2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage


The 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage was the first stage of the 22nd season of European club rugby union, and the third under the European Rugby Champions Cup format.
It involved 20 teams competing, across 5 pools of 4 teams, for 8 quarter-final places – awarded to the 5 pool winners and the 3 top-ranked pool runners-up.
The pool stage began on the weekend of 14–16 October 2016, and ended following Round 6, on the weekend of 23–25 January 2017.

Seeding

The 20 competing teams are seeded and split into four tiers, each containing 5 teams.
For the purpose of creating the tiers, clubs are ranked based on their domestic league performances and on their qualification for the knockout phases of their championships, so a losing quarter-finalist in the Top 14 would be seeded below a losing semi-finalist, even if they finished above them in the regular season.
RankTop 14PremiershipPro 12
1 Racing 92 Saracens Connacht
2 Toulon Exeter Chiefs Leinster
3 Clermont Wasps Glasgow Warriors
4 Montpellier Leicester Tigers Ulster
5 Toulouse Northampton Saints Scarlets
6 Castres Sale Sharks Munster
7 Bordeaux Bègles Zebre

Based on these seedings, teams are placed into one of the four tiers, with the top seed 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. Exeter Chiefs and Leinster were drawn into Tier 1, meaning the remaining side - Toulon went into Tier 2. As a result of this draw, Montpellier also entered Tier 2, as the fourth seed from the league of the second seed placed in Tier 2. The other two fourth rankes sides fell into Tier 3.
The tiers are shown below. Brackets show each team's seeding and their league.
Tier 1 Saracens Connacht Racing 92 Exeter Chiefs Leinster
Tier 2 Toulon Wasps Glasgow Warriors Clermont Montpellier
Tier 3 Leicester Tigers Ulster Northampton Saints Scarlets Toulouse
Tier 4 Sale Sharks Munster Castres Zebre Bordeaux Bègles

Pool stage

The draw took place on 29 June 2016 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
During the pool stage, the teams played the 3 other teams in their pool twice, both at home and away, Based on the result of the match, teams receive competition points as follows:
Following the pool stage, the five winners from each group progressed to the quarter-finals, along with the three best pool runners-up from the competition. To seed the quarter-finals, the five pool winners will be ranked 1st to 5th and the three best-placed runners-up ranked 6th to 8th, based on who got the most competition points. In the event of a tie between two or more teams from the same pool, the following criteria would be used as tie-breakers:
  1. The club with the greater number of competition points from only matches involving tied teams.
  2. If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from those matches.
  3. If equal, the club that scored the most tries in those matches.
If this did not separate teams, and/or the tie related to teams that did not played each other, the following tie breakers would be used:
  1. If equal, the club with the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage.
  2. The club that scored the most tries in the pool stage.
  3. If equal, the club with the fewest players suspended in the pool stage.
  4. If equal, the drawing of lots will determine a club's ranking.
Winner of each pool, advance to quarter-finals.
Three highest-scoring second-place teams advance to quarter-finals.
Cannot advance to the quarter-finals.

Pool 1

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Pool 2

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Assistant referee Mathieu Raynal replaced the original referee Jérôme Garcès on the 73rd minute of the game after pulling a hamstring.
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Pool 3

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Pool 4

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Pool 5

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