2021–22 EPCR Challenge Cup

The 2021–22 EPCR Challenge Cup was the eighth 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 was the 26th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition.

2021–22 EPCR Challenge Cup
The EPCR Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England  France  Italy  Scotland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and knockout
Date	10 December 2021 — 27 May 2022
Tournament statistics
Teams	15
Matches played	41
Attendance	309,980 (7,560 per match)
Highest attendance	51,431 - Lyon v Toulon 27 May 2022
Lowest attendance	200 - Zebre v Biarritz 11 December 2021[a]
Tries scored	271 (6.61 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Léo Berdeu (Lyon) 71 points
Top try scorer(s)	Santiago Socino (Gloucester) 5 tries
Final
Venue	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
Champions	Lyon (1st title)
Runners-up	Toulon
← 2020–21 (Previous) (Next) 2022–23 →

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament format was changed for the previous season. A similar format remained for this season, however, the number of teams was increased from 14 to 15 and an additional six will join from the Champions Cup.^[1]

The tournament commenced in December 2021, and concluded with the final on 27 May 2022 at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, France.^[2][3]

Lyon, who are in their first European final, won the Challenge Cup by defeating Toulon making it their first European title. It is also their first major title since their Champion de France title in 1933.

Teams

Fifteen teams qualified for the 2021–22 EPCR 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 Heineken Champions Cup.^[4]

The distribution of teams are:

• England: five teams
  • Any teams finishing between 9th and 12th position in the Premiership that do not qualify for the 2020–21 European Champions Cup
  • The champion of the Championship (Saracens)
• France: six teams
  • Any teams finishing between 9th and 12th position in the Top 14 that do not qualify for the 2020–21 European Champions Cup
  • As defending champions Montpellier did not finish in the top 8, the 8th ranked team will also compete in the Challenge Cup
  • The champion of the Pro D2 (Perpignan)
  • The winner of the relegation playoff between the 13th placed team in the Top 14 and the runner-up of the Pro D2 (Biarritz)
• Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales: four teams
  • The bottom two sides in each conference from the Pro14

Round	Premiership	Top 14	United Rugby Championship
	England	France	Italy	Scotland	Wales
Preliminary stage	Gloucester London Irish Newcastle Falcons Saracens Worcester Warriors	Biarritz Brive Lyon Pau Perpignan Toulon	Benetton Zebre Parma	Edinburgh	Dragons
Transferred from Champions Cup	Bath Northampton Saints Wasps	Castres		Glasgow Warriors	Cardiff

Team details

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Method of qualification
Entering at Pool stage
Benetton	Marco Bortolami	Dewaldt Duvenage Michele Lamaro	Stadio Comunale di Monigo	6,700	Pro14 Conference B (6th)
Biarritz	Nicolas Nadau	Steffon Armitage	Parc des Sports Aguiléra	15,000	Pro D2 Runner Up
Brive	Jeremy Davidson	Saïd Hireche	Stade Amédée-Domenech	13,979	Top 14 bottom 6 (11th)
Dragons	Dean Ryan	Rhodri Williams	Rodney Parade	8,700	Pro14 Conference A (5th)
Edinburgh	Mike Blair	Grant Gilchrist Stuart McInally	Edinburgh Rugby Stadium	7,800	Pro14 Conference B (5th)
Gloucester	George Skivington	Lewis Ludlow	Kingsholm Stadium	16,115	Premiership 9th–12th (11th)
London Irish	Declan Kidney	Matt Rogerson	Brentford Community Stadium	17,250	Premiership 9th–12th (9th)
Lyon	Pierre Mignoni	Jean-Marc Doussain	Stade de Gerland	35,000	Top 14 bottom 6 (9th)
Newcastle Falcons	Dean Richards	Micky Young George McGuigan	Kingston Park	10,200	Premiership 9th–12th (10th)
Pau	Thomas Domingo	Quentin Lespiaucq-Brettes	Stade du Hameau	18,324	Top 14 bottom 6 (12th)
Perpignan	Patrick Arlettaz	Mathieu Acebes	Stade Aimé Giral	14,593	Pro D2 Champions
Saracens	Mark McCall	Owen Farrell	StoneX Stadium	10,500	RFU Championship champions
Toulon	Franck Azéma	Raphaël Lakafia	Stade Mayol	18,200	Top 14 bottom 6 (8th)
Worcester Warriors	Alan Solomons	Ted Hill	Sixways Stadium	11,499	Premiership 9th–12th (12th)
Zebre	Emiliano Bergamaschi (Replaces Michael Bradley)	Giulio Bisegni	Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000	Pro14 Conference A (6th)
Entering at Knockout Stage (transferred from Champions Cup)
Bath	Stuart Hooper	Charlie Ewels	The Recreation Ground	14,509	Champions Cup Pool A 9th–11th (11th)
Cardiff Rugby	Dai Young	Josh Turnbull	Cardiff Arms Park	12,125	Champions Cup Pool b 9th–11th (9th)
Castres	Mauricio Reggiardo	Mathieu Babillot	Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	Champions Cup Pool B 9th–11th (11th)
Glasgow Warriors	Danny Wilson	Fraser Brown Ryan Wilson	Scotstoun Stadium	7,351	Champions Cup Pool A 9th–11th (9th)
Northampton Saints	Chris Boyd	Lewis Ludlam	Franklin's Gardens	15,200	Champions Cup Pool A 9th–11th (10th)
Wasps	Lee Blackett	Joe Launchbury	Ricoh Arena	32,609	Champions Cup Pool b 9th–11th (10th)

