2019–20 European Rugby Challenge Cup
The 2019–20 European Rugby Challenge Cup was the sixth edition of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, an annual second-tier rugby union competition for professional clubs. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this was the 24th edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition. Clubs from six European nations competed, including Russian and Italian clubs who qualified via the Continental Shield. The tournament began in November 2019. The final took place on 16 October at the Stade Maurice David in Aix-en-Provence. Teams. 20 teams will qualify for the 2019–20  European Challenge Cup; 18 will qualify from Premiership Rugby, the Pro14 and the Top 14, as a direct result of their domestic league performance, with two qualifying through the 2018–19 Continental Shield. The distribution of teams is: No team from Ireland will participate in the competition as all four clubs have qualified for the 2019-20 European Champions Cup. The following clubs have qualified for the Challenge Cup. Qualifying competition. Six teams were split into two pools of three to compete in the pool stage of the European Rugby Continental Shield. Each team played the other two teams in its  pool twice on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each pool faced each other in a two-legged play-off for a place in the Challenge Cup. A further place was awarded to the winner of a two-legged playoff between the two sides competing in the 2018–19 Challenge Cup. Team details. Below is the list of coaches, captain and stadiums with their method of qualification for each team. Seeding. The 20 competing teams will be seeded and split into four tiers; seeding is based on performance in their respective domestic leagues. Where promotion and relegation is in  effect in a league, the promoted team is seeded last, or (if multiple teams are promoted) by performance in the lower competition. Based on these seedings, teams are placed into one of the four tiers, with the top-seeded clubs being put in Tier 1. The nature of the tier system means that a draw is needed to allocate two of the three second-seed clubs to Tier 1. The fourth-seed team from the same domestic league as the second-seed team which was put in Tier 2 will also be placed in Tier 2. Brackets show each team 's seeding and their league. e.g. "1 Top 14" indicates the team was the top seed from the Top 14. Given the nature of the Continental Shield, a competition including developing rugby nations and Italian clubs not competing in the Pro14, the qualifying teams from this competition are automatically included in Tier 4. Pool stage. The draw took place in June 2019. Teams in the same pool will play each other twice, both at home and away in the group stage, that will begin in November 2019, and continue through to January 2020, before the pool winners and three best  runners-up progressed to the quarter finals. Teams will be awarded competition points, based on match result. Teams receive four points for a win, two points for a draw, one attacking bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and one defensive bonus point for losing a match by seven points or fewer. In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following tie-breakers will be used, as directed by EPCR: Attendances. "Does not include the attendance at the final as it takes place at a neutral venue, or the attendances of matches  played in empty stadiums due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe." 66–10 Worcester Warriors at home to Enisei-STM on 11 January 2020 73–3 Bordeaux Bègles away to Agen on 6 December 2019 73–3 Bordeaux Bègles away to Agen on 6 December 2019 Bordeaux Bègles away to Agen on 6 December 2019 Bordeaux Bègles away to Agen on 6 December 2019 Dragons at home to Worcester Warriors on 13 December 2019 Leicester Tigers at home to Cardiff Blues on 12 January 2020 Jamie Shillcock for Worcester Warriors away to Enisey-STM on 15 November 2019 Jonah Holmes for Leicester Tigers  at home to Pau on 16 November 2019 Season records. Player. Darcy Graham for Edinburgh at home to Agen on 18 January 2020 Clovis Lebail for Pau at home to Calvisano on 22 November 2019 Sam Davies for Dragons at home to Worcester Warriors on 13 December 2019 George Ford for Leicester Tigers at home to Cardiff Blues on 12 January 2020 Bordeaux Bègles at home to Edinburgh on 11 January 2020 Enisei-STM at home to Castres on 6 December 2019 Leicester Tigers Enisei-STM