| 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup | |
| Teams: | 20 |
| Matches: | 66 |
| Countries: |  France Italy Romania |
| Tournament Format: | Round-robin and Knockout |
| Date: | 13 October 2016 – 12 May 2017 |
| Highest Attendance: | 24,494 Gloucester v Stade Francais (12 May 2017) |
| Lowest Attendance: | 300 Enisey-ETM v Brive (10 December 2016) |
| Top Point Scorer: | Dan Biggar (Ospreys) (78 points) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Keelan Giles (Ospreys) (7 tries) |
| Venue: | Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh |
| Champions: | Stade Français |
| Runner-Up: | Gloucester |
| Website: | EPCR Website |
| Previous Year: | 2015–16 |
| Previous Tournament: | 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup |
| Next Year: | 2017–18 |
| Next Tournament: | 2017–18 European Rugby Challenge Cup |
The 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup was the third edition of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, an annual second-tier rugby union competition for professional clubs. Clubs from six European nations plus one Russian club competed. It was also the 21st season of the Challenge Cup competition in all forms, following on from the now defunct European Challenge Cup.
Montpellier were the reigning champions, having beaten Harlequins in the final of the 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup. They did not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup as a result of the win.
The first round of the group stage began on the weekend of 13/14/15/16 October 2016, and the competition ended with the final on 12 May 2017 in Edinburgh.[1] [2]
Stade Français won the final 25–17 against Gloucester.[3]
20 teams qualified for the 2016–17 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 expected distribution of teams was:
The French Top 14 had its allocation reduced by 1 place after Montpellier won the 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup. This is after it was decided that, due to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, there would be no qualification play-off.
The following clubs qualified for the Challenge Cup.
| Aviva Premiership | Top 14 | Pro12 | Qualifying Competition | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=14% | England | width=14% | France | width=14% | Italy | width=14% | Scotland | width=14% | Wales | width=14% | Other |
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Once again, EPCR expanded the qualifying competition.[4]
Eight teams were split into two pools of four. Each team played the four teams in the other pool once. 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.
| Team | Coach / Director of Rugby | Captain | Stadium | Capacity | Method of Qualification | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath |  Todd Blackadder | Dave Attwood | Recreation Ground | 14,500 | Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (9th) | |
| Bayonne | Vincent Etcheto | Jean Monribot | Stade Jean Dauger | 16,934 | Pro D2 runner-up | |
| Benetton Treviso | Kieran Crowley | Alessandro Zanni | Stadio Comunale di Monigo | 6,700 | Pro12 bottom 5 (12th) | |
| Bristol | Andy Robinson | Jack Lam | Ashton Gate Stadium | 27,000 | 2015–16 RFU Championship Champion | |
| Brive | Nicolas Godignon | Arnaud Méla | Stade Amédée-Domenech | 16,000 | Top 14 7th-12th (8th) | |
| Cardiff Blues | Danny Wilson | Gethin Jenkins | BT Cardiff Arms Park | 12,125 | Pro12 bottom 5 (7th) | |
| Edinburgh | Alan Solomons | Grant Gilchrist | Murrayfield Stadium New Myreside | 67,144 5,500 | Pro12 bottom 5 (9th) | |
 Enisey-STM | Alexander Pervukhin | Uldis Saulite | Slava Stadium Trud Stadium Sochi Central Stadium | 2,500 3,000 10,200 | Challenge Cup Qualification play-off | |
| Gloucester | David Humphreys | Greig Laidlaw | Kingsholm Stadium | 16,115 | Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (8th) | |
| Grenoble | Bernard Jackman | Jonathan Wisniewski | Stade des Alpes | 20,068 | Top 14 7th-12th (10th) | |
| Harlequins | John Kingston | Danny Care | Twickenham Stoop | 14,800 | Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (7th) | |
| La Rochelle | Patrice Collazo Xavier Garbajosa | Uini Atonio | Stade Marcel-Deflandre | 15,000 | Top 14 7th-12th (9th) | |
| Lyon | Pierre Mignoni | Julien Puricelli | Matmut Stadium | 11,805 | Pro D2 Champion | |
| Newcastle Falcons | Dean Richards | Will Welch | Kingston Park | 10,200 | Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (11th) | |
| Newport Gwent Dragons | Kingsley Jones | T. Rhys Thomas | Rodney Parade | 8,800 | Pro12 bottom 5 (11th) | |
| Ospreys | Steve Tandy | Alun Wyn Jones | Liberty Stadium Millennium Stadium | 20,827 74,500 | Pro12 bottom 5 (8th) | |
| Pau | Simon Mannix | Julien Pierre | Stade du Hameau | 13,819 | Top 14 7th-12th (11th) | |
| Stade Français |  Gonzalo Quesada | Sergio Parisse | Stade Jean-Bouin | 20,000 | Top 14 7th-12th (12th) | |
| Timișoara Saracens | Grainger Heikell | Cătălin Fercu | Stadionul Dan Păltinișanu | 32,972 | Challenge Cup Qualification play-off | |
| Worcester Warriors | Carl Hogg | Gerrit-Jan van Velze | Sixways Stadium | 12,024 | Aviva Premiership 7th-11th (10th) |
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]
| width=5% | Rank | width=19% | Top 14 | width=19% | Premiership | width=19% | Pro 12 | width=19% | Qualifying Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enisey-STM | ||||||||
| 2 | Timișoara Saracens | ||||||||
| 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% | Harlequins (1 AP) | width=19% | Cardiff Blues (1 Pro12) | width=19% | Brive (1 Top 14) | width=19% | Ospreys (2 Pro12) | width=19% | La Rochelle (2 Top 14) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=5% | Tier 2 | width=19% | Gloucester (2 AP) | width=19% | Bath (3 AP) | width=19% | Edinburgh (3 Pro12) | width=19% | Grenoble (3 Top 14) | width=19% | Worcester Warriors (4 AP) | |
| width=5% | Tier 3 | width=19% | Pau (4 Top 14) | width=19% | Newport Gwent Dragons (4 Pro12) | width=19% | Newcastle Falcons (5 AP) | width=19% | Treviso (5 Pro12) | width=19% | Stade Français (5 Top 14) | |
| width=5% | Tier 4 | width=19% | Bristol (6 AP) | width=19% | Lyon (6 Top 14) | width=19% | Bayonne (7 Top 14) | width=19% | Enisey-STM (QC 1) | width=19% | Timișoara Saracens (QC 2) |
The following restrictions applied to the draw:
See main article: 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup pool stage.
