if multiple teams are promoted) by performance in the lower tier.http://archive.ercrugby.com/news/28791.php ERCRugby.com. Accessed 8 June 2014 So, Lyon – who were Pro D2 champions – will be the seventh Top 14 seed while La Rochelle – who qualified through the Pro D2 play-off – will be the eighth seed. As with the previous European competition, the European Challenge Cup, teams from the same country will be kept apart where possible. However, as 8 teams have qualified from France, 3 pools will contain two French teams –
Oyonnax Oyonnax () is the second most populated commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. Oyonnax lies in a valley of the Jura Mountains in the far north of Ain. It is near the Parc naturel régional du Hau ...
,
Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
and
La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle'') is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime Departments of France, department. Wi ...
. For the purposes of creating the tiers, the clubs are ranked based on their finishing positions in the Top 14, Aviva Premiership, Pro12 and PRO D2 Leagues, or on their qualification via a play-off. Teams will be taken from a league in order of rank and put into a tier. A draw is used allocate two second seeds to Tier 1, the remaining team will go into Tier 2. This allocation then determines which fourth seeded team enters Tier 2, while the others enter Tier 3. Given the nature of the Qualifying Competition, a competition including developing rugby nations and Italian clubs not competing in the Pro12, Rugby Europe 1 and Rugby Europe 2 are automatically included in Tier 4, despite officially being ranked 1/2 from ''that competition''. The brackets show each teams seeding and their league (for example, ''1 Top 14'' indicates the team has been seeded 1st from the Top 14).


Pool stage

The draw took place on 10 June 2014, at the
Stade de la Maladière Stade de la Maladière is a multi-purpose stadium in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home ground of Neuchâtel Xamax. The stadium holds 12,000. It replaced the old Stade d ...
in
Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...
.Irish Times - Rugby’s European Champions Cup draw to place on June 10th. Accessed 31/5/14
/ref> Teams will play each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that will begin on the weekend of 16/17/18/19 October 2014, and continue through to 22/23/24/25 January 2015, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progress to the quarter-finals.EPCRugby.com - 2014/15 EPCR Pool Draws
Fixtures were announced on Thursday 14 August 2014 at 2 pm. Teams are awarded competition points, based on match result. Teams receive 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw, 1 attacking bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and 1 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 that scored the most tries in those matches. ## If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches. # Where teams remain tied and/or have not played each other in the competition (i.e. are from different pools) ## If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage. ## 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


Seeding and runners-up


Knock-out stage

The eight qualifiers will be seeded according to performance in the pool stage, and compete in the quarter-finals, which will be held on the 3/4/5 April 2015. The four top seeds will host the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 format. The semi-finals, to be contested by the quarter-final winners, will take place on the weekend of 17/18/19 April 2015. The winners of the semi-finals will contest the final, at The Twickenham Stoop, on the weekend of 1 May 2015.


Bracket


Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Final


See also

*
2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup The 2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup was the first season of the European Rugby Champions Cup (20th overall), the annual rugby union club competition for teams from the top six nations in European rugby, and the 20th season of professional ...


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:European Rugby Challenge Cup 2014-15 2014–15 rugby union tournaments for clubs 2014–15 in European rugby union 2014–15 in English rugby union 2014–15 in French rugby union 2014–15 in Irish rugby union 2014–15 in Italian rugby union 2014–15 in Scottish rugby union 2014–15 in Welsh rugby union 2014–15 in Romanian rugby union