2024–25 EPCR Challenge Cup

Not to be confused with 2024–25 European Rugby Champions Cup.

2024–25 EPCR Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England  France  Georgia  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  South Africa  Wales
Tournament statistics
Matches played	18
Attendance	111,379 (6,188 per match)
Highest attendance	14,073 – Lyon v Cardiff 7 December 2024
Lowest attendance	2,042 – Lions v Pau 14 December 2024
Tries scored	119 (6.61 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Axel Desperes (Pau) 32 points
Top try scorer(s)	Chay Mullins (Connacht) 4 tries
Final
Venue	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

The 2024–25 EPCR Challenge Cup will be the eleventh edition of the EPCR Challenge Cup, an annual second-tier rugby union competition for professional clubs. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this is the 29th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition.

The final will be played at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales.^[1][2]

Teams

Sixteen teams qualified for the 2024–25 EPCR Challenge Cup from Premiership Rugby, the Top 14 and the United Rugby Championship as a direct result of their domestic league performance having not qualified for the Champions Cup. Two further sides received invitations, South Africa's Cheetahs and Georgia's Black Lion.^[2]

The distribution of teams are:

• England: two teams
  • Teams in the 2024–25 Premiership season that did not qualify for the 2024–25 Champions Cup.
• France: six teams
  • Teams taking part in the 2024–25 Top 14 season that did not qualify for the 2024–25 Champions Cup.
• Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales: ten teams
  • Eight teams in the 2024–25 United Rugby Championship season that did not qualify for the 2024–25 Champions Cup. This season, these consist of four teams from Wales, and a single team each from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and South Africa.
  • Two teams invited – one each from Georgia and South Africa – playing their home games in the Netherlands.^[3]

Entry Point	Premiership	Top 14	United Rugby Championship					Invited
—	England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales	South Africa		Georgia
Pool stage	Gloucester Newcastle Falcons	Bayonne Lyon Montpellier Pau Perpignan Vannes	Connacht	Zebre Parma	Edinburgh	Cardiff Dragons Ospreys Scarlets	Lions	Cheetahs	Black Lion

Team details

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Method of qualification
Bayonne	Grégory Patat	Denis Marchois	Stade Jean-Dauger	14,370	Top 14 bottom six (12th)
Black Lion	Richard Cockerill	Luka Matkava	Mikheil Meskhi Stadium	27,223	Invited
Cardiff	Matt Sherratt	Liam Belcher	Cardiff Arms Park	12,125	URC bottom eight (12th)
Cheetahs	Izak van der Westhuizen	Victor Sekekete	NRCA Stadium, Netherlands	5,000	Invited
Connacht	Peter Wilkins	Cian Prendergast	Dexcom Stadium	8,129	URC bottom eight (11th)
Dragons	Filo Tiatia	Ben Carter	Rodney Parade	8,700	URC bottom eight (15th)
Edinburgh	Sean Everitt	Grant Gilchrist Ben Vellacott	Edinburgh Rugby Stadium	7,800	URC bottom eight (10th)
Gloucester	George Skivington	Lewis Ludlow	Kingsholm	16,115	Premiership bottom two (9th)
Lions	Ivan van Rooyen	Marius Louw	Emirates Airline Park	62,567	URC bottom eight (9th)
Lyon	Fabien Gengenbacher	Baptiste Couilloud Jordan Taufua	Stade de Gerland	25,000	Top 14 bottom six (11th)
Montpellier	Patrice Collazo	Alexandre Bécognée Yacouba Camara Arthur Vincent	GGL Stadium	15,697	Top 14 bottom six (13th)
Newcastle Falcons	Steve Diamond	Callum Chick	Kingston Park	11,200	Premiership bottom two (10th)
Ospreys	Toby Booth	Jac Morgan	Swansea.com Stadium	20,827	URC bottom eight (8th)[a]
Scarlets	Dwayne Peel	Josh Macleod	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	URC bottom eight (13th)
Pau	Sébastien Piqueronies	Luke Whitelock	Stade du Hameau	18,324	Top 14 bottom six (9th)
Perpignan	Franck Azéma	Mathieu Acebes	Stade Aimé Giral	14,593	Top 14 bottom six (10th)
Vannes	Jean-Noël Spitzer	Clément Payen	Stade de la Rabine	11,303	Pro D2 Champions
Zebre Parma	Massimo Brunello	Danilo Fischetti	Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000	URC bottom eight (16th)

