Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

The only certainty ahead of the knockout stages of the Challenge Cup... and 10 other stats

Eben Etzebeth in action for Toulon. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

The only certainty ahead of the knockout stage is that 2020 will see a new Challenge Cup winner crowned as none of the clubs in the last eight have lifted the trophy. Castres Olympique, Edinburgh Rugby and RC Toulon have all been defeated finalists.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Challenge Cup last-eight matches get underway on Friday, 18 September with the clash of Bristol Bears and the Dragons at Ashton Gate where France’s Mathieu Raynal will be on the whistle, and on the following day, Ireland’s Frank Murphy will be in the middle for the Stade Chaban-Delmas meeting of Bordeaux-Bègles and Edinburgh Rugby, while his compatriot, Andrew Brace, has been appointed for the RC Toulon-Scarlets tie at Stade Félix Mayol.

The concluding Challenge Cup quarter-final on Sunday, 20 September which pits Leicester Tigers against Castres Olympique at Welford Road will be refereed by Mike Adamson of Scotland.

Video Spacer

Last year Gareth Anscombe spoke to RugbyPass after the final of the Challenge Cup

Video Spacer

Last year Gareth Anscombe spoke to RugbyPass after the final of the Challenge Cup

10 OTHER CHALLENGE CUP FACTS: 

No 1-ranked Toulon are the only club in the quarter-finals to have won all six pool matches.

Edinburgh wing, Duhan van der Merwe, has the highest total of defenders beaten with 28.

Camille Gerondeau of Castres has won the most line outs to date with 45 which includes eight on the opposition throw.

Bristol Bears’ Callum Sheedy needs five points to reach 100 in the Challenge Cup.

If Dragons’ Matthew Screech is selected for the match at Ashton Gate it will be his 35th tournament appearance.

ADVERTISEMENT

Blair Kinghorn is now Edinburgh’s leading Challenge Cup try scorer with eight.

Darcy Graham’s four tries against Agen in Round 6 is the most by an Edinburgh player in a match in European competition.

Dragons have never lost a Challenge Cup quarter-final match to date, winning twice at home and once away against Gloucester in 2016.

Scarlets will travel to Toulon with confidence having narrowly lost 17-16 in Round 2 at Stade Mayol where Anthony Belleau’s last-gasp conversion edged the home side to victory.

ADVERTISEMENT

Rory Kockott’s 23 points in the Round 6 win over Worcester Warriors is a record for a Castres player in the tournament.

CHALLENGE CUP CUP MATCH KICK OFF TIMES:
Friday 18 September: Bristol Bears v Dragons, Ashton Gate (19:45)
Saturday 19 September: Bordeaux-Bègles v Edinburgh Rugby, Stade Chaban-Delmas (12:30)
RC Toulon v Scarlets, Stade Félix Mayol (20:15)
Sunday 20 September: Leicester Tigers v Castres Olympique, Welford Road (15:00)

All timings are UK/Irish time.

EPCR

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

286 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat
Search