2023–24 EPCR Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England  France  Georgia  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  South Africa  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and knockout
Date	8 December 2023 – 24 May 2024
Tournament statistics
Teams	18 (pool stage) + 4 (knockout stage)
Matches played	51
Attendance	384,554 (7,540 per match)
Highest attendance	34,761 – Sharks v Gloucester 24 May 2024
Lowest attendance	1,600 – Zebre Parma v Cheetahs 9 December 2023
Tries scored	294 (5.76 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Anthony Belleau (Clermont) 81 points
Top try scorer(s)	Onisi Ratave (Benetton) Makazole Mapimpi (Sharks) 6 tries
Final
Venue	Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
Champions	Sharks (1st title)
Runners-up	Gloucester
← 2022–23 (Previous) (Next) 2024–25 →

The 2023–24 EPCR Challenge Cup was the 10th 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 28th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition.

The tournament commenced in December 2023, and concluded with the final on 24 May 2024 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, England.^[1] In the final, Sharks beat Gloucester to win the cup for the first time.^[2][3]

This is the second year that teams from South Africa can qualify, following the second United Rugby Championship season. Two teams have been invited from outside the three main European professional leagues; The Black Lion from Tbilisi, Georgia are current holders of the Rugby Europe Super Cup, the third-tier competition in European rugby administered by Rugby Europe, and Cheetahs the current holders of the Currie Cup, South Africa's second tier and most historic national competition. Originally not represented in the Challenge Cup, two Irish teams, Ulster and Connacht, joined in the play-off rounds, having dropped down from the Champions Cup.

Sixteen teams qualified for the 2023–24 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 Heineken Champions Cup. Plus two invited sides making 18 teams.^[4]

The distribution of teams are:

• England: two teams
  • Remaining teams in the 2023–24 Premiership Season that do not qualify for the 2023–24 European Rugby Champions Cup. Bristol Bears had previously qualified but replaced London Irish in the 2023–24 European Rugby Champions Cup following London Irish's suspension from the Premiership^[5]
• France: six teams
  • Teams taking part in the 2023–24 Top 14 season that did not qualify for the Champions Cup
• Georgia, Italy, Scotland, Wales, South Africa: ten teams
  • Eight teams qualified from Italy, Scotland, Wales and South Africa through the United Rugby Championship. Ireland are not represented.
  • Two teams invited, one each from South Africa and Georgia.^[6]

Entry Point	Premiership	Top 14	United Rugby Championship					Invited
—	England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales	South Africa		Georgia
Pool stage	Gloucester Newcastle Falcons	Castres Clermont Montpellier Pau Perpignan Oyonnax	—	Benetton Zebre Parma	Edinburgh	Ospreys Scarlets Dragons	Sharks Lions	Cheetahs	Black Lion
Knockout stage	Sale Sharks	Bayonne	Ulster Connacht	—	—	—	—	—	—

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	5,000	URC bottom eight
Black Lion	Levan Maisashvili	Merab Sharikadze	Mikheil Meskhi Stadium	27,223	Invited[a]
Castres	Jeremy Davidson	Mathieu Babillot	Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	Top 14 bottom 6
Cheetahs	Hawies Fourie	Victor Sekekete	Free State Stadium, South Africa	46,000	Invited[b]
			NRCA Stadium, Netherlands	5,000
Clermont	Christophe Urios	Arthur Iturria	Stade Marcel-Michelin	19,022	Top 14 bottom 6
Dragons	Dai Flanagan	Steffan Hughes	Rodney Parade	8,700	URC bottom eight
Edinburgh	Sean Everitt	Grant Gilchrist Jamie Ritchie	Edinburgh Rugby Stadium	7,800	URC bottom eight
Gloucester	George Skivington	Lewis Ludlow	Kingsholm	16,115	Premiership bottom 2
Lions	Ivan van Rooyen	Marius Louw	Emirates Airline Park	62,567	URC bottom eight
Montpellier	Richard Cockerill[c] Patrice Collazo[c]	Paul Willemse	GGL Stadium	15,697	Top 14 bottom 6
Newcastle Falcons	Alex Codling[d] Micky Ward (interim)[d]	Callum Chick	Kingston Park	11,200	Premiership bottom 2
Ospreys	Toby Booth	Justin Tipuric	Swansea.com Stadium	22,200	URC bottom eight
Oyonnax	Joe El Abd	Tommy Raynaud	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,500	Pro D2 Champions
Pau	Sébastien Piqueronies	Beka Gorgadze	Stade du Hameau	18,324	Top 14 bottom 6
Perpignan	Franck Azéma	Mathieu Acebes	Stade Aimé Giral	14,593	Top 14 bottom 6
Scarlets	Dwayne Peel	Josh Macleod	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	URC bottom eight
Sharks	John Plumtree	Lukhanyo Am	Hollywoodbets Kings Park Stadium	54,000	URC bottom eight[e]
Zebre Parma	Fabio Roselli	Dave Sisi	Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000	URC bottom eight
Entering at Knockout Stage (transferred from Champions Cup)
Bayonne	Grégory Patat	Denis Marchois	Stade Jean-Dauger	14,370	Champions Cup Pool C 5th place
Connacht	Peter Wilkins	Jack Carty	Galway Sportsgrounds	8,129	Champions Cup Pool A 5th place
Sale Sharks	Alex Sanderson	Ben Curry	Salford Community Stadium	12,000	Champions Cup Pool D 5th place
Ulster	Richie Murphy	Iain Henderson	Ravenhill Stadium	18,196	Champions Cup Pool B 5th place

Teams were 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.

2023–24 EPCR Challenge Cup Pool 1

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Sharks (1)	4	3	0	1	141	53	+88	21	6	4	1	17	Qualifies for a home Round of 16
2	Pau (6)	4	3	0	1	90	113	−23	10	15	0	0	12
3	Cheetahs (13)	4	2	0	2	112	105	+7	14	13	2	1	11	Qualifies for Round of 16
4	Zebre Parma (16)	4	2	0	2	83	92	−9	11	9	1	1	10
5	Dragons	4	1	0	3	71	80	−9	7	12	1	2	7
6	Oyonnax	4	1	0	3	56	110	−54	8	16	1	1	6

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=2023–24_EPCR_Challenge_Cup
Text je dostupný za podmienok Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 Unported; prípadne za ďalších podmienok. Podrobnejšie informácie nájdete na stránke Podmienky použitia.

---