2010–11 European Challenge Cup Explained

2010–11 Amlin Challenge Cup
Countries:	France Ireland Italy Romania Spain
Tournament Format:	Round-robin and Knockout
Date:	7 October 2010 to 20 May 2011
Teams:	23
Matches:	67
Top Point Scorer:	Julien Caminati (Brive) (97 points)
Top Try Scorer:	Tom Brady (Sale) Sam Gerber (Bayonne) Nicolas Jeanjean (Brive) Nick Macleod (Sale) Pierre Rabadan (Stade Français) James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester) Henry Trinder (Gloucester) (5 tries)
Venue:	Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff
Champions:	Harlequins
Count:	3
Runner-Up:	Stade Français
Website:	https://web.archive.org/web/20080506141030/http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/
Previous Year:	2009–10
Previous Tournament:	2009–10 European Challenge Cup
Next Year:	2011–12
Next Tournament:	2011–12 Amlin Challenge Cup

The 2010–11 Amlin Challenge Cup was the 15th season of the European Challenge Cup, Europe's second-tier club rugby union competition, and the second to be sponsored by the British insurance company Amlin. The tournament began on 7 October 2010, with the final played on 20 May 2011 at Cardiff City Stadium, the day before the 2011 Heineken Cup Final in the same city at Millennium Stadium. A total of 23 teams from six countries participated. The competition began with 20 teams; three more teams that began their seasons in the Heineken Cup parachuted into the knockout stage. Cardiff Blues did not defend their title, as by winning the 2009–10 cup, they qualified for the 2010–11 Heineken Cup, and did not parachute into the Challenge Cup.

Harlequins claimed the title with a 19–18 win over Stade Français, becoming the first team to win the Challenge Cup three times.^[1] The victory also sent Quins into the 2011–12 Heineken Cup.

Teams

The allocation of teams is as follows:

• England: 6 teams — all teams from the Aviva Premiership that did not qualify for the Heineken Cup
• France: 7 teams — all teams from the Top 14 that did not qualify for the Heineken Cup. Normally 8 teams, but Toulouse's win in the 2009–10 Heineken Cup gave France an extra place in the 2010–11 Heineken Cup.
• Italy: 4 teams — the top four teams from the 2009–10 Super 10 (now Top12) that did not move to the Celtic League for 2010–11
• Ireland: 1 team — the Irish team that failed to qualify for the Heineken Cup through the Magners League
• Spain: 1 team — the champion of the previous season's División de Honor
• Romania: 1 team specially created for the competition

width=16%	England	width=16%	France	width=16%	Ireland	width=16%	Italy	width=16%	Romania	width=16%	Spain
Gloucester Sale Sharks Harlequins Newcastle Falcons Leeds Carnegie	Stade Français Bourgoin Brive Agen Montpellier Bayonne La Rochelle	Connacht	Crociati Parma Cavalieri Prato Petrarca Padova Rovigo	București Oaks	El Salvador

Seeding

Teams that did not qualify for the 2010–11 Heineken Cup were ordered into four tiers according to the European Rugby Club Ranking. Five pools of four teams were drawn comprising one team from each tier.

The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking at the end of the 2009–10 season.

width=6%	Tier 1	width=15%	Stade Français (8)	width=15%	Gloucester (13)	width=15%	Sale Sharks (18)	width=15%	Bourgoin (20)	width=15%	Harlequins (22)
Tier 2	Newcastle Falcons (25)	Brive (28)	Connacht (31)	Agen (33)	Crociati Parma (37)
Tier 3	Leeds Carnegie (38)	Montpellier (39)	Bayonne		Rovigo
Tier 4	La Rochelle	Cavalieri Prato		București Oaks	El Salvador

Pool stage

See main article: 2010–11 Amlin Challenge Cup pool stage. The draw for the pool stage took place on 9 June 2010.

Key to colours

Winner of each pool advances to quarterfinals. Seed # in parentheses.

