2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup

Contributors to Wikimedia projects

Article Images

The 2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the eighth season of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the annual club rugby union competition run by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) for teams from the top six nations in European rugby. It was the 27th season of pan-European professional club rugby competition.

2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England France Ireland Scotland Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and knockout
Date	10 December 2021 – 28 May 2022
Tournament statistics
Teams	24
Matches played	60
Attendance	843,371 (14,056 per match)
Highest attendance	42,067 - Leinster v Toulouse 14 May 2022^[1]
Lowest attendance	4,000 - Sale Sharks v Ospreys 23 January 2022^[a]
Tries scored	396 (6.6 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Johnny Sexton (Leinster) 65 points
Top try scorer(s)	James Lowe (Leinster) 10 tries
Final
Venue	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
Champions	La Rochelle (1st title)
Runners-up	Leinster
← 2020–21 (Previous) (Next) 2022–23 →

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 24-team, two pool tournament format adopted for the previous season remained.^[2]

This is the final year, under the current sponsorship deal, with Dutch beer brand Heineken, after a four-year deal was agreed starting from the 2018/19 season.^[3]

The tournament commenced in December 2021. On 28 May 2022, Stade Rochelais won the final at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, France, defeating Leinster 24 points to 21.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Twenty-four clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues are competing in the Champions Cup.

The distribution of the teams are:

England: eight clubs
- The top eight clubs from Premiership Rugby
France: eight clubs
- The top seven clubs from the Top 14
- Montpellier automatically qualify as Challenge Cup champions despite not finishing in the top 8.
Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales: eight clubs
- The top four sides in each conference from the previous season's Pro14 (now known as United Rugby Championship).

The following teams have qualified for the tournament as of 12 June 2021.

Premiership	Top 14	United Rugby Championship (Pro14)
England	France	Ireland	Scotland	Wales
Bath Bristol Bears Exeter Chiefs Harlequins Leicester Tigers Northampton Saints Sale Sharks Wasps	Bordeaux Bègles Castres Clermont La Rochelle Montpellier Racing 92 Stade Français Lyon	Connacht Leinster Munster Ulster	Glasgow Warriors	Cardiff Ospreys Scarlets

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	Stuart Hooper	Charlie Ewels	The Recreation Ground	14,509	Premiership top 8 (7th)
Bordeaux Bègles	Christophe Urios	Jefferson Poirot	Stade Chaban-Delmas	34,694	Top 14 top 8 (4th)
Bristol Bears	Pat Lam	Steve Luatua	Ashton Gate	27,000	Premiership top 8 (3rd) (SF)
Cardiff Rugby	Dai Young	Josh Turnbull	Cardiff Arms Park	12,125	Pro14 Conference B (4th)
Castres	Mauricio Reggiardo	Mathieu Babillot	Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	Top 14 top 8 (6th) (QF)
Clermont	Jono Gibbes	Camille Lopez	Stade Marcel-Michelin	19,022	Top 14 top 8 (5th) (QF)
Connacht	Andy Friend	Jack Carty	Galway Sportsgrounds	8,129	Pro14 Conference B (2nd)
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Jack Yeandle Joe Simmonds	Sandy Park	13,593	Premiership top 8 (2nd) (RU)
Glasgow Warriors	Danny Wilson	Fraser Brown Ryan Wilson	Scotstoun Stadium	7,351	Pro14 Conference A (4th)
Harlequins	Billy Millard	Stephan Lewies	Twickenham Stoop	14,800	Premiership top 8 (1st) (CH)
La Rochelle	Ronan O'Gara	Grégory Alldritt	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	16,000	Top 14 top 8 (2nd) (RU)
Leicester Tigers	Steve Borthwick	Ellis Genge	Mattioli Woods Welford Road	25,849	Premiership top 8 (6th)
Leinster	Leo Cullen	Johnny Sexton	RDS Arena Aviva Stadium	18,500 51,700	Pro14 Conference A (1st) (CH)
Montpellier	Philippe Saint-André	Fulgence Ouedraogo	Altrad Stadium	15,697	2020–21 Challenge Cup Champion
Munster	Johann van Graan	Peter O'Mahony	Thomond Park	25,600	Pro14 Conference B (1st) (RU)
Northampton Saints	Chris Boyd	Lewis Ludlam	Franklin's Gardens	15,200	Premiership top 8 (5th)
Ospreys	Toby Booth	Justin Tipuric	Swansea.com Stadium	21,088	Pro14 Conference A (3rd)
Racing 92	Laurent Travers	Henry Chavancy	Paris La Défense Arena	30,681	Top 14 top 8 (3rd)
Sale Sharks	Alex Sanderson	Jono Ross	AJ Bell Stadium	12,000	Premiership top 8 (3rd) (SF)
Scarlets	Dwayne Peel	Jonathan Davies	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	Pro14 Conference B (3rd)
Stade Français	Gonzalo Quesada	Yoann Maestri	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000	Top 14 top 8 (6th) (QF)
Toulouse	Ugo Mola	Julien Marchand	Stade Ernest-Wallon	19,500	Top 14 top 8 (1st) (CH)
Ulster	Dan McFarland	Iain Henderson	Ravenhill Stadium	18,196	Pro14 Conference A (2nd)
Wasps	Lee Blackett	Joe Launchbury	Ricoh Arena	32,609	Premiership top 8 (8th)