Pool stage

Main article: 2021–22 EPCR Challenge Cup pool stage

Key to colours

	Winner, runner-up and third of each pool, advance to round of 16.
	The highest-scoring fourth-place team also advance to round of 16.

Pool A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Toulon	4	3	0	1	107	57	+50	13	7	3	1	16
2	Newcastle Falcons	4	3	0	1	73	89	−16	10	10	2	0	14
3	Biarritz	4	2	1	1	59	47	+12	8	4	1	1	12
4	Worcester Warriors	4	1	1	2	85	91	−6	11	12	2	1	9
5	Zebre Parma	4	0	0	4	75	115	−40	8	17	1	1	2

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Pool B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Lyon	4	4	0	0	122	57	+65	14	5	2	0	18
2	Gloucester	4	3	0	1	161	84	+77	23	10	3	1	16
3	Benetton	4	2	0	2	75	95	−20	9	12	0	0	8
4	Perpignan	4	1	0	3	54	138	−84	7	18	0	0	4
5	Dragons	4	0	0	4	74	112	−38	7	15	0	2	2

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Pool C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Edinburgh	4	3	0	1	161	47	+114	22	6	2	1	15
2	London Irish	4	2	1	1	78	82	−4	12	11	2	0	12
3	Saracens	4	2	0	2	118	78	+40	17	11	2	1	11
4	Brive	4	1	1	2	41	146	−105	4	21	0	0	6
5	Pau	4	1	0	3	75	120	−45	10	16	1	0	5

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Knock Out Stage

Seeding for knockout stage

Seed	Pool Leaders		Pts	Diff	TF
1	Lyon		18	+65	14
2	Toulon		16	+50	13
3	Edinburgh		15	+114	22
Seed	Pool Runners–up		Pts	Diff	TF
4	Gloucester Rugby		16	+77	23
5	Newcastle Falcons		14	–16	10
6	London Irish		12	–4	12
Seed	Pool Third placed		Pts	Diff	TF
7	Biarritz Olympique		12	+12	8
8	Saracens		11	+40	17
9	Benetton		8	–20	9
Seed	Best fourth placed		Pts	Diff	TF
10	Worcester Warriors		9	–6	11
–	Brive		6	–105	4
–	Perpignan		4	–84	7
Seed	Heineken Champions Cup (17–22)[5]		Pts	Diff	TF
11 – HCC 1	Cardiff		7	–33	13
12 – HCC 2	Wasps		6	–51	6
13 – HCC 3	Castres Olympique		5	–14	9
14 – HCC 4	Glasgow Warriors		5	–35	7
15 – HCC 5	Northampton Saints		2	–68	6
16 – HCC 6	Bath		2	–100	6

