2026–27 EPCR Challenge Cup

Not to be confused with 2026–27 European Rugby Champions Cup.

2026–27 EPCR Challenge Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England France Georgia Ireland Italy South Africa Wales
Tournament format(s)	Modified round-robin and knockout
Date	16 October 2026 – 21 May 2027
Tournament statistics
Teams	18 (plus 4 from Champions Cup pool stage)
Final

The 22026–27 EPCR Challenge Cup, often known as the 2026-27 European Challenge Cup, will be the thirteenth 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 will be the 31st edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition.

The final will be played at Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon.

The holders going into the 2026–27 season is Montpellier who qualified for the 2026–27 European Rugby Champions Cup.

Teams

Sixteen teams qualified for the 2026–27 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.

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 2026–27 Champions Cup. This season, these consist of three teams from Wales (Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets), one from Ireland (Ulster Rugby), two from Italy (Benetton and Zebre Parma), one from Scotland Edinburgh), and one from South Africa (Sharks).
• South Africa: one further team
  • One team, invited, the South African team, Cheetahs.

At the knockout stage, a further four teams will enter the competition from the 2026–27 European Rugby Champions Cup.

Entry Point	Premiership	Top 14	United Rugby Championship					Invited
—N/a	England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales	South Africa		Georgia
Pool stage	Harlequins Newcastle Red Bulls	Bayonne Castres Lyon Perpignan Toulon Vannes	Ulster	Benetton Zebre Parma	Edinburgh	Dragons Ospreys Scarlets	Sharks	Cheetahs	Black Lion

Team changes

For the 2026–27 season, there were several team changes from the previous season in the Challenge Cup.

England
Harlequins dropped down to the Challenge Cup for the first time since 2018–19, replacing Exeter Chiefs who qualifed for the Champions Cup.

France
Bayonne, Castres and Toulon all failed to qualify for the Champions Cup and fell into the Challenge Cup, whilst last years French contingent Racing 92 and Stade Français both returned back into the Champions Cup. Montpellier also qualified back into the Champions Cup by virtue of league performance and claiming the Challenge Cup title in 2025–26. With Montauban relegation from the Top14, Vannes returned to the top flight competitions and taking the final French sport in the Challenge Cup.

United Rugby Championship
In only four changes to the URC teams, Edinburgh, Scarlets and Sharks all failed to qualify for the Champions Cup again, and in consequence, fell into the Challenge Cup. They filled the void left by Cardiff, Connacht and the Lions who qualified for the Champions Cup.

Team details

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium	Capacity	Method of qualification
Entering at Pool stage
Bayonne	Grégory Patat		Stade Jean-Dauger	14,370	Top 14 bottom six (12th)
Benetton	Wayne Pivac		Stadio Comunale di Monigo	5,000	URC bottom eight (13th)
Black Lion	TBC		Mikheil Meskhi Stadium Avchala Rugby Stadium	27,223 2,500	Invited
Castres	Xavier Sadourny		Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	Top 14 bottom six (10th)
Cheetahs	François Steyn		NRCA Stadium	5,000	Invited
Dragons	Filo Tiatia		Rodney Parade	8,700	URC bottom eight (11th)
Edinburgh	Sean Everitt		Edinburgh Rugby Stadium	7,800	URC bottom eight (12th)
Harlequins	Jason Gilmore		Twickenham Stoop	14,800	PREM bottom two (9th)
Sharks	JP Pietersen		Kings Park Stadium	52,000	URC bottom eight (10th)
Lyon	Karim Ghezal		Mahmut Stadium	25,000	Top 14 bottom six (11th)
Newcastle Red Bulls	Dan McFarland		Kingston Park	11,200	PREM bottom two (10th)
Ospreys	Mark Jones		Dunraven Brewery Field	8,000	URC bottom eight (11th)
Perpignan	Laurent Labit		Stade Aimé Giral	14,593	Top 14 bottom six (13th)
Scarlets	Dwayne Peel		Parc y Scarlets	14,870	URC bottom eight (14th)
Toulon	Pierre Mignoni		Stade Mayol	17,500	Top 14 bottom six (9th)
Ulster	Richie Murphy		Affidea Stadium	18,196	URC bottom eight (9th)
Vannes	Jean-Noël Spitzer		Stade de la Rabine	11,303	Pro D2 Champions
Zebre Parma	Massimo Brunello		Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000	URC bottom eight (16th)

Draw

The 2026–27 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	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Cheetahs	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Home round of 16
2	Ulster	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Perpignan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Dragons	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Away round of 16
5	Bayonne	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Zebre Parma	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 16 October 2026. Source: EPCR
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	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Home round of 16
2	Lyon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Newcastle Red Bulls	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Sharks	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Away round of 16
5	Castres	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Scarlets	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 17 October 2026. Source: EPCR
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	Ospreys	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Home round of 16
2	Edinburgh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Black Lion	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Harlequins	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Away round of 16
5	Toulon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Vannes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 16 October 2026. Source: EPCR
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.