European Rugby Champions Cup: Dates, format, history and more

The European Rugby Champions Cup has long been the pinnacle of northern hemisphere club rugby, with the best teams from the continent and beyond battling it out for supremacy.

A total of 24 teams from the English Premiership, French Top 14 and the United Rugby Championship embark on a long journey each season for the right to call themselves European champions.

European Rugby Champions Cup dates

The European Rugby Champions Cup annually takes place throughout the winter and into the spring.

The 2024/25 tournament begins on Friday 6th December 2024 and the Pool stage will played over four weekends, the last of which is the weekend of Friday 17th January 2025.

The Round of 16 will then be held over the three days from Friday 4th April, with the quarter-finals the following weekend. 

The semi-finals will be played from Friday 2nd May before the final on Saturday 24th May 2025.

European Rugby Champions Cup venues

The 2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup up to the conclusion of the quarter-final stage will be held across various venues in England, France, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Wales.

Semi-finals will be held at neutral grounds, which will be decided based on which teams make it through to the last four, while the final will be held at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

European Rugby Champions Cup format

After three years of two 12-team sections, a change of format has been introduced with four pools of six teams; two from the Premiership, two from the Top 14 and two from the URC. 

Each team will play four pool matches, two home and away against the clubs from outside their domestic competition. 

In the Pool stage, teams will be 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.

The top four sides in Pools A-D will go through to the Round of 16, while the side that finishes fifth will drop into the same stage of the Challenge Cup.

From the Round of 16, the tournament will progress through a familiar knockout formula of quarter-finals, semi-finals and then the final.

European Rugby Champions Cup history

The 2024/25 European Rugby Champions Cup marks the 30th edition of the tournament with the first competition being staged in the 1995/96 campaign.

Just 12 teams qualified for the inaugural event, which was won by Toulouse.

The first match was played between Farul Constanta and Toulouse on 31st October 1995, with both Emile Ntamack and David Berty scoring two tries each in a 54-10 win for the French club.

A total of 13 teams have won the European Rugby Champions Cup since its inauguration in 1995.

French giants Toulouse have won the European Rugby Champions Cup more times than any other club. Les Rouge et Noir have won the title six times (1995/96, 2002/03, 2004/05, 2009/10, 2020/21 and 2023/24), while they have finished runners-up twice (2003/04 and 2007/08).

Irish side Leinster have won it four times (2008/09, 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2017/18) and have also lost three finals, including the last two.

Saracens (2015/16, 2016/17 and 2018/19) and Toulon (2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15) have each taken the title three times, with La Rochelle able to join them on three if they claim a third successive Champions Cup this season (2021/22 and 2022/23).

The French outfit are only the fifth team to have won consecutive titles in the competition's history, beating Leinster 27-26 in May to join Leicester (2000/01 and 2001/02), Munster (2005/06 and 2007/08) and Wasps (2003/04 and 2006/07) in having won the competition twice.

Brive (1996/97), Bath (1997/98), Ulster (1998/99), Northampton (1999/00) and Exeter (2019/20) have each won it once.

Overall French and English clubs have each won the tournament 11 times, while the Irish provinces have taken seven crowns.

There have been a number of unlucky losers, with both Clermont and Racing Metro losing the final on three occasions.