Bracket

	Round of 16					Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
	1	Lyon	31
	10	Worcester Warriors	17
						1	Lyon	35
						14	Glasgow Warriors	27
	5	Newcastle Falcons	17
	14	Glasgow Warriors	27
											1	Lyon	20
											12	Wasps	18
	3	Edinburgh	41
	16	Bath	19
						3	Edinburgh	30
						12	Wasps	34
	7	Biarritz Olympique	29
	12	Wasps	39
																1	Lyon	30
																2	Toulon	12
	2	Toulon	36
	9	Benetton	17
						2	Toulon	19
						6	London Irish	18
	6	London Irish	64
	13	Castres	17
											2	Toulon	25
											8	Saracens	16
	4	Gloucester	31
	15	Northampton Saints	21
						4	Gloucester	15
						8	Saracens	44
	8	Saracens	40
	11	Cardiff	33

Round of 16

15 April 2022 17:30 BST

London Irish	64–27	Castres
Try: Creevy (2) 6' c, 24' c Rona 17' m Pearson 34' c González 37' c Rowe 39' c Rogerson 71' m Joseph 75' c Cornish 78' c Janse van Rensburg 79' m Con: Jackson (7/10) 7', 25', 35', 38', 40', 77', 79'	Report	Try: Kockott 45' c Chabouni 54' c Arata 58' c Con: Botica (3/3) 46', 55', 59' Pen: Botica (2/2) 21', 67'

Brentford Community Stadium Attendance: 1,000 Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)

15 April 2022 19:00 CEST

Biarritz Olympique	29–39	Wasps
Try: Peyresblanques 28' m Hirigoyen 42' c Armitage 57' c Soury 68' c Con: Bosch (3/4) 43', 58', 68' Pen: Bosch (1/1) 14'	Report	Try: Umaga 11' m Barbeary (3) 14' c, 22' c, 75' c Robson 26' c Con: Gopperth (4/5) 15', 23', 27', 76' Pen: Gopperth (2/2) 9', 62'

Parc des Sports Aguiléra Attendance: 4,000 Referee: Chris Busby (Ireland)

15 April 2022 21:00 CEST

Lyon	31–17	Worcester Warriors
Try: Couilloud 4' c R. Taofifénua 15' c Devisme 47' c Barassi 76' c Con: Sopoaga (3/3) 5', 16', 48' Berdeu (1/1) 78' Pen: Berdeu (1/1) 57'	Report	Try: Howe 2' m Hill 50' m Searle 75' c Con: Searle (1/3) 76'

Matmut Stadium de Gerland Attendance: 10,500 Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)

15 April 2022 20:00 BST

Newcastle Falcons	17–27	Glasgow Warriors
Try: Montgomery 51' c Hodgson 65' c Con: Connon (1/1) 52' Hodgson (1/1) 66' Pen: Connon (1/1) 27'	Report	Try: Matthews 3' c Steyn (2) 6' m, 57' m McKay 31' c Con: Thompson (2/4) 4', 32' Pen: Thompson (1/2) 62'

Kingston Park Attendance: 4,121 Referee: Tual Trainini (France)

16 April 2022 20:00 BST

Edinburgh	41–19	Bath
Try: Boffelli (2) 10' m, 62' c Kinghorn 31' c Schoeman 52' c Bennett 68' m Boyle 78' c Con: Boffelli (4/6) 31', 53', 64', 79' Pen: Boffelli (1/1) 22'	Report	Try: Underhill (2) 1' c, 25' m B. Spencer 34' c Con: Bailey (1/2) 2' B. Spencer (1/1) 35'

DAM Health Stadium Attendance: 5,071 Referee: Ludovic Cayre (France)

16 April 2022 20:00 BST

Gloucester	31–21	Northampton Saints
Try: Thorley 4' c Rapava-Ruskin 7' c Alemanno 21' c Socino 46' c Con: Hastings (4/4) 5', 8', 22', 47' Pen: Hastings (1/1) 54'	Report	Try: Augustus 32' c Hutchinson 38' c Haywood 66' c Con: Biggar (2/2) 33', 39' Furbank (1/1) 67'

Kingsholm Attendance: 9,000 Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)

16 April 2022 21:00 CEST

Toulon	36–17	Benetton
Try: Villière 7' c Ollivon 27' c Coulon 78' c Con: Carbonel (3/3) 8', 28', 80' Pen: Carbonel (5/6) 37', 62', 67', 72', 76'	Report	Try: Menoncello 52' c Ioane 60' c Con: Smith (2/2) 53', 61' Pen: Smith (1/1) 4'