Pool 1

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Harlequins (4)	6	5	0	1	21	6	+15	189	84	+105	3	1	24
Connacht	6	3	0	3	19	8	+11	173	99	+74	1	2	15
Bayonne	6	3	0	3	19	12	+7	163	116	+47	2	1	15
Cavalieri Prato	6	1	0	5	8	41	−33	77	303	−226	0	0	4

Pool 2

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Brive (2)	6	6	0	0	34	3	+31	257	54	+203	3	0	27
Sale Sharks	6	4	0	2	39	4	+35	279	58	+221	4	1	21
	6	1	0	5	10	26	−16	88	213	−125	1	1	6
El Salvador	6	1	0	5	6	56	−50	69	368	−299	0	0	4

Pool 3

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Montpellier (8)	6	5	0	1	10	11	−1	147	101	+46	1	0	21
	6	3	0	3	16	10	+6	154	113	+41	1	3	16
Bourgoin	6	2	0	4	10	12	−2	119	130	−11	2	1	11
Newcastle Falcons	6	2	0	4	7	10	−3	66	142	−76	0	1	9

Pool 4

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Stade Français (1)	6	6	0	0	29	7	+22	216	73	+143	5	0	29
	6	4	0	2	24	6	+18	173	88	+85	3	0	19
București Oaks	6	1	0	5	4	17	-13	74	148	-74	0	1	5
Crociati Parma	6	1	0	5	3	30	-27	70	224	-154	0	1	5

Pool 5

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
La Rochelle (3)	6	5	0	1	26	10	+16	197	91	+106	3	1	24
Gloucester	6	4	0	2	35	7	+28	255	77	+178	3	2	21
	6	3	0	3	21	18	+3	167	158	+9	2	1	15
Rugby Rovigo	6	0	0	6	6	53	-47	55	348	-293	0	0	0

Knockout stage

Seeding

Following the end of the pool stage, the 5 pool winners were seeded alongside the top 3 2010–11 Heineken Cup pool runners-up who failed to qualify for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

(HC) Means a team has entered the competition from the Heineken Cup

Seed	Team
1	Stade Français
2	Brive
3	La Rochelle
4	Harlequins
5 (HC)	London Wasps
6 (HC)	Clermont
7 (HC)	Munster
8	Montpellier

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals were decided based on the above seeding. All game times are local.

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Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals of both the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup took place after the Pool 6 Heinieken Cup match between London Wasps and Toulouse on 23 January 2011. The draw was conducted in the Sky Sports booth by Ieuan Evans and Jean-Pierre Lux, Chairman of ERC, at Adams Park, High Wycombe.

In last season's Challenge Cup, any semi-final that involved a club that started the season in the Challenge Cup and a club that started in the Heineken Cup would be hosted by the club that started in the Challenge Cup. This rule was abandoned for 2010–11; the home club in each semi-final is now determined strictly by the draw.

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Final

The final of the Amlin Challenge Cup took place at Cardiff City Stadium on 20 May 2011. Harlequins won the trophy for the third time with a 19–18 victory over Stade Francais.^{[2] [3]}

Individual statistics

Top points scorers

Player	Team	Points
		97
		94
		71
		65
		64
		58
		53
		48
		47
		47

^[4]

Top try scorers

Player	Team	Tries
		5
		5
		5
		5
		5
		5
		5
		4
		4
		4

^[5]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Harlequins 19-18 Stade Francais . 20 May 2011. BBC Sport. 24 May 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110521112609/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/9488524.stm. 21 May 2011 . live.
2. Web site: Quins claim Challenge Cup glory. 20 May 2011. espnscrum. 24 May 2011.
3. Web site: Harlequins 19 Stade Francais 18 . 20 May 2011. Daily Telegraph. 24 May 2011.
4. News: Amlin Challenge Cup: Points Scorers . European Rugby Cup . 2011-05-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101223212228/http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/statistics/player_records_points.php#rd871 . 2010-12-23 . dead .
5. News: Amlin Challenge Cup: Try Scorers . European Rugby Cup . 2011-05-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101227014227/http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/statistics/player_records_tries.php#rd882 . 2010-12-27 . dead .