European rugby’s governing body, the EPCR, has confirmed the format for next year’s expanded Champions and Challenge Cup competitions, which include five South African entrants.
“The 2022-23 Heineken Champions Cup will be competed for by 24 elite clubs with eight representatives from the Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) – including historic first appearances by the Stormers, Vodacom Bulls and Sharks – as well as eight representatives from the English Premiership and eight from the TOP 14,” read an official European Professional Club Rugby news release.
The Champions Cup will be contested by two pools of 12 teams each in a tournament played over eight weekends starting in December.
The eight highest-ranked clubs from each pool will qualify for the knockout stages, consisting of a round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the showpiece final at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on 20 May 2023.
The draw for the Heineken Champions Cup pools, which will be live-streamed from the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, 28 June, will be carried out along the same lines as last season with the clubs separated into four tiers based on their rankings, and clubs from the same league in the same tier will not be drawn into the same pool.
The Nos 1 and 2 ranked clubs from each league will be in tier 1, the Nos 3 and 4 ranked clubs in tier 2, the Nos 5 and 6 ranked clubs in tier 3, and the Nos 7 and 8 ranked clubs in tier 4.
The tier 1 and the tier 4 clubs which have been drawn in the same pool, but which are not in the same league, will play one another home and away during the pool stage, as will the tier 2 and tier 3 clubs which have been drawn in the same pool, but which are not in the same league.
A total of 20 clubs will play in next season’s EPCR Challenge Cup with eight representatives from the Vodacom URC, including the Johannesburg-based Lions who will also be making a historic first appearance in an EPCR competition, six from the TOP 14, five from the Premiership, as well as the Cheetahs from Bloemfontein, who have accepted an invitation to compete.
The clubs will be divided into two pools of 10 – Pool A and Pool B – and in a similar format to the Champions Cup, the tournament will be played over eight weekends with four rounds of matches in the pool stage starting in December.
The six highest-ranked clubs from each pool, as well as the 9th and 10th ranked clubs from each of the Champions Cup pools, will qualify for a round of 16, which will be followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final at the Aviva Stadium on 19 May 2023.
The live-streamed draw for the EPCR Challenge Cup pools is also scheduled to take place at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, 28 June, with the clubs separated into three tiers based on their rankings, and clubs from the same league will not play against one another during the pool stage.
The Nos 1 and 2 ranked clubs from each league will be in tier 1, the Nos 3 and 4 ranked clubs from each league, as well as the Nos 5 and 6 ranked clubs from the Vodacom URC, will be in tier 2. The Dragons, Zebre, Bayonne, Perpignan, Bath and the Cheetahs will be in tier 3.
The tier 1 and the tier 3 clubs which have been drawn in the same pool, but which are not in the same league, will play one another home and away over four pool-stage rounds.
The tier 2 clubs which have been drawn in the same pool, but which are not from the same league, will play one another home and away during the pool stage.
In order to adhere to the key principle of no same-league matches, tier 2 clubs from the TOP 14 can only play against opposition from the Vodacom URC, and similarly, tier 2 clubs from the Premiership can also only play against opposition from the Vodacom URC.
Further details and timings for the draws for both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup pools will be communicated shortly.
2022-23 CHAMPIONS CUP QUALIFIERS
TOP 14: Castres, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Toulouse, 5 La Rochelle, 6 Racing 92, 7 Clermont, 8 Lyon
English Premiership: Leicester, Saracens, 3 Harlequins, 4 Northampton, 5 Gloucester, 6 Sale, 7 Exeter, 8 London Irish
United Rugby Championship: Stormers, Bulls, 3 Leinster, 4 Ulster, 5 Sharks, 6 Munster, 7 Edinburgh, 8 Ospreys
2022-23 EPCR CHALLENGE CUP QUALIFIERS
United Rugby Championship: 1 Glasgow, 2 Scarlets, 3 Connacht, 4 Lions, 5 Benetton, 6 Cardiff, 7 Dragons, 8 Zebre
TOP 14: 1 Toulon, 2 Pau, 3 Stade Français, 4 Brive, 5 Bayonne, 6 USAP
Premiership: 1 Wasps, 2 Bristol, 3 Worcester, 4 Newcastle, 5 Bath
Invited: Toyota Cheetahs
2022-23 key dates
Round 1 – 9/10/11 December 2022
Round 2 – 16/17/18 December 2022
Round 3 – 13/14/15 January 2023
Round 4 – 20/21/22 January 2023
Round of 16 – 31 March/ 1/2 April 2023
Quarter-finals – 7/8/9 April 2023
Semi-finals – 28/29/30 April 2023
Challenge Cup final – Friday, 19 May 2023 (Aviva Stadium, Dublin)
Champions Cup final – Saturday, 20 May 2023 (Aviva Stadium, Dublin)
Photo: Ben Evans/Huw Evans/Shutterstock/BackpagePix