Stade Mayol Attendance: 5,000 Referee: Karl Dickson (England)

17 April 2022 13:00 BST

Saracens	40–33	Cardiff
Try: Morris 36' c Maitland (2) 51' c, 57' m Davies 63' m Malins 69' c Con: Farrell (3/5) 37', 52', 70' Pen: Farrell (3/3) 14', 24', 31'	Report	Try: T. Williams 40' c Lane 48' c Carré 74' c Con: Priestland (2/2) 40+1', 49' J. Evans (1/1) 75' Pen: Priestland (4/5) 8', 32', 55', 60'

StoneX Stadium Attendance: 9,000 Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)

Quarter-finals

6 May 2022 20:00 BST

Gloucester	15–44	Saracens
Try: Singleton 30' m Rees-Zammit 73' c Con: Twelvetrees (1/1) 74' Pen: Hastings (1/1) 44'	Report	Try: Davies 8' c Itoje 47' c Tompkins 51' c George 61' c Taylor 71' c Con: Farrell (5/5) 9', 48', 52', 62', 72' Pen: Farrell (3/3) 5', 18', 36'

Kingsholm Stadium Attendance: 9,000 Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)

7 May 2022 12:30 BST

Edinburgh	30–34	Wasps
Try: Vellacott 12' c McBurney 25' c Bradbury 66' c Con: Boffelli (3/3) 13', 26', 66' Pen: Boffelli (3/3) 9', 42', 73'	Report	Try: Gopperth 15' c Alo 43' c West 57' c Barbeary 75' c Con: Gopperth (4/4) 16', 44', 58', 77' Pen: Gopperth (2/2) 7', 49'

DAM Health Stadium Attendance: 6,431 Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)

7 May 2022 21:00 CEST

Lyon	35–27	Glasgow Warriors
Try: Couilloud 35' c R. Taofifénua 55' c Niniashvili (2) 61' m, 75' c Con: Berdeu (2/3) 36', 76' Doussain (1/1) 57' Pen: Berdeu (3/4) 1', 12', 70'	Report	Try: McKay 5' c Forbes 39' c Penalty try 49' Con: Thompson (2/2) 6', 40' Pen: Thompson (2/2) 23', 27'

Stade de Gerland Attendance: 28,000 Referee: Matthew Carley (England)

8 May 2022 13:30 CEST

Toulon	19–18	London Irish
Try: Ollivon 59' c Con: Carbonel (1/1) 59' Pen: Carbonel (4/5) 36', 40', 43', 66'	Report	Try: Tuisue 8' c Arundell 73' m Con: Jackson (1/2) 10' Pen: Jackson (2/3) 4', 62'

Stade Mayol Attendance: 11,300 Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)

Semi-finals

14 May 2022 13:30 CEST

Lyon	20–18	Wasps
Try: Berdeu 46' c Charcosset 53' c Con: Berdeu (2/2) 48', 54' Pen: Berdeu (2/4) 35', 64'	Report	Try: Robson 23' m Gopperth 73' c Con: Gopperth (1/2) 74' Pen: Gopperth (2/2) 38', 51'

Stade de Gerland Attendance: 10,525 Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)

14 May 2022 21:00 CEST

Toulon	25–16	Saracens
Try: Villière (2) 2' c, 39' m Wainiqolo 60' c Con: Carbonel (2/3) 4', 61' Pen: Carbonel (1/2) 33'	Report	Try: Earl 15' c Con: Farrell (1/1) 17' Pen: Farrell (3/4) 12', 26', 58'

Stade Mayol Attendance: 13,368 Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)

Final

27 May 2022 21:00

Lyon	30–12	Toulon
Try: Couilloud 7' c Penalty try 45' Barassi 47' c Con: Berdeu (2/2) 9', 49' Pen: Berdeu (2/3) 20', 59' Ngatai (1/1) 70'	Report	Try: Serin 16' c Kolbe 73' m Con: Carbonel (1/1) 17' Kolbe (0/1)

Stade Vélodrome, Marseille Attendance: 51,431 Referee: Luke Pearce (England)

See also

• 2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup

Notes

1. When crowds were in attendance