Pool stage

Main article: 2024–25 EPCR Challenge Cup pool stage

Teams will be drawn into pools on 2 July in Cardiff.^[2] Teams will be awarded four points for a win, two for a draw, one for scoring four tries in a game, and one for losing by less than eight points.

Pool 1

EPCR Challenge Cup Pool 1

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Connacht	2	2	0	0	74	30	+44	12	4	2	0	10	Home round of 16
2	Lyon	2	2	0	0	58	45	+13	8	7	1	0	9
3	Cardiff	2	1	0	1	52	47	+5	8	6	2	0	6	Home as third best / Away round of 16
4	Perpignan	2	0	1	1	38	51	−13	5	8	0	0	2	Away round of 16
5	Cheetahs	2	0	1	1	30	46	−16	4	7	0	0	2
6	Zebre Parma	2	0	0	2	31	64	−33	5	10	0	1	1

Source: EPCR^[4]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers for teams tied on points: 1) Number of matches won; 2) Difference between points for and against; 3) Total number of points for; 4) Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams; 5) Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled.

Pool 2

EPCR Challenge Cup Pool 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Montpellier	2	2	0	0	77	29	+48	11	4	1	0	9	Home round of 16
2	Pau	2	1	0	1	67	62	+5	8	9	2	0	6
3	Dragons	2	1	0	1	36	32	+4	5	4	0	1	5	Home as third best / Away round of 16
4	Lions	2	1	0	1	57	65	−8	8	8	1	0	5	Away round of 16
5	Ospreys	2	1	0	1	45	73	−28	6	13	1	0	5
6	Newcastle Falcons	2	0	0	2	33	54	−21	5	7	0	0	0

Source: EPCR^[5]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers for teams tied on points: 1) Number of matches won; 2) Difference between points for and against; 3) Total number of points for; 4) Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams; 5) Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled.

Pool 3

EPCR Challenge Cup Pool 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Edinburgh	2	1	0	1	62	27	+35	9	4	1	1	6	Home round of 16
2	Vannes	2	1	0	1	62	41	+21	7	4	1	1	6
3	Scarlets	2	1	0	1	52	35	+17	6	4	1	1	6	Home as third best / Away round of 16
4	Black Lion	2	1	0	1	40	55	−15	3	6	0	0	4	Away round of 16
5	Gloucester	2	1	0	1	34	53	−19	5	7	0	0	4
6	Bayonne	2	1	0	1	29	68	−39	4	9	0	0	4

Source: EPCR^[6]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers for teams tied on points: 1) Number of matches won; 2) Difference between points for and against; 3) Total number of points for; 4) Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams; 5) Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled.

Knockout stage

The knockout stage begins with a single-leg round of 16 matches, consisting of the top 4 teams from each pool, and the teams ranked 5th in each pool of the 2024–25 European Rugby Champions Cup. The round of 16 follows a pre-determined format, while the quarter-finals and semi-finals guarantee home advantage to the higher-ranked team.

