2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup

2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup
2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England; France; Ireland; Italy; Scotland; Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and Knockout
Date	17 October 2014 – 2 May 2015
Tournament statistics
Teams	20
Matches played	67
Attendance	985,717 (14,712 per match)
Tries scored	287 (4.28 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Ian Madigan (Leinster); (113 points)
Top try scorer(s)	George North (Northampton Saints); (7 tries)
Final
Venue	Twickenham Stadium, London
Champions	Toulon (3rd title)
Runners-up	Clermont
	← 2013–14 (Previous) (Next) 2015–16 →

The 2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup was the first season of the European Rugby Champions Cup (20th overall), the annual rugby union club competition for teams from the top six nations in European rugby, and the 20th season of professional European rugby union in total. It replaced the Heineken Cup as Europe's top-tier competition for rugby clubs.^[1] The competition got underway on the weekend of 17 October 2014 with the first round of the pool stage, and ended with the final on 2 May 2015 at Twickenham Stadium, London, England.^[2]^[3]

Toulon were the champions having beaten Clermont 24–18 in a repeat of the 2013 Heineken Cup Final. Toulon retained their title for the second consecutive year, the first team to win three European titles in a row.

Teams

20 clubs, from the three major European domestic leagues, will compete in the Champions Cup:^[1]

England: 7 clubs
- The top 6 clubs in the Aviva Premiership. (6 clubs)
- There was a seventh club from England, after Wasps won the 7th Place play-off for entry into the European Rugby Champions Cup. (1 club)
France: 6 clubs, based on performance in the Top 14.
Ireland, Italy, Scotland & Wales: 7 clubs, based on performance in the Pro12.
- The best placed club from each nation (4 clubs)
- The 3 highest ranked clubs not qualified thereafter (3 clubs)

The following clubs qualified for the competition:

Aviva Premiership	Top 14	Pro 12
England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales
Saracens Northampton Saints Leicester Tigers Harlequins Bath Sale Sharks Wasps (7th Place play-off)	Toulon Montpellier Clermont Racing Métro Toulouse Castres Olympique	Leinster Munster Ulster	Benetton Treviso	Glasgow Warriors	Ospreys Scarlets

20th Team play-off

The following teams took part in the play-off for the final place in the Champions Cup, having finished 7th in their respective leagues.

Aviva Premiership	Top 14
England	France
Wasps	Stade Français

This play-off took place over two legs, on the weekends of 17/18 May and 24/25 May, with a draw being used to determine home advantage for each leg.^[4] The draw took place on 6 May 2014, in Heathrow. Following the draw, the fixtures were announced as follows:^[5]

18 May 2014
15:00 BST

Wasps	30–29	Stade Français

Adams Park
Referee: John Lacey (IRFU)

24 May 2014
14:45 CEST

Stade Français	6–20	Wasps

Stade Jean-Bouin
Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU)

Wasps won the play-off 50–35 on aggregate and qualified for the Champions Cup.

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.

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Method of Qualification
Bath	Mike Ford	Stuart Hooper	Recreation Ground	14,000	Aviva Premiership top 6 (5th)
Benetton Treviso	Umberto Casellato	Antonio Pavanello	Stadio Comunale di Monigo	6,700	Top Pro12 Italian team (11th)
Castres Olympique	Serge Milhas	Rémi Talès	Stade Pierre-Antoine	11,500	Top 14 top 6 (6th) (RU)
Clermont	Franck Azéma	Damien Chouly	Stade Marcel-Michelin	18,000	Top 14 top 6 (3rd) (QF)
Glasgow Warriors	Gregor Townsend	Alastair Kellock	Scotstoun Stadium	9,708	Top Pro12 Scottish team (2nd) (RU)
Harlequins	Conor O'Shea	Joe Marler	The Stoop	14,816	Aviva Premiership top 6 (4th) (SF)
Leicester Tigers	Richard Cockerill	Ed Slater	Welford Road	24,000	Aviva Premiership top 6 (3rd) (SF)
Leinster	Matt O'Connor	Jamie Heaslip	RDS Arena Aviva Stadium	18,500 51,700	Top Pro12 Irish team (1st) (CH)
Montpellier	Jake White (For Fabien Galthié)^[a]	Fulgence Ouedraogo	Altrad Stadium	14,700	Top 14 top 6 (2nd) (SF)
Munster	Anthony Foley	Peter O'Mahony	Thomond Park	25,600	Pro12 top 7 (3rd) (SF)
Northampton Saints	Jim Mallinder	Dylan Hartley	Franklin's Gardens	13,600	Aviva Premiership top 6 (2nd) (CH)
Ospreys	Steve Tandy	Alun Wyn Jones	Liberty Stadium	20,532	Top Pro12 Welsh Team (5th)
Racing Métro	Laurent Labit	Dimitri Szarzewski	Stade Yves-du-Manoir	14,000	Top 14 top 6 (5th) (SF)
Sale Sharks	Bryan Redpath	Daniel Braid	AJ Bell Stadium	12,000	Aviva Premiership top 6 (6th)
Saracens	Mark McCall	Alistair Hargreaves	Allianz Park	10,000	Aviva Premiership top 6 (1st) (RU)
Scarlets	Wayne Pivac	Ken Owens	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	Pro12 top 7 (6th)
Toulon	Bernard Laporte	Carl Hayman	Stade Mayol	15,400	Top 14 top 6 (1st) (CH)
Toulouse	Guy Novès	Thierry Dusautoir	Stade Ernest-Wallon	19,500	Top 14 top 6 (4th) (SF)
Ulster	Neil Doak	Rory Best	Kingspan Stadium	18,196	Pro12 top 7 (4th) (SF)
Wasps	Dai Young	James Haskell	Adams Park Ricoh Arena^{[a 1]}	10,516 32,609	7th Place play-off winner

