2019 Champions Cup to start two weeks after Rugby World Cup

Next October, the Rugby World Cup will take place in Japan with Ireland looking more poised than ever to launch an assault on the tournement.

The staging of the competition means there must be some reshuffling in club competitions with the dates for next seasons Champions Cup released today.

In order to assist with its stakeholders’ forward planning, the EPCR has announce the key dates for the 2019/20 Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup season. 

As Rugby World Cup 2019 takes centre stage next autumn, EPCR’s tournaments will get underway later than usual with the kick-off scheduled for mid-November just under a fortnight after the World Cup final in Yokohama on 2 November 2019.

The tournaments will then revert to their customary weekends in December 2019 and January 2020 with the quarter-finals and semi-finals set for early April and early May respectively. 

As previously confirmed, the 2020 finals celebrating the culmination of the 25th season of European professional club rugby will be staged in Marseille on the weekend of 22/23 May.

Champions Cup 2019/20

Round 1: 15/16/17 November 2019
Round 2: 22/23/24 November 2019
Round 3: 6/7/8 December 2019
Round 4: 13/14/15 December 2019
Round 5: 10/11/12 January 2020
Round 6: 17/18/19 January 2020
Quarter-finals: 3/4/5 April 2020
Semi-finals: 1/2/3 May 2020

2020 finals – Stade de Marseille
Challenge Cup final – Friday 22 May
Heineken Champions Cup final – Saturday 23 May