The 2022–23 EPCR Challenge Cup was the 9th edition of the

EPCR Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

, an annual second-tier

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

competition for professional clubs. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this is the 27th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition. The tournament commenced in December 2022, and concluded with the final on 19 May 2023 at

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland, which was contested between

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

(their first European final) and

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

who made their fourth appearance in a European final. This was the first year that teams from South Africa could qualify, following the inaugural

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

season, with Johannesburg-based

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the tip of its tail. It is se ...

making their inaugural appearance in European club rugby. In addition, another South African team, the Bloemfontein-based

Cheetahs The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat and the fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, with a short snout and blac ...

franchise, formerly of the URC predecessor competition the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

, had been invited to enter, having been excluded from European competition during their Pro14 tenure.

Teams

Seventeen teams qualified for the 2022–23 EPCR Challenge Cup from

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby ...

, the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the National Rugby League (France), France National Rugby League, also ...

and the

as a direct result of their domestic league performance having not qualified for the Heineken Champions Cup. Plus one invited sides making 18 teams. The distribution of teams were: * England: three teams ** Remaining teams in the Premiership that do not qualify for the

2022–23 European Rugby Champions Cup The 2022–23 European Rugby Champions Cup was the ninth season of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the annual club rugby union competition run by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) for teams from the top five nations in European rugby and ...

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

and

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

had previously qualified but were both suspended after entering administration. * France: six teams ** Teams taking part in the

2022–23 Top 14 season The 2022–23 Top 14 is the 124th French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Format The top six teams at the end of the regular season (after all the teams played one another twice, once at ho ...

that did not qualify for the Champions Cup * Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales, South Africa: nine teams ** The bottom seven teams in the

and the Glasgow Warriors as the Welsh shield winners (the Ospreys) were not in the top 8 teams in the URC.

Ospreys The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It is ...

finished in the bottom 8 teams, but qualified for the European rugby Champions Cup as Welsh Shield champions. **

(invited to participate)

Team details

Pool stage

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.

Pool A

Pool B

Knockout stage

The knockout stage was played across 31 March/1/2 April with a single leg round of 16 matches consisting of the top six ranked teams from each pool and the teams ranked 9th and 10th in each pool of the

( Clermont,

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

Racing 92 Racing 92 () is a French professional rugby union club based in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Paris' western inner Banlieue, suburbs that competes in Top 14. The club plays its home matches at the 30,681-capacity Stadium#Types, domed stadium Pa ...

and

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Its team play in Premiership Rugby, and have been in England's top division of rugby union continuously since 1995. Originally founded in 1861 as ...

denoted by * in the bracket). The Round of 16 followed a pre-determined format, while the quarter-finals and semi-finals always guaranteed home advantage to the higher ranked team. The last-16 were dominated by clubs from

(eight) and the United Rugby Championship (six), with only two English clubs reaching the knockout stages - both eliminated in the first play-off round along with the only Irish team,

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

, while both South African clubs departed by the quarter-finals.

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

became the first Italian side to reach a European semi-final, as three URC teams from three different countries(Italy, Scotland and Wales) reached the final four along with French giant Toulon.

Round of 16

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Quarter-finals

---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

The higher-ranked club gained home stadium advantage, however, in the event that a South African team had been the higher ranked side, the game would have been located in Europe. ----

Final

Leading scorers

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under

World Rugby World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

Most points

Source:

Most tries