2025–26 EPCR Challenge Cup

2025–26 EPCR Challenge Cup
2025–26 EPCR Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England; France; Georgia; Ireland; Italy; South Africa; Wales
Tournament statistics
Teams	18 (plus 4 from Champions Cup pool stage)
Matches played	35
Attendance	220,942 (6,313 per match)
Highest attendance	15,165 – Stade Français v Exeter Chiefs; 10 January 2026
Lowest attendance	1,302 – Zebre Parma v US Montauban; 6 December 2025
Tries scored	262 (7.49 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Sam Gilbert (Connacht); 47 points
Top try scorer(s)	Paul Boyle (Connacht); Leonardo Marin (Benetton); Alex Masibaka (Montpellier); Paolo Odogwu (Benetton); 4 tries
Final
Venue	San Mamés Stadium, Bilbao

The 2025–26 EPCR Challenge Cup, known colloquially as the 2025-26 European Challenge Cup^[1] will be the twelfth edition of the EPCR Challenge Cup, an annual second-tier rugby union competition for professional clubs competing in elite European competition. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this is the 30th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition.

The final will played at in San Mamés Stadium, Bilbao.^[2]

The English team, Bath Rugby, are the reigning champions, and therefore qualified for the 2025–26 European Rugby Champions Cup as a consequence. As they also have a top four domestic finish, the team will not initially defend their title, although they may theoretically join at the knockout phase.

Teams

Sixteen teams qualified for the 2025–26 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.^[3]^[4]

The distribution of teams are:

England: two teams
- Teams in the 2025–26 Premiership season that did not qualify for the 2025–26 Champions Cup.
France: six teams
- Teams taking part in the 2025–26 Top 14 season that did not qualify for the 2025–26 Champions Cup.
Georgia: one team
- one team, invited, Black Lion
Ireland, Italy, South Africa and Wales: eight teams
- Eight teams in the 2025–26 United Rugby Championship season that did not qualify for the 2025–26 Champions Cup. This season, these consist of three teams from Wales (Cardiff, Dragons, and Ospreys), two from Ireland (Ulster Rugby and Connacht Rugby), two from Italy (Benetton and Zebre Parma), and one from South Africa (Lions). No Scottish team enters at the pool stage.
South Africa: one further team
- One team, invited, the South African team, Cheetahs, playing their home games in the Netherlands.^[5]

At the knockout stage, a further four teams will enter the competition from the 2025-26 European Rugby Champions Cup:

Ireland, one team
- Munster
South Africa, one team
- Sharks
France, two teams
- La Rochelle
- Pau

Entry Point	Premiership	Top 14	United Rugby Championship				Invited
N/a	England	France	Ireland	Italy	Wales	South Africa		Georgia
Pool stage	Exeter Chiefs Newcastle Red Bulls	Stade Français Lyon Montpellier Racing 92 Perpignan Montauban	Connacht Ulster	Benetton Rugby Zebre Parma	Cardiff Dragons Ospreys	Lions	Cheetahs	Black Lion
Knockout stage		Pau La Rochelle	Munster			Sharks

Team details

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Method of qualification
Entering at Pool stage
Benetton	Calum MacRae	Michele Lamaro	Stadio Comunale di Monigo	5,000	URC bottom eight (10th)
Black Lion	Marco Bortolami (interim) (for Richard Cockerill)^[a]	Mikheil Babunashvili	Mikheil Meskhi Stadium Avchala Rugby Stadium	27,223 2,500	Invited
Cardiff	Matt Sherratt	Liam Belcher	Cardiff Arms Park	12,125	URC bottom eight (9th)
Cheetahs	François Steyn	Louis van der Westhuizen	NRCA Stadium	5,000	Invited
Connacht	Stuart Lancaster	Cian Prendergast	Dexcom Stadium	12,500	URC bottom eight (13th)
Dragons	Filo Tiatia	Ben Carter	Rodney Parade	8,700	URC bottom eight (16th)
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Dafydd Jenkins	Sandy Park	15,600	Premiership bottom two (9th)
Lions	Ivan van Rooyen	Francke Horn	Emirates Airline Park	62,567	URC bottom eight (11th)
Lyon	Karim Ghezal	Baptiste Couilloud	Mahmut Stadium	25,000	Top 14 bottom six (11th)
Montauban	Sébastien Tillous-Borde	Fred Quercy	Stade Sapiac	9,210	Pro D2 Champions
Montpellier	Joan Caudullo	Lenni Nouchi	GGL Stadium	15,697	Top 14 bottom six (9th)
Newcastle Red Bulls	Steve Diamond	George McGuigan	Kingston Park	11,200	Premiership bottom two (10th)
Ospreys	Mark Jones	Jac Morgan	Dunraven Brewery Field	8,000	URC bottom eight (12th)
Perpignan	Mathieu Cidre	Jamie Ritchie	Stade Aimé Giral	14,593	Top 14 bottom six (13th)
Racing 92	Patrice Collazo	Romain Taofifénua	Paris La Défense Arena Stade Dominique Duvauchelle	30,680 12,150	Top 14 bottom six (10th)
Stade Français	Paul Gustard	Paul Gabrillagues	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000	Top 14 bottom six (12th)
Ulster	Richie Murphy	Iain Henderson	Affidea Stadium	18,196	URC bottom eight (14th)
Zebre Parma	Massimo Brunello	Giovanni Licata	Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000	URC bottom eight (15th)
Entering at Knockout Stage (transferred from Champions Cup)
La Rochelle	Ronan O'Gara	Grégory Alldritt	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	18,000	Champions Cup Pool 3 5th place
Munster	Clayton McMillan	Tadhg Beirne	Thomond Park, Limerick Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork	25,600 45,000	Champions Cup Pool 2 5th place
Sharks	JP Pietersen	André Esterhuizen	Kings Park Stadium	52,000	Champions Cup Pool 1 5th place
Pau	Sébastien Piqueronies	Lucas Rey	Stade du Hameau	14,999	Champions Cup Pool 4 5th place