The twenty four teams are seeded based on their finishing position in end of season playoffs and league positions. This follows the format from the previous season with the number 1 and number 2 ranked clubs from each league in Tier 1, the number 3 and number 4 ranked clubs in Tier 2, the number 5 and 6 ranked clubs in Tier 3, and the number 7 and number 8 ranked clubs in Tier 4.^[7]

Tier	Rank	Top 14	Premiership	United Rugby Championship (Pro14)
1	1	Toulouse	Harlequins	Leinster
1	2	La Rochelle	Exeter Chiefs	Munster
2	3	Racing 92	Bristol Bears	Ulster
2	4	Bordeaux Bègles	Sale Sharks	Connacht
3	5	Clermont	Northampton Saints	Scarlets
3	6	Stade Français	Leicester Tigers	Ospreys
4	7	Castres	Bath	Cardiff
4	8	Montpellier	Wasps	Glasgow Warriors

The draw took place on 21 July 2021 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Teams are 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.

Key to colours
	Top 8 in each pool, advance to round of 16.
	Teams ranked 9th–11th in each pool advance to 2021–22 EPCR Challenge Cup round of 16

Pool A Standings ^[8]
Team v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Racing 92	4	4	0	0	126	24	+102	16	3	3	0	19
Ulster	4	4	0	0	114	96	+18	15	9	3	0	19
La Rochelle	4	3	1	0	97	64	+33	11	7	2	0	16
Leinster	4	3	0	1	198	62	+136	30	8	3	0	15
Sale Sharks	4	2	1	1	89	48	+41	13	5	1	1	12
Exeter Chiefs	4	2	0	2	127	82	+45	19	7	3	0	11
Montpellier	4	2	0	2	78	157	–79	9	23	2	0	10
Clermont	4	1	1	2	79	82	–3	8	10	0	2	8
Glasgow Warriors	4	1	0	3	82	117	–35	7	15	0	1	5
Northampton Saints	4	0	0	4	56	124	–68	6	17	0	2	2
Bath	4	0	1	3	48	148	–100	6	22	0	0	2
Ospreys	4	0	0	4	33	123	–90	3	17	0	0	0

