The 2020–21 European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the annual club rugby union competition run by European Professional Club Rugby (ECPR) for teams from the top six nations in European rugby. It was the 26th season of pan-European professional club rugby competition.

The tournament began on 11 December 2020. The final, originally scheduled at the Stade de Marseille, occurred on 22 May 2021 at Twickenham Stadium.

On 11 January 2021, EPCR suspended the tournament due to further public health restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A revised format was announced on 24 February 2021.

Teams Due to the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the end of the previous tournament twenty-four clubs from the three major European domestic and regional leagues would compete in the Champions Cup in a one-year exceptional basis. EPCR chief Vincent Gaillard confirmed the 24-team tournament in August 2020.

The distribution of teams is: England: eight clubs The top eight clubs in Premiership Rugby France: eight clubs The top eight clubs in the Top 14

Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales: eight clubs The top four sides (not including the South African sides, which are ineligible for EPCR competitions) in both conferences in the Pro14.

While the 2019–20 Top 14 season was cancelled due to COVID-19, the Premiership and Pro14 resumed in August 2020. However, the Pro14 announced in June 2020 that their European representation would be decided by standings after round 13, the final series of games before the hiatus. The following teams qualified for the tournament via their league performance.

Premiership Top 14 Pro14 England France Ireland Scotland WalesBath Bristol Bears Exeter Chiefs Gloucester Harlequins Northampton Saints Sale Sharks WaspsBordeaux Bègles Clermont La Rochelle Lyon Montpellier Racing 92 Toulon ToulouseConnacht Leinster Munster UlsterEdinburgh Glasgow Warriors Dragons Scarlets

Team details 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 and SF for losing Semi-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 (4th) (SF) Bordeaux Bègles Christophe Urios Jefferson Poirot Stade Chaban-Delmas 34,694 Top 14 top 8 (1st) Bristol Bears Pat Lam Steve Luatua Ashton Gate 27,000 Premiership top 8 (3rd) (SF) Clermont Franck Azéma Morgan Parra Stade Marcel-Michelin 19,022 Top 14 top 8 (6th) Connacht Andy Friend Jarrad Butler Galway Sportsgrounds 8,129 Pro14 Conference B (4th) Dragons Dean Ryan Rhodri Williams Rodney Parade 8,700 Pro14 Conference A (5th) Edinburgh Richard Cockerill Stuart McInally Murrayfield 12,464 Pro14 Conference B (1st) (SF) Exeter Chiefs Rob Baxter Jack Yeandle Sandy Park 13,593 Premiership top 8 (1st) (CH) Glasgow Warriors Danny Wilson Scotstoun Stadium 7,351 Pro14 Conference A (3rd) Gloucester George Skivington Lewis Ludlow Kingsholm Stadium 16,115 Premiership top 8 (7th) Harlequins Paul Gustard Billy Millard Stephan Lewies Twickenham Stoop 14,800 Premiership top 8 (6th) La Rochelle Jono Gibbes Victor Vito Stade Marcel-Deflandre 16,000 Top 14 top 8 (5th) Leinster Leo Cullen Johnny Sexton RDS ArenaAviva Stadium 18,50051,700 Pro14 Conference A (1st) (CH) Lyon Pierre Mignoni Baptiste Couilloud Félix Lambey Matmut Stadium de Gerland 25,000 Top 14 top 8 (2nd) Montpellier Xavier Garbajosa Fulgence Ouedraogo Altrad Stadium 15,697 Top 14 top 8 (8th) Munster Johann van Graan Peter O'Mahony Thomond Park 25,600 Pro14 Conference B (2nd) (SF) Northampton Saints Chris Boyd Alex Waller Franklin's Gardens 15,200 Premiership top 8 (8th) Racing 92 Laurent Travers Henry Chavancy Paris La Défense Arena 30,681 Top 14 top 8 (3rd) Sale Sharks Paul Deacon Jono Ross AJ Bell Stadium 12,000 Premiership top 8 (5th) Scarlets Glenn Delaney Ken Owens Parc y Scarlets 14,870 Pro14 Conference B (3rd) Toulon Patrice Collazo Raphaël Lakafia Stade Mayol 18,200 Top 14 top 8 (4th) Toulouse Ugo Mola Julien Marchand Stade Ernest-Wallon 19,500 Top 14 top 8 (7th) Ulster Dan McFarland Iain Henderson Ravenhill Stadium 18,196 Pro14 Conference A (2nd) (RU) Wasps Lee Blackett Ricoh Arena 32,609 Premiership top 8 (2nd) (RU)

Seeding

The twenty four teams would be broken down into two pools of twelve. Originally, four rounds of inter-pool play was to be followed by a knockout stage, featuring two-legged quarterfinals, and single leg semi-finals and final (to be held in Marseille on 22 May 2021). However at suspension of the tournament in January 2021, only two rounds of the pool stage were completed and the revised format would introduce a round of 16 following these.

For the purposes of the pool draw, the clubs would be separated into tiers based on their league finishing position, and clubs from the same league in the same tier would not be drawn into the same pool. The number 1 and number 2 ranked clubs from each league will be in Tier 1, the number 3 and number 4 ranked clubs would be in Tier 2, the number 5 and 6 ranked clubs would be in Tier 3, and the number 7 and number 8 ranked clubs would be Tier 4.

The pool stage would feature the Tier 1 teams playing the Tier 4 teams in their pool (that are not from the same league) twice in a home or away manner, while the Tier 2 and 3 clubs would follow in a similar manner.

When the revised format was announced, the top eight teams from each pool would qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions Cup and teams finishing between 9th and 12th in each pool would join the Challenge Cup at the Round of 16 stage, joining eight qualifiers from the Challenge Cup pool stage. Due to the suspension in January 2021, only six weekends of play would be provided for, three less than in previous seasons.

TierRankTop 14PremiershipPro141 1 Bordeaux Bègles Exeter Chiefs Leinster 2 Lyon Wasps Ulster2 3 Racing 92 Bristol Bears Munster 4 Toulon Bath Edinburgh3 5 La Rochelle Sale Sharks Scarlets 6 Clermont Harlequins Connacht4 7 Toulouse Gloucester Glasgow Warriors 8 Montpellier Northampton Saints Dragons

Pool stage

The draw took place on 28 October 2020 at the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne, Switzerland. The 24 teams were drawn into the two pools as follows, this also shows their opponents. Fixtures were announced on 13 November 2020.

+Key to colours    Top 8 in each pool, advance to round of 16.    Teams ranked 9th–12th in each pool advance to 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup round of 16

Pool A

Pool B

Knockout stage The knockout stage will commence with a round of 16 consisting of the top 8 ranked teams from each pool. Due to the truncation of the pool stage, a draw will be used to determine matches in both round of 16 and quarter-finals but no team will face a team from the same league in the round of 16. Teams which won both their matches and were not awarded points due to COVID cancellations would be guaranteed home advantage. Therefore, Bordeaux Bègles, Leinster, Munster, Racing 92 and Wasps will receive home advantage.

The draw for the round of 16 and quarter-finals took place on 9 March 2021 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bracket

Round of 16 Fixtures were announced on 16 March 2021.

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals The draw for the semi-finals took place on 11 April 2021 at BT Sport's studios in London. As a result of the pandemic all matches will be held at the designated club's home ground.

Final

See also 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup

Notes

References