The draw took place on 29 June 2016, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Teams played each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that began on weekend of 13/14/15/16 October 2016, and continued through to 19/20/21/22 January 2017, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progressed to the quarter finals.
Teams were awarded competition points, based on match result. Teams received 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.[6]
In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers were used, as directed by EPCR:
| Winner of each pool, advance to quarter-finals. | ||
| Three highest-scoring second-place teams advance to quarter-finals. | ||
| Cannot advance to the quarter-finals. |
| Seed | Pool Winners | Pts | +/− | TF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | +228 | 42 | ||
| 2 | 25 | +127 | 31 | ||
| 3 | 24 | +93 | 30 | ||
| 4 | 23 | +123 | 24 | ||
| 5 | 23 | +55 | 21 | ||
| Seed | Pool Runners-Up | Pts | +/− | TF | |
| 6 | 24 | +99 | 28 | ||
| 7 | 22 | +35 | 16 | ||
| 8 | 20 | +44 | 20 | ||
| 9 | 16 | +23 | 26 | ||
| 10 | 14 | +10 | 19 |
The eight qualifiers were ranked according to performance in the pool stages, and compete in the quarter-finals, which was held on the weekend of 30/31 March, 1/2 April 2017. The top four teams hosted the quarter-finals against the lower teams in a 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 format.
The semi-finals were played on the weekend of 21/22/23 April 2017. In lieu of the draw that 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:[6]
| 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 contested the final at Murrayfield on 12 May 2017.[2]
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| Club | Home Games | Total | Average | Highest | Lowest | % Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | 4 | 49,570 | 12,393 | 13,257 | 11,677 | 85% |
| Bayonne | 3 | 8,703 | 2,901 | 5,005 | 1,498 | 17% |
| Benetton Treviso | 3 | 4,100 | 1,367 | 1,900 | 700 | 25% |
| Bristol | 3 | 28,988 | 9,663 | 13,140 | 7,559 | 36% |
| Brive | 3 | 11,500 | 3,833 | 5,000 | 2,500 | 24% |
| Cardiff Blues | 3 | 21,752 | 7,251 | 7,569 | 6,960 | 60% |
| Edinburgh | 4 | 20,105 | 5,026 | 5,489 | 4,055 | 29% |
| Enisey-ETM | 3 | 2,800 | 933 | 1,500 | 300 | 18% |
| Gloucester | 4 | 39,367 | 9,842 | 11,206 | 9,265 | 61% |
| Grenoble | 3 | 20,607 | 6,869 | 7,003 | 6,754 | 42% |
| Harlequins | 3 | 29,692 | 9,897 | 11,820 | 8,230 | 67% |
| La Rochelle | 4 | 56,910 | 14,228 | 15,000 | 13,123 | 95% |
| Lyon | 3 | 27,472 | 9,157 | 12,080 | 6,500 | 77% |
| Newcastle Falcons | 3 | 10,448 | 3,483 | 3,551 | 3,390 | 34% |
| Newport Gwent Dragons | 3 | 11,766 | 3,922 | 4,126 | 3,544 | 46% |
| Ospreys | 4 | 33,504 | 8,376 | 12,127 | 6,986 | 30% |
| Pau | 3 | 23,635 | 7,878 | 9,212 | 6,050 | 57% |
| Stade Francais | 4 | 31,363 | 7,841 | 10,175 | 6,511 | 39% |
| Timișoara Saracens | 2 | 6,500 | 3,250 | 3,500 | 3,000 | 10% |
| Worcester Warriors | 3 | 20,474 | 6,825 | 7,209 | 6,097 | 57% |