Pool B Standings ^[9]
Team v t e	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Leicester Tigers	4	4	0	0	102	64	+38	14	7	3	0	19
Harlequins	4	4	0	0	135	101	+34	18	15	3	0	19
Munster	4	4	0	0	115	47	+68	12	5	2	0	18
Bristol Bears	4	3	1	0	108	38	+70	16	4	3	0	17
Connacht	4	1	0	3	118	104	+14	16	14	3	3	10
Bordeaux	4	1	1	2	58	54	+4	8	7	1	1	8
Toulouse	4	1	1	2	61	65	–4	8	8	1	0	7
Stade Français	4	1	1	2	63	95	–32	7	14	1	0	7
Cardiff	4	1	0	3	85	118	–33	13	16	2	1	7
Wasps	4	1	1	2	51	102	–51	6	13	0	0	6
Castres	4	0	0	4	77	91	–14	9	9	1	4	5
Scarlets	4	0	1	3	31	125	–94	4	19	0	0	2

The knockout stage began across the 8/9/10 April with a home and away round of 16 matches consisting of the top eight ranked teams from each pool.

Round of 16					Quarterfinals			Semifinals			Finals

A1	Racing 92	22	33	55

B8	Stade Français	9	22	31
					A1	Racing 92	41

					A5	Sale Sharks	22
B4	Bristol Bears	10	29	39

A5	Sale Sharks	9	35	44
								A1	Racing 92	13

								A3	La Rochelle	20
A3	La Rochelle	31	31	62

B6	Bordeaux	13	23	36
					A3	La Rochelle	31

					A7	Montpellier	19
B2	Harlequins	26	33	59

A7	Montpellier	40	20	60
											La Rochelle	24

											Leinster	21
B1	Leicester Tigers	29	27	56

A8	Clermont	10	17	27
					B1	Leicester Tigers	14

					A4	Leinster	23
A4	Leinster	26	56	82

B5	Connacht	21	20	41
								A4	Leinster	40

								B7	Toulouse	17
B3	Munster	8	26	34

A6	Exeter Chiefs	13	10	23
					B3	Munster	24 (2)

					B7	Toulouse (p)	24 (4)
A2	Ulster	26	23	49

B7	Toulouse	20	30	50

Leinster	56–20	Connacht
Try: Gibson-Park 10' c Henshaw (2) 17' c, 41' c Furlong 27' c Lowe (4) 35' c, 54' c, 64' c, 80' c Con: Sexton (6/6) 11', 17', 28', 35', 42', 56' R. Byrne (2/2) 66', 80'	Report	Try: O'Halloran 45' m Arnold 61' m Papali'i 69' c Con: Carty (1/3) 70' Pen: Carty (1/2) 1'

2021–22 EPCR Challenge Cup

^ When crowds were in attendance

^ ^a ^b "Sublime Leinster dethrone Toulouse to march into Champions Cup final". the42. 14 May 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
^ "Twickenham Stadium to host 2021 EPCR finals". European Professional Club Rugby. 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
^ "EPCR confirms Heineken Champions Cup title sponsorship – SportsPro Media". www.sportspromedia.com. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
^ "EPCR statement – 2021 Marseille finals and semi-final matches". European Professional Club Rugby. 2021-03-31. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
^ "Key 2021/22 EPCR dates announced". European Professional Club Rugby. 2021-06-16. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
^ "Ronan O'Gara leads La Rochelle to first Champions Cup title with stunning last-gasp victory over Leinster". The 42. 22 May 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
^ "2021–22 Heineken Cup format and qualifiers confirmed". Scarlets Rugby. 28 June 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
^ "Pool Tables". Heineken Champions Cup. EPCR. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
^ "Pool Tables". Heineken Champions Cup. EPCR. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
^ "Connacht 21-26 Leinster: Hosts cause Leo Cullen's side all sorts of problems as Lowe steals the show". irish mirror. 8 April 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
^ Glennon, Michael (15 April 2022). "Lowe lays waste to Connacht as Leinster let loose". RTE. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
^ "Munster Rugby Fixtures & Results". Munster Rugby. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
^ "Munster Lose Place-Kicking Competition As Toulouse Advance". Munster Rugby. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
^ "Coupe d'Europe: La Rochelle, en dominant le Racing 92, s'offre une deuxième finale de suite". La Croix. 15 May 2022.