Premiership Rugby Cup Format

The Format consists of five pools of four clubs.

Each team will play home and away matches against the other teams in the pool.

League points follow the normal rules, 4 for a win, 2 for a draw, 0 for a loss, and Bonus Points for 4 tries or more and/or losing by 7 or less match points.

Post the pool stages

On completion of the pools, each Club will be ranked within each pool on the following basis:

• The Club with the greatest League Points will be placed above a Club with lesser League Points; or
• If League Points are equal it will be the Club with the most wins; or
• If the number of wins is also equal it will be the Club with the greatest points difference; or
• If the points difference is also equal it will be the Club with the greatest points for; or
• If the points for is also equal it will be the Club who has scored the higher number of tries; or
• If the number of tries is also equal it will be the Club who has the least number of red cards; or
• If the number of red cards is equal it will be the Club who scored the greater number of points scored in the match between the two Clubs; or
• If the number of points scored in the match between the two Club is equal, the Tournament Director shall conduct a draw of the relevant Clubs, being that the first Club drawn shall be deemed the higher-ranked Club.

The knock-out stages

The knock-out stage shall be divided into four quarter-finals, two semi-final matches and the final.

Winner from each pool will progress to the quarter-finals together with the three best runners-up. The top 5 seeds are the group winners based on the above criteria, with seeds 6, 7 and 8 being the best 2nd placed teams based on the same criteria.

Quarter-final 1: 1st ranked Club v 8th ranked Club

Quarter-final 2: 2nd ranked Club v 7th ranked Club

Quarter-final 3: 3rd ranked Club v 6th ranked Club

Quarter-final 4: 4th ranked Club v 5th ranked Club

The four winning clubs will progress to the semi-finals.

Semi-final 1: Winner of QF1 v Winner of QF4 (at highest seeds’ ground).

Semi-final 2: Winner of QF2 v Winner of QF3 (at highest seeds’ ground).

The quarter-final and semi-final matches will be knock-out, each played over one match.

The first club listed in each of the quarter-final matches shall be the Home club.

The first club listed in each of the semi-final matches shall be the Home club.

The winners of the two semi-final matches will proceed to the Cup final.

The Cup final will be played at a venue of the highest ranked finalist club based upon the rankings determined in accordance with the principles above.