The 2019–20 European Rugby Challenge Cup was the sixth edition of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, an annual second-tier rugby union competition for professional clubs. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this was the 24th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition. Clubs from six European nations competed, including Russian and Italian clubs who qualified via the Continental Shield.
The tournament began in November 2019. The knock-out stages, originally planned to take place between March and May 2020, were delayed until later in the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. The final took place on 16 October at the Stade Maurice David in Aix-en-Provence.[1]
Teams
20 teams will qualify for the 2019–20 European Challenge Cup; 18 will qualify from Premiership Rugby, the Pro14 and the Top 14, as a direct result of their domestic league performance, with two qualifying through the 2018–19 Continental Shield. The distribution of teams is:
England: Five teams
Any teams finishing between 7th and 11th position in Premiership Rugby that do not qualify for the Champions Cup (Sale Sharks (7th) qualified for the Champions Cup and therefore did not take part in the Challenge Cup)).
Six teams were split into two pools of three to compete in the pool stage of the European Rugby Continental Shield. Each team played the other two teams in its pool twice on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each pool faced each other in a two-legged play-off for a place in the Challenge Cup.
A further place was awarded to the winner of a two-legged playoff between the two sides competing in the 2018–19 Challenge Cup.
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 will be seeded and split into four tiers; seeding is based on performance in their respective domestic leagues. Where promotion and relegation is in effect in a league, the promoted team is seeded last, or (if multiple teams are promoted) by performance in the lower competition.[3]
Based on these seedings, teams are placed into one of the four tiers, with the top-seeded clubs being put in Tier 1. The nature of the tier system means that a draw is needed to allocate two of the three second-seed clubs to Tier 1. The fourth-seed team from the same domestic league as the second-seed team which was put in Tier 2 will also be placed in Tier 2. Brackets show each team's seeding and their league. e.g. 1 Top 14 indicates the team was the top seed from the Top 14.
Given the nature of the Continental Shield, a competition including developing rugby nations and Italian clubs not competing in the Pro14, the qualifying teams from this competition are automatically included in Tier 4.
|1300px|alt=Locations of teams of the 2019–20 European Rugby Champions Cup group stage. Green: Pool 1; Red: Pool 2; Orange: Pool 3; Yellow: Pool 4; Blue: Pool 5.]]
Locations of teams of the 2019–20 European Rugby Champions Cup group stage. Green: Pool 1; Red: Pool 2; Orange: Pool 3; Yellow: Pool 4; Blue: Pool 5.
The draw took place in June 2019.
Teams in the same pool will play each other twice, both at home and away in the group stage, that will begin in November 2019, and continue through to January 2020, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progressed to the quarter-finals.
Teams will be awarded competition points, based on match result. Teams receive four points for a win, two points for a draw, one attacking bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and one defensive bonus point for losing a match by seven points or fewer.[4]
In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers will be used, as directed by EPCR:
Where teams have played each other
The club with the greater number of competition points from only matches involving tied teams.
If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches.
If equal, the club that scored the most tries in those matches.
Where teams remain tied and/or have not played each other in the competition (i.e. are from different pools)
The club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage.
If equal, the club that scored the most tries in the pool stage.
If equal, the club with the fewest players suspended in the pool stage.
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-scoring second-place teams advance to quarter-finals.
Does not include the attendance at the final as it takes place at a neutral venue, or the attendances of matches played in empty stadiums due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.
^Enisei-STM will play all their home games in Krasnodar - almost 3,000 miles west of their home town of Krasnoyarsk - due to the harshness of the Siberian winter.
Green: Pool 1; 
Red: Pool 2; 
Orange: Pool 3; 
Yellow: Pool 4; 
Blue: Pool 5.