Draw

The 2025/26 EPCR Challenge Cup will see the 18 competing clubs drawn into three pools of six. Like previous seasons, the three pools will be made up of six teams, however clubs from the same nation, cannot be in the same pool, apart from France who will have two French teams in each pool - though they will not face each other in the pool stage, and there cannot be more than three teams from the United Rugby Championship in the same pool.

Pool stage

Pool 1

EPCR Challenge Cup Pool 1
Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Montpellier (1)	4	4	0	119	77	+42	18	10	4	0	20	Home round of 16
2	Zebre Parma (5)	4	3	1	99	81	+18	12	11	2	0	14
3	Connacht (8)	4	2	2	179	71	+108	26	11	3	2	13
4	Ospreys (14)	4	2	2	102	97	+5	16	12	3	2	13	Away round of 16
5	Black Lion	4	1	3	58	132	−74	8	20	1	0	5
6	Montauban	4	0	4	81	180	−99	11	25	1	1	2

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.

Pool 2

EPCR Challenge Cup Pool 2
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Benetton (2)	4	4	0	0	182	89	+93	24	11	3	0	19	Home round of 16
2	Newcastle Red Bulls (6)	4	3	0	1	75	78	−3	11	11	1	0	13	Home round of 16
3	Dragons (13)	4	2	0	2	96	148	−52	14	21	1	0	9	Away round of 16
4	Perpignan (16)	4	1	1	2	111	107	+4	14	14	1	1	8	Away round of 16
5	Lions	4	1	1	2	90	93	−3	11	12	1	1	8
6	Lyon	4	0	0	4	87	126	−39	13	17	1	2	3

Source: EPCR^[7]
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	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Ulster (3)	4	3	0	1	141	55	+86	21	8	4	1	17	Home round of 16
2	Stade Français (4)	4	3	0	1	129	90	+39	19	13	3	1	16
3	Exeter Chiefs (7)	4	2	1	1	129	70	+59	18	11	3	1	14
4	Cardiff (15)	4	2	0	2	78	108	−30	11	17	2	0	10	Away round of 16
5	Racing 92	4	1	1	2	82	152	−70	13	21	2	0	8
6	Cheetahs	4	0	0	4	62	146	−84	9	21	1	1	2

Source: EPCR^[8]
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 will begin 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 2025–26 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.

Seeding

Rank	Team	Pts	Diff	TF
Pool leaders
1	Montpellier	20	+42	18
2	Benetton	19	+93	24
3	Ulster	17	+86	21
Pool runners-up
4	Stade Français	16	+39	19
5	Zebre Parma	14	+18	12
6	Newcastle Red Bulls	13	−3	13
Top two third placed teams
7	Exeter Chiefs	14	+59	18
8	Connacht	13	+108	26
Champions Cup teams
9	Sharks	10	−10	16
10	Munster	8	−2	15
11	La Rochelle	6	−13	15
12	Pau	6	−60	15
Third best third placed team
13	Dragons	9	−52	14
Fourth placed teams
14	Ospreys	13	+5	16
15	Cardiff	10	−30	11
16	Perpignan	8	+4	14

Bracket

Round of 16		Quarter-finals	Semi-finals	Final

1	Montpellier

16	Perpignan



8	Connacht

9	Sharks



4	Stade Français

13	Dragons



5	Zebre Parma

12	Pau



2	Benetton

15	Cardiff



7	Exeter Chiefs

10	Munster



3	Ulster

14	Ospreys



6	Newcastle Red Bulls

11	La Rochelle

Round of 16

3 April 2026
20:00

Connacht (8)	v	(9) Sharks

Dexcom Stadium, Galway

4 April 2026
12:30

Exeter Chiefs (7)	v	(10) Munster

Sandy Park, Exeter

4 April 2026
13:30

Montpellier (1)	v	(16) Perpignan

GGL Stadium, Montpellier

4 April 2026
18:30

Benetton (2)	v	(15) Cardiff

Stadio Comunale di Monigo, Treviso

4 April 2026
20:00

Newcastle Red Bulls (6)	v	(11) La Rochelle

Kingston Park, Newcastle

4 April 2026
20:00

Ulster (3)	v	(14) Ospreys

Affidea Stadium, Belfast

5 April 2026
13:30

Stade Français (4)	v	(13) Dragons

Stade Jean Bouin, Paris

5 April 2026
18:30

Zebre Parma (5)	v	(12) Pau

Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma