2016–17 British and Irish Cup

2016–17 British and Irish Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England Ireland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and knockout
Date	14 October 2016 — 21 April 2017
Tournament statistics
Teams	19
Matches played	63
Attendance	62,823 (997 per match)
Highest attendance	4,813 Ulster A v London Scottish 13 January 2017
Lowest attendance	200 (x3)
Top point scorer(s)	Johnny McPhillips Ulster A 62
Top try scorer(s)	Tom Williams Scarlets PS 8
Final
Venue	Irish Independent Park
Champions	Munster A (2nd title)
Runners-up	Jersey Reds[1]
← 2015–16 (Previous) (Next) 2017–18 →

The 2016–17 British and Irish Cup was the eighth season of the annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs from Britain and Ireland. London Welsh were the defending champions having won the 2015–16 final against Yorkshire Carnegie 10–33 at Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds on 10 April 2016. There have been six different winners and six different losing finalists in the seven seasons of its existence. The format of the competition is similar to last season with Scottish clubs not competing. For the second consecutive season the four Welsh teams were the reserve sides of the teams competing in the Pro12 competition instead of clubs from the Welsh Premier Division.

The competition format is a pool stage followed by a knockout stage. The pool stage consists of five pools of four teams playing home and away matches. The top side in each pool, plus the three best runners-up, progress to the knockout stage. The eight quarter-finalists are ranked, with top four teams having home advantage. The four winning quarter-finalists progress to the semi-final draw. Most of the matches are played on the same weekends as the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. First round matches began on 14 October 2016 and the final was held on the 21 April 2017.

The allocation of teams is as follows:

• – twelve clubs from RFU Championship
• – four Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams
• – four Welsh regions represented by Premiership Select teams.

Bedford

Blues

Connacht

Cornish Pirates

Doncaster

Ealing T

Jersey Reds

Leinster

L Irish

L Scottish

L Welsh

Munster

Dragons

Nottingham

Ospreys

Richmond

Rotherham

Scarlets

Ulster

Y Carnegie

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Locations of the 2016-17 British & Irish Cup teams

Club	Country	League	Stadium	Capacity	Area
Bedford Blues	England	RFU Championship	Goldington Road	6,000	Bedford
Cardiff Blues Premiership Select	Wales	N/A	Cardiff Arms Park Sardis Road The Wern	12,125 7,861 4,500	Cardiff Pontypridd Merthyr Tydfil
Connacht Eagles	Ireland	Irish Interprovincial Rugby Championship	Galway Sportsgrounds Dubarry Park	9,500 10,000	Galway Athlone
Cornish Pirates	England	RFU Championship	Mennaye Field	4,000	Penzance
Doncaster Knights	England	RFU Championship	Castle Park	5,000	Doncaster
Ealing Trailfinders	England	RFU Championship	Trailfinders Sports Ground	3,020	West Ealing, London
Jersey Reds	England [a]	RFU Championship	St. Peter	4,000	Saint Peter
Leinster A	Ireland	Irish Interprovincial Rugby Championship	Donnybrook Stadium	6,000	Dublin
London Irish	England	RFU Championship	Madejski Stadium	7,579[b]	Reading, Berkshire
London Scottish	England	RFU Championship	Richmond Athletic Ground	4,500	Richmond, London
London Welsh	England	RFU Championship	Old Deer Park	5,850	Richmond, London
Munster A	Ireland	Irish Interprovincial Rugby Championship	Towns Park The Showgrounds Old Chapel Irish Independent Park CIT Stadium	400 1,000[2] N/A 8,200 1,100[3]	Midleton Ennis Bandon Cork Cork
Newport Gwent Dragons Premiership Select	Wales	N/A	Pandy Park CCB Centre	3,000 1,000	Crosskeys Ystrad Mynach
Nottingham Rugby	England	RFU Championship	Lady Bay Sports Ground	3,000	Nottingham
Ospreys Premiership Select	Wales	N/A	The Gnoll Talbot Athletic Ground Llynfi Road	5,000 3,000 N/A	Neath Port Talbot Maesteg
Richmond	England	RFU Championship	Richmond Athletic Ground	4,500	Richmond, London
Rotherham Titans	England	RFU Championship	Clifton Lane	2,500	Rotherham
Scarlets Premiership Select	Wales	N/A	Church Bank Playing Fields Carmarthen Park Parc y Scarlets	3,000 3,000 14,870	Llandovery Carmarthen Llanelli
Ulster A	Ireland	Irish Interprovincial Rugby Championship	Shaw's Bridge Eaton Park Kingspan Stadium	1,300 1,000 18,196	Belfast Ballymena Belfast
Yorkshire Carnegie	England	RFU Championship	Sandhill Lane Stadium Moor Lane Silver Royd	N/A N/A 1,950	Selby Pontefract Scalby

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
Jersey Reds	6	5	0	1	181	94	+87	3	0	23	Qualified as pool winner
Ulster A	6	4	0	2	153	124	+29	2	2	20	Qualified
London Scottish	6	2	0	4	134	157	−23	2	2	12
Cardiff Blues Premiership Select	6	1	0	5	104	197	−93	0	3	7

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• Postponed from 21 January due to frozen pitch.^[9][10]

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London Welsh entered liquidation on 8 December 2016 and were disqualified from the competition and their results from rounds 1 and 2 annulled.^[12]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
Munster A	4	4	0	0	121	55	+66	3	0	19	Qualified as pool winner
Rotherham Titans	4	1	0	3	73	102	−29	0	1	5
Doncaster Knights	4	1	0	3	61	98	−37	0	0	4

• London Welsh expelled from the competition

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• London Welsh expelled from the competition.