^ Wasps moved their home ground to Ricoh Arena in Coventry,^[7] and played their first match there on 21 December.^[8]

Seeding

The 20 competing teams were seeded and split into four tiers; seeding was based on performance in their respective domestic leagues.

For the purpose of creating the tiers, Aviva Premiership clubs were ranked only according to their finishing positions in the League table, and not based on performance in the knockout phase of the season, while Top 14 and Pro12 clubs were ranked based on their League performances and on their qualification for the knockout phases of their championships, so a losing quarter-finalist in the Top 14 would be seeded below a losing semi-finalist, even if they finished above them in the regular season.^[9]

Rank	Top 14	Premiership	Pro 12
1	Toulon	Saracens	Leinster Rugby
2	Castres Olympique	Northampton Saints	Glasgow Warriors
3	Montpellier	Leicester Tigers	Munster
4	Racing Métro	Harlequins	Ulster
5	Clermont	Bath	Ospreys
6	Toulouse	Sale Sharks	Scarlets
7		Wasps	Benetton Treviso

Teams were taken from a league 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 then determined which fourth seeded team entered Tier 2, while the others entered Tier 3.

As with the previous European competition, the Heineken Cup, teams from the same country were kept apart where possible. However, as 7 teams qualified from England, 2 pools would by necessity contain two English teams and as 6 French teams qualified, there would be one pool with two French teams. Sale Sharks and Wasps would be drawn into pools which contained one other Aviva Premiership club, and Toulouse would be drawn into a pool which contained one other Top 14 club.

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).

Tier 1	Leinster (1 Pro12)	Saracens (1 AP)	Toulon (1 Top 14)	Northampton Saints (2 AP)	Glasgow Warriors (2 Pro12)
Tier 2	Castres Olympique (2 Top 14)	Munster (3 Pro12)	Leicester Tigers (3 AP)	Montpellier (3 Top 14)	Racing Métro (4 Top14)
Tier 3	Harlequins (4 AP)	Ulster (4 Pro12)	Ospreys (5 Pro12)	Bath (5 AP)	Clermont (5 Top 14)
Tier 4	Scarlets (6 Pro12)	Sale Sharks (6 AP)	Toulouse (6 Top 14)	Wasps (Play-off)	Benetton Treviso (7 Pro12)

Pool stage

The draw took place on 10 June 2014, at the Stade de la Maladière in Neuchâtel.^[10]^[11]

Fixtures were announced on Thursday 14 August 2014 at 2 pm.

Teams played each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that began on the weekend of 17/18/19 October 2014, and continued through to 23/24/25 January 2015, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progressed to the quarter-finals.^[12]^[2]

Teams were 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.^[13]

In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers were used, as directed by EPCR:

Where teams have played each other
1. The club with the greater number of competition points from only matches involving tied teams.
2. If equal, the club that scored the most tries in those matches.
3. If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches.
Where teams remain tied and/or have not played each other in the competition (i.e. are from different pools)
1. The club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage.
2. If equal, the club that scored the most tries in the pool stage.
3. If equal, the club with the fewest players suspended in the pool stage.
4. If equal, the drawing of lots will determine a club's ranking.

Key to colours
	Winner of each pool, advance to quarter-finals.
	Three highest-ranked second-place teams advance to quarter-finals.

Pool 1

Team v t e	P	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Clermont (3)	6	5	1	140	80	+60	14	6	1	1	22
Saracens (8)	6	4	2	119	95	+24	12	10	1	0	17
Munster	6	3	3	144	114	+30	15	11	1	2	15
Sale Sharks	6	0	6	82	196	−114	8	22	0	2	2

Pool 2

Team v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Leinster (4)	6	4	1	1	148	101	+47	13	9	1	1	20
Wasps (7)	6	3	1	2	155	105	+50	18	12	2	2	18
Harlequins	6	4	0	2	135	99	+36	13	7	1	1	18
Castres Olympique	6	0	0	6	86	219	−133	10	26	0	1	1

