European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) has announced the expansion of the Heineken Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup from the 2022/23 season, with five leading clubs from South Africa now competing against the likes of Munster and Edinburgh Rugby.
The Stormers, Bulls, Sharks and Lions, that have qualified from the United Rugby Championship (URC), will add new high-quality competition to the established order of Europe’s elite clubs. In addition to the four qualifiers from the URC, the Bloemfontein-based Cheetahs has been invited to participate in the 2022/23 EPCR Challenge Cup. This will see the new teams face Leinster Rugby, Ulster Rugby, Munster Rugby, Edinburgh Rugby and the Ospreys.
Commenting on the major development, EPCR Chairman, Dominic McKay, said, “We are delighted to confirm that the South African clubs will be part of our expanded tournaments from the beginning of next season.
“The Stormers, Bulls, Sharks and Lions will all bring hugely exciting southern hemisphere rugby, well-known world-class players and broad new audiences into our tournaments, and we are pleased to welcome the Cheetahs into the EPCR Challenge Cup. The steps we have taken with our stakeholder leagues and with SARU ensure that we can further develop the tournaments as the pinnacle of global club rugby.
“This is a crucial step forward in bringing to life our vision of growing the game and our own tournaments, continuing to deliver strong returns for our leagues and creating an ever-higher standard of mouthwatering matches for our fans.”
EPCR Chief Executive, Anthony Lepage, added, “This is a hugely significant step forward in realising our ambitions to grow our tournaments and bring our outstanding competitions to new audiences across the globe.
“Welcoming such well-known and well-supported South African clubs to the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup will take the competitions to a new level of elite rugby, with the best of South Africa now also able to test themselves against the best of England and France.”
The formats for next season’s Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup will be announced shortly, in conjunction with details of the Pool Draws for both tournaments which will be staged towards the end of the month.
During the 2022/23 season, EPCR will continue to be supported by Heineken as the title partner of the Heineken Champions Cup, as well as by EPCR’s official logistics partner DHL and official hotels partner IHG Hotels & Resorts.
The 2023 Finals weekend is scheduled for Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th May.
Image: Shutterstock
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.