• Match postponed due to the death of Munster Rugby's head coach Anthony Foley and played on 7 January 2016.^[5][13]

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• Match postponed from 22 October 2016.

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Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
London Irish	6	5	0	1	154	97	+57	4	1	25	Qualified as pool winner
Cornish Pirates	6	4	0	2	188	99	+89	3	1	20	Qualified
Ospreys Premiership Select	6	3	0	3	130	155	−25	2	0	14
Connacht Eagles	6	0	0	6	82	223	−141	1	1	2

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Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
Scarlets Premiership Select	6	4	0	2	198	149	+49	5	1	22	Qualified as pool winner
Leinster A	6	3	0	3	256	133	+123	3	1	16
Nottingham Rugby	6	3	0	3	148	136	+12	3	0	15
Richmond	6	2	0	4	100	284	−184	1	0	9

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Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
Ealing Trailfinders	6	4	1	1	194	123	+71	3	2	23	Qualified as pool winner
Yorkshire Carnegie	6	4	0	2	156	130	+26	3	1	20	Qualified
Newport Gwent Dragons Premiership Select	6	2	0	4	118	170	−52	1	2	11
Bedford Blues	6	1	1	4	119	173	−54	1	1	8

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The eight qualifiers were seeded according to performance in the pool stage. The four top seeds hosted the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 format. If two teams qualified from the same group they could not be drawn together despite the seeding, therefore, Jersey Reds did not play against Ulster A. The quarter-finals were held over the weekend of 10/11/12 March 2017, the semi-finals were held over the weekend of 31 March and 1 & 2 April 2017 and the final was played on 21/22/23 April 2017.

Teams are ranked by:

1 – competition points (4 for a win, 2 for a draw)

2 – where competition points are equal, greatest number of wins

3 – where the number of wins are equal, aggregate points difference

4 – where the aggregate points difference are equal, greatest number of points scored

Seed	Pool winners	Pts	Wins	Pts diff
1	London Irish	25	5	57
2	Jersey Reds	23	5	87
3	Ealing Trailfinders	23	4	71
4	Scarlets Premiership Select	22	4	49
5	Munster A	19	4	66
Seed	Pool Runners–up	Pts	Wins	Pts diff
6	Cornish Pirates	20	4	89
7	Ulster A	20	4	29
8	Yorkshire Carnegie	20	4	26
9	Leinster A	16	3	123
10	Rotherham Titans	5	1	−25

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	12 March 2017 - Irish Independent Park
	Munster A	26
					31 March - CIT Stadium
	Ulster A	3
					Munster A	25
	11 March 2017 - Trailfinders Sports Ground
					Ealing Trailfinders	9
	Ealing Trailfinders	84
									21 April 2017 - Irish Independent Park, Cork
	Scarlets Premiership Select	7
									Munster A	29
	11 March 2017 - Madejski Stadium
									Jersey Reds	28
	London Irish	37
					2 April 2017 - Madejski Stadium
	Yorkshire Carnegie	14
					London Irish	17
	10 March 2017 - St. Peter
					Jersey Reds	25
	Jersey Reds	36
	Cornish Pirates	20

The draw for the quarter-finals was made on 23 January 2017, with the matches to be played on the weekend of 10–13 March 2017.^[18]

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• Points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included).

Top points scorers [edit] Rank Player Team Appearances Points 1 Johnny McPhillips Ulster A 6 62 2 Billy McBryde Scarlets PS 7 56 3 Warren Seals Yorkshire Carnegie 7 52 4 Arwel Robson Newport-Gwent Dragons PS 6 51 5 Simon Katz Jersey Reds 6 50 6 Myles Dorrian Bedford Blues 6 45 7 Laurence May Cornish Pirates 6 43 8 David Johnston Munster A 8 42 9 Tom Daly Leinster A 4 40 Tom Williams Scarlets PS 6 40 [4][5][6][7][8][10][11][20][22]

Top try scorers [edit] Rank Player Team Appearances Tries 1 Tom Williams Scarlets PS 6 8 2 Alex Walker Ealing Trailfinders 4 6 3 Barney Nightingale Newport-Gwent Dragons PS 5 6 4 Jay Baker Ospreys PS 3 5 5 Rob O'Donnell Yorkshire Carnegie 3 5 6 Tom Daly Leinster A 4 5 7 Morgan Allen Scarlets PS 6 5 Nick Haining Jersey Reds 6 5 Jimmy O'Brien Leinster A 6 5 Keiran Williams Ospreys PS 6 5 8 Alex O'Meara Cornish Pirates 7 5 [4][5][6][7][8][10][11][20][22]

• Unofficial British and Irish Cup website - latest news, teams etc