Pool 3

Team v t e	P	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Toulon (2)	6	5	1	181	89	+92	19	9	1	1	22
Leicester Tigers	6	3	3	108	126	−18	12	15	1	0	13
Ulster	6	2	4	116	146	−30	16	15	3	1	12
Scarlets	6	2	4	90	134	−44	8	16	0	0	8

Pool 4

Team v t e	P	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Bath (5)	6	4	2	146	108	+38	15	15	2	1	19
Toulouse	6	4	2	126	124	+2	11	10	0	1	17
Glasgow Warriors	6	3	3	108	84	+24	11	6	1	2	15
Montpellier	6	1	5	90	154	−64	9	15	0	2	6

Pool 5

Team v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Racing Métro (1)	6	5	1	0	168	69	+99	20	7	2	0	24
Northampton Saints (6)	6	4	0	2	178	82	+96	25	8	3	0	19
Ospreys	6	1	1	4	110	121	−11	11	13	1	2	9
Benetton Treviso	6	1	0	5	62	246	−184	8	36	0	0	4

Seeding and runners-up

Seed	Pool Winners	Pts	TF	+/−
1	Racing Métro	24	20	+99
2	Toulon	22	19	+92
3	Clermont	22	14	+60
4	Leinster	20	13	+47
5	Bath	19	15	+38
Seed	Pool Runners–up	Pts	TF	+/−
6	Northampton Saints	19	25	+96
7	Wasps	18	18	+50
8	Saracens	17	12	+24
9	Toulouse	17	11	+2
10	Leicester	13	15	-18

Knock-out stage

The eight qualifiers were seeded according to performance in the pool stage, and competed in the quarter-finals, which were held on the weekend of 3–5 April 2015. 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 18–19 April 2015.

The winners of the semi-finals will contest the final, at Twickenham Stadium, on 2 May 2015.^[3]

Bracket

Quarter-finals			Semi-finals		Final

3	Clermont	37

6	Northampton Saints	5
			Clermont	13

			Saracens	9
1	Racing Métro	11

8	Saracens	12
					Clermont	18

					Toulon	24
2	Toulon	32

7	Wasps	18
			Toulon (a.e.t.)	25

			Leinster	20
4	Leinster	18

5	Bath	15

Quarter-finals

4 April 2015
15:15

Leinster	18–15	Bath
Pen: Madigan (6/6) 13', 24', 27', 34', 38', 52'	Report^[14]	Try: Ford 20' m Hooper 46' c Con: Ford (1/2) 47' Pen: Ford (1/2) 73'

Aviva Stadium
Attendance: 43,958
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (FFR)

4 April 2015
18:45

Clermont	37–5	Northampton Saints
Try: Nakaitaci (2) 12' c, 30' c Fofana 37' c Abendanon 54' c Con: James (4/4) 13', 32', 38', 55' Pen: James (3/3) 4', 25', 46'	Report^[15]	Try: Waller 66' m

Stade Marcel-Michelin
Attendance: 17,730
Referee: John Lacey (IRFU)

5 April 2015
13:45

Racing Métro	11–12	Saracens
Try: Machenaud 26' m Pen: Machenaud (2/2) 60', 70'	Report^[16]	Pen: Hodgson (2/4) 5', 40' Goode (1/1) 47' Bosch (1/1) 80+1'

Stade Yves-du-Manoir
Attendance: 12,113
Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU)

5 April 2015
16:15

Toulon	32–18	Wasps
Try: Bastareaud 7' c Williams 76' c Con: Michalak (2/2) 7', 77' Pen: Michalak (6/6) 16', 22', 27', 35', 38', 68'	Report^[17]	Try: Helu (2) 53' c, 72' m Con: Goode (1/2) 54' Pen: Lozowski (2/2) 12', 25'

Stade Mayol
Attendance: 15,228
Referee: George Clancy (IRFU)

Semi-finals

18 April 2015
16:15

Clermont	13–9	Saracens
Try: Fofana 43'c Con: James (1/1) 44' Pen: James (2/2) 25', 72'	Report^[18]	Pen: Hodgson (1/1) 36' Farrell (1/1) 65' Drop: Hodgson (1/1) 14'

Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne
Attendance: 41,500
Referee: George Clancy (IRFU)

19 April 2015
16:15

Toulon	25–20 (A.E.T.)	Leinster
Try: Habana 90' c Con: Halfpenny (1/1) 91' Pen: Halfpenny (6/7) 5', 29', 55', 67', 83', 89'	Report^[19]	Try: O'Brien 94' m Pen: Madigan (5/6) 8', 16', 20', 69', 85'

Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
Attendance: 35,116
Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU)

Final

2 May 2015
17:00 BST (UTC+01)

Clermont	18–24	Toulon
Try: Fofana 24' m Abendanon 62' c Con: Lopez (1/2) 62' Pen: Lopez (2/2) 7', 12'	Report^[20]	Try: Bastareaud 40' c Mitchell 69' m Con: Halfpenny (1/2) 40+2' Pen: Halfpenny (4/5) 16', 28', 32', 51'