Bracket

	Round of 16					Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
	1
	16
	2
	15
	3
	14
	4
	13
	5
	12
	6
	11
	7
	10
	8
	9

Round of 16

4 / 5 / 6 April 2025

Seed 1	v	Seed 16

TBD

---

4 / 5 / 6 April 2025

Seed 2	v	Seed 15

TBD

---

4 / 5 / 6 April 2025

Seed 3	v	Seed 14

TBD

---

4 / 5 / 6 April 2025

Seed 4	v	Seed 13

TBD

---

4 / 5 / 6 April 2025

Seed 5	v	Seed 12 (HCC)

TBD

---

4 / 5 / 6 April 2025

Seed 6	v	Seed 11 (HCC)

TBD

---

4 / 5 / 6 April 2025

Seed 7	v	Seed 10 (HCC)

TBD

---

4 / 5 / 6 April 2025

Seed 8	v	Seed 9 (HCC)

TBD

Quarter-finals

11 / 12 / 13 April 2025

	v

(Higher-ranked team home venue)

---

11 / 12 / 13 April 2025

	v

(Higher-ranked team home venue)

---

11 / 12 / 13 April 2025

	v

(Higher-ranked team home venue)

---

11 / 12 / 13 April 2025

	v

(Higher-ranked team home venue)

Semi-finals

2 / 3 / 4 May 2025

	v

(Higher-ranked team home venue)

---

2 / 3 / 4 May 2025

	v

(Higher-ranked team home venue)

Final

23 May 2025

	v

Principality Stadium, Cardiff

Leading scorers

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

Most points As of 15 December 2024 Source:[7] Rank Player Club Points 1 Axel Desperes Pau 32 2 Luka Matkava Black Lion 23 3 Chay Mullins Connacht 20 4 Antoine Aucagne Perpignan 18 5 Josh Adams Cardiff 15 Paul Boyle Connacht Martian Meliande Lyon 8 Maxime Lafage Vannes 13 9 Sam Costelow Scarlets 11 Ioan Lloyd Scarlets Kade Wolhuter Lions

Most tries As of 15 December 2024 Source:[7] Rank Player Club Tries 1 Chay Mullins Connacht 4 2 Josh Adams Cardiff 3 Paul Boyle Connacht 4 Enzo Benmegal Vannes 2 Tom Dodd Edinburgh Ethan Dumortier Lyon Ollie Fletcher Newcastle Keelan Giles Ospreys Darcy Graham Edinburgh Josh Macleod Scarlets Michael Ruru Vannes Madosh Tambwe Montpellier

Discipline

Citings/bans

Player	Match[N 1]	Citing date	Law breached	Result	Refs
Alessandro Fusco	Zebre Parma vs. Lyon (Round 2 – 14 December 2024)	17 December 2024	9.18 – Tip Tackle (Red card)	3-match ban	[9]
Lado Chachanidze	Black Lion vs. Scarlets (Round 2 – 15 December 2024)	18 December 2024	9.18 – Tip Tackle (Red card)	Red card rescinded	[9]
Giorgi Tsutskiridze	Black Lion vs. Scarlets (Round 2 – 15 December 2024)	18 December 2024	9.28 – Match Official Abuse (Citing)	2-match ban	[9]

Notes:

1. The cited player's club is listed in bold italics.^[8]

Notes

1. Although Ospreys finished in the URC top eight – which would have qualified them for the 2024–25 Champions Cup – they were displaced by the Sharks, who were the winners of the 2023–24 Challenge Cup.

References

1. "Champions Cup: Cardiff to host 2025 final before 2026 return to Bilbao". BBC Sport. 31 January 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
2. "2024/25 EPCR season and Pool Draws dates". European Professional Club Rugby. 12 June 2024. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
3. "Black Lion and Toyota Cheetahs to continue EPCR Challenge Cup participation for next two seasons". European Professional Club Rugby. 18 June 2024. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
4. "Pool Tables | EPCR Challenge Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
5. "Pool Tables | EPCR Challenge Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
6. "Pool Tables | EPCR Challenge Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
7. "EPCR Challenge Cup - Season Statistics". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
8. "Disciplinary hearing decisions: 2024/25 Season". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
9. "Disciplinary Hearings – Round 2". European Professional Club Rugby. 17 December 2024. Retrieved 19 December 2024.