The 2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the eighth season of the

European Rugby Champions Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pr ...

, the annual club

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 run by

European Professional Club Rugby European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) is the governing body and organiser of the two major club rugby union tournaments: the European Rugby Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup. A third tournament, the European Rugby Challenge Cup Qualifyin ...

(EPCR) for teams from the top six nations in European rugby. It was the 27th season of pan-European professional club rugby competition. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the 24-team, two pool tournament format adopted for the previous season remained. This is the final year, under the current sponsorship deal, with Dutch beer brand Heineken, after a four-year deal was agreed starting from the 2018/19 season. The tournament commenced in December 2021. On 28 May 2022, Stade Rochelais won the final at

Stade Vélodrome The Stade Vélodrome (), known for sponsorship reasons as the Orange Vélodrome since June 2016, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, and has ...

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, France, defeating

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

24 points to 21.

Teams

Twenty-four clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues are competing in the Champions Cup. The distribution of the teams are: * England: eight clubs ** The top eight clubs from

Premiership Rugby 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 ...

* France: eight clubs ** The top seven clubs from 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 ...

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

automatically qualify as Challenge Cup champions despite not finishing in the top 8. * Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales: eight clubs ** The top four sides in each conference from the previous season's

Pro14 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 ...

(now known as

United Rugby Championship 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 ...

). The following teams have qualified for the tournament as of 12 June 2021.

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 and draw

The twenty four teams are seeded based on their finishing position in end of season playoffs and league positions. This follows the format from the previous season with the number 1 and number 2 ranked clubs from each league in Tier 1, the number 3 and number 4 ranked clubs in Tier 2, the number 5 and 6 ranked clubs in Tier 3, and the number 7 and number 8 ranked clubs in Tier 4. The draw took place on 21 July 2021 in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

, Switzerland.

Pool Stage

Teams are awarded four points for a win, two for a draw, one for scoring four tries in a game, and one for losing by less than eight points.

Pool A

Pool B

Knockout stage

The knockout stage began across the 8/9/10 April with a home and away round of 16 matches consisting of the top eight ranked teams from each pool.

Teams

Team details

Seeding and draw

Pool Stage

Pool A

Pool B

Knockout stage

Bracket

Round of 16

First leg

Second leg

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

See also

Notes

References