The 2016–17 Anglo-Welsh Cup was the 45th season of England's national

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 ...

cup competition, and the 11th to follow the

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

format. The competition returned after a one-year hiatus due to being dropped due to the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

in England. The competition consisted of the four Welsh

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

teams and the twelve English Premiership clubs arranged in pools of three English and one Welsh team. English clubs were allocated to the pools depending on their final positions in the 2015–16 Aviva Premiership. Teams played two home and two away pool matches, with teams in Pools 1 and 4 playing each other and teams in Pools 2 and 3 playing each other. The top team from each pool qualified for the semi-finals. The competition took place during the Autumn International window and during the Six Nations.

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 ...

were defending champions after claiming the cup with a 23–20 victory over

Exeter Chiefs Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an England, English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played i ...

in the 2014–15 final at

Franklin's Gardens Franklin's Gardens (currently known for sponsorship purposes as cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens) is a purpose-built rugby stadium in Northampton, England. It is the home stadium of Northampton Saints and Loughborough Lightning. The stadiu ...

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

. This was Saracens second title in the competition. The 2016–17 Anglo-Welsh Cup was won by

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

who won their eighth cup title by defeating

16–12 in the final held at

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 ...

. Freddie Burns had an excellent tournament for the Tigers, scoring 64 points overall including 11 in the final, to finish as the competition's top point scorer, while Josh Adams was top try scorer with 6 tries from only 2 games for

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

Teams & locations

Pool stages

;Points system The points scoring system for the pool stages will be as follows: * 4 points for a win * 2 points for a draw * 1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match (TB) * 1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less (LB)

Pool 1 v Pool 4

Round 1 (England)

---- ----

Round 2

---- ---- ----

Round 1 (Wales)

Round 3

---- ---- ----

Round 4

---- ---- ----

Pool 2 v Pool 3

Round 1 (England)

---- ----

Round 2

---- ---- ----

Round 1 (Wales)

Round 3

---- ---- ----

Round 4

---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

Final

Attendances

* Attendances do not include the final at Twickenham Stoop.

Individual statistics

* Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included).

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

Season records

Team

;Largest home win — 52 points 62-10 Wasps at home to Worcester Warriors on 13 November 2016 ;Largest away win — 24 points 31-6 Ospreys away to Cardiff Blues on 18 November 2016 ;Most points scored — 62 points (x2) 62-25 Exeter Chiefs at home to Cardiff Blues on 13 November 2016
62-10 Wasps at home to Worcester Warriors on 13 November 2016 ;Most tries in a match — 10 (x2) Exeter Chiefs at home to Cardiff Blues on 13 November 2016
Wasps at home to Worcester Warriors on 13 November 2016 ;Most conversions in a match — 6 (x3) Exeter Chiefs at home to Cardiff Blues on 13 November 2016
Wasps at home to Worcester Warriors on 13 November 2016
Exeter Chiefs at home to Wasps on 28 January 2017 ;Most penalties in a match — 4 (x2) Harlequins at home to Exeter Chiefs on 5 November 2016
Northampton Saints away to Newcastle Falcons on 6 November 2016
Bath at home to Gloucester on 27 January 2017 ;Most drop goals in a match — 1 Northampton Saints away to Newcastle Falcons on 6 November 2016

Player

;Most points in a match — 17 Joe Simmonds for Exeter Chiefs at home to Cardiff Blues on 13 November 2016 ;Most tries in a match — 3

Michele Campagnaro Michele Campagnaro (; born 13 March 1993) is a former Italian rugby union player. He represented Italy at international level, having made his test debut against Fiji during the 2013 Autumn Internationals. Club career On his debut for Bene ...

for Exeter Chiefs at home to Wasps on 28 January 2017 ;Most conversions in a match — 6 (x2) Joe Simmonds for Exeter Chiefs at home to Cardiff Blues on 13 November 2016
Joe Simmonds for Exeter Chiefs at home to Wasps on 28 January 2017 ;Most penalties in a match — 4 (x3) Nick Evans for Harlequins at home to Exeter Chiefs on 5 November 2016
Sam Olver for Northampton Saints away to Newcastle Falcons on 6 November 2016
Rhys Priestland for Bath at home to Gloucester on 27 January 2017 ;Most drop goals in a match — 1 Sam Olver for Northampton Saints away to Newcastle Falcons on 6 November 2016

Attendances

;Highest — 25,849 Leicester Tigers at home to Northampton Saints on 28 January 2017 ;Lowest — 1,370 Cardiff Blues at home to Worcester Warriors on 4 February 2017 ;Highest Average Attendance — 22,300 Leicester Tigers ;Lowest Average Attendance — 2,732 Cardiff Blues

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anglo-Welsh Cup 2016-17 2016–17 rugby union tournaments for clubs 2016–17 English Premiership (rugby union) 2016–17 in Welsh rugby union