2017–18 British and Irish Cup

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2017–18 British and Irish Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England Ireland Ireland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and knockout
Date	13 October 2017 — April 2018
Tournament statistics
Teams	20
Matches played	67
Attendance	70,827 (1,057 per match)
Highest attendance	7,428 Bristol v Doncaster Knights (22 October 2017)
Lowest attendance	50 Scarlets PS v Ulster A (20 January 2018)
Tries scored	454 (6.78 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	South Africa Brendan Cope (Jersey) England Luke Daniels (Ealing) 83 points each
Top try scorer(s)	England James Cordy-Redden (Ealