| 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup | |
| Countries: |  France Ireland Italy |
| Tournament Format: | Round-robin and Knockout |
| Date: | 12 November 2015 – 13 May 2016 |
| Teams: | 20 |
| Matches: | 61 |
| Highest Attendance: | 28,556 Montpellier v Harlequins 13 May 2016 |
| Lowest Attendance: | 400 Enisey-STM v Newcastle Falcons 16 January 2016 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Benoît Paillaugue (Montpellier) Rhys Patchell (Cardiff Blues) (56 points) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Marcus Watson (Newcastle Falcons) (6 tries) |
| Venue: | Grand Stade de Lyon, Lyon |
| Champions: | Montpellier |
| Count: | 1 |
| Runner-Up: | Harlequins |
| Website: | EPCR Website |
| Previous Year: | 2014–15 |
| Previous Tournament: | 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup |
| Next Year: | 2016–17 |
| Next Tournament: | 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup |
The 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup was the second edition of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, an annual pan-European rugby union competition for professional clubs. It is also the 20th season of the Challenge Cup competition in all forms, following on from the now defunct European Challenge Cup. Due to the 2015 Rugby World Cup taking place during September and October 2015, the competition began slightly later than usual, with the first round of the group stage, on the weekend of 12/13/14/15 November 2015, and ended with the final on 13 May 2016 in Lyon.[1] [2]
Gloucester were the 2014 1–5 champions, having beaten Edinburgh 19–13 in the final.
Montpellier won the cup, defeating Harlequins in the final 26–19.[3] [4]
20 teams qualified for the 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup; a total of 18 qualified from across the Premiership, Pro12 and Top 14, as a direct result of their domestic league performance, with two coming through a play-off. The distribution of teams was:
As of 24 May 2015, the following clubs qualified for the Challenge Cup:
| Aviva Premiership | Top 14 | Pro12 | Qualifying Competition | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=14% | England | width=14% | France | width=14% | Ireland | width=14% | Italy | width=14% | Scotland | width=14% | Wales | width=14% | Other |
| |||||||||||||
See main article: 2015–16 European Rugby Champions–Challenge Cup play-offs. The following teams took part in play-off matches to decide the final team in the Champions Cup. The play-off was held between Premiership side Gloucester, as Challenge Cup winners, and teams from the Pro12 and Top 14.
| Aviva Premiership | Top 14 | Pro 12 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=16% | England | width=16% | France | width=16% | Ireland |
| Gloucester | Bordeaux Bègles | Connacht | |||
The play-off was a two-match series, with the winner of the first match progressing to the second, and the winner of that second match qualifying for the Champions Cup. The two losing sides both joined the Challenge Cup.
In December 2014, EPCR announced an expanded format for the qualifying competition.
Six teams were to compete in two pools of three. Each team played the other once, either home or away. The winner of each pool then played a two-legged final against last year's qualifying sides, and the winners, on aggregate, took the two remaining places in the Challenge Cup.
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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.
The 20 competing teams were seeded and split into four tiers; seeding was based on performance in their respective domestic leagues. Where promotion and relegation is in effect in a league, the promoted team was seeded last, or (if multiple teams are promoted) by performance in the lower tier.[5] So, Pau – who were Pro D2 champions – will be seeded above Agen – who qualified through the Pro D2 play-off.
| width=5% | Rank | width=19% | Top 14 | width=19% | Premiership | width=19% | Pro 12 | width=19% | Qualifying Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calvisano | ||||||||
| 2 |  Enisey-STM | ||||||||
| 3 | |||||||||
| 4 | |||||||||
| 5 | |||||||||
| 6 | |||||||||
| 7 |
Teams were taken from a league in order of rank and put into a tier. A draw was used to allocate two second seeds to Tier 1; the remaining team went into Tier 2. This allocation indirectly determined which fourth-seeded team entered Tier 2, while the others entered 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 were automatically included in Tier 4, despite officially being ranked 1/2 from that competition.
The brackets show each team's seeding and their league (for example, 1 Top 14 indicates the team was seeded 1st from the Top 14).
| width=5% | Tier 1 | width=19% | Connacht (1 Pro12) | width=19% | Sale Sharks (1 AP) | width=19% | Montpellier (1 Top 14) | width=19% | La Rochelle (2 Top 14) | width=19% | Edinburgh (2 Pro12) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=5% | Tier 2 | width=19% | Harlequins (2 AP) | width=19% | Newport Gwent Dragons (3 Pro12) | width=19% | Gloucester (3 AP) | width=19% | Brive (3 Top 14) | width=19% | London Irish (4 AP) | |
| width=5% | Tier 3 | width=19% | Grenoble (4 Top 14) | width=19% | Cardiff Blues (4 Pro12) | width=19% | Zebre (5 Pro12) | width=19% | Newcastle Falcons (5 AP) | width=19% | Castres Olympique (5 Top 14) | |
| width=5% | Tier 4 | width=19% | Worcester Warriors (6 AP) | width=19% | Pau (Top 14) | width=19% | Agen (Top 14) | width=19% | Calvisano (QC 1) | width=19% | Enisey-STM (QC 2) |
The draw for the Challenge Cup took place on 17 June 2015 in Neuchatel, Switzerland.[6]
The following restrictions applied to the draw:[6]
See main article: 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup pool stage. The draw took place on 17 June 2015.[7]
Teams will play each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that will begin on weekend of 12/13/14/15 November 2015, and continued through to 21/22/23/24 January 2016, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progressed to the quarter-finals.[7]
Teams will be 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.[8]
In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers will be used, as directed by EPCR:
| Winner of each pool, advanced to quarter-finals. | ||
| Three highest-scoring second-place teams advanced to quarter-finals. |
| Rank | Pool Winners | Pts | TF | +/− | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 31 | +102 | ||
| 2 | 25 | 16 | +65 | ||
| 3 | 23 | 20 | +76 | ||
| 4 | 22 | 22 | +33 | ||
| 5 | 19 | 20 | +51 | ||
| Rank | Pool Runners–up | Pts | TF | +/− | |
| 6 | 20 | 28 | +105 | ||
| 7 | 20 | 17 | +34 | ||
| 8 | 17 | 25 | +64 | ||
| 9 | 16 | 20 | +40 | ||
| 10 | 13 | 11 | +22 |
The eight qualifiers were ranked according to performance in the pool stages, and competed in the quarter-finals, which were held on the weekend of 8/9/10 April 2016. The four top seeds hosted the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 format.
The semi-finals were played on the weekend of 22/23/24 April 2016. In lieu of the draw that was used to determine the semi-final pairing, EPCR announced that a fixed semi-final bracket would be set in advance, and that home advantage would be awarded to a side based on "performances by clubs during the pool stages as well as the achievement of a winning a quarter-final match away from home".
Home advantage was awarded as follows:[8]
| Winner of QF | Semi-final 1 (Home v Away) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 1 v 4 | |
| 1 | 5 | 5 v 1 | |
| 8 | 4 | 8 v 4 | |
| 8 | 5 | 5 v 8 |
| Winner of QF | Semi-final 2 (Home v Away) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 2 v 3 | |
| 3 | 7 | 7 v 3 | |
| 6 | 2 | 6 v 2 | |
| 6 | 7 | 6 v 7 |
The winners of the semi-finals would contest the final, at Parc Olympique Lyonnais (called "Grand Stade de Lyon" by EPCR), on 13 May 2016.[2]
| Club | Home Games | Total | Average | Highest | Lowest | % Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agen | 3 | 13,664 | 4,555 | 5,200 | 3,932 | 33% |
| Brive | 3 | 12,000 | 4,000 | 6,000 | 3,000 | 25% |
| Calvisano | 3 | 3,900 | 1,300 | 1,500 | 1,100 | 33% |
| Cardiff Blues | 3 | 15,341 | 5,114 | 5,490 | 4,602 | 41% |
| Castres Olympique | 3 | 20,421 | 6,807 | 7,580 | 6,025 | 59% |
| Connacht | 3 | 12,964 | 4,321 | 4,357 | 4,261 | 55% |
| Edinburgh | 3 | 9,915 | 3,305 | 3,551 | 3,100 | 5% |
| Enisey-ETM | 3 | 3,500 | 1,167 | 2,500 | 400 | 7% |
| Gloucester | 4 | 40,625 | 10,156 | 10,942 | 9,209 | 62% |
| Grenoble | 4 | 40,308 | 10,077 | 14,077 | 8,361 | 50% |
| Harlequins | 5 | 51,692 | 10,338 | 12,912 | 7,136 | 70% |
| La Rochelle | 3 | 31,863 | 10,621 | 12,763 | 8,500 | 71% |
| London Irish | 3 | 11,859 | 3,953 | 4,216 | 3,684 | 16% |
| Montpellier | 4 | 31,092 | 7,773 | 9,900 | 6,000 | 53% |
| Newcastle Falcons | 3 | 11,963 | 3,988 | 4,093 | 3,803 | 39% |
| Newport Gwent Dragons | 3 | 12,973 | 4,324 | 4,455 | 4,202 | 49% |
| Pau | 3 | 21,500 | 7,167 | 8,000 | 6,000 | 52% |
| Sale Sharks | 4 | 17,103 | 4,276 | 4,557 | 4,006 | 36% |
| Worcester Warriors | 3 | 18,032 | 6,011 | 6,774 | 5,124 | 50% |
| Zebre | 3 | 5,854 | 1,951 | 2,413 | 1,657 | 39% |
Jurijs Baranovs
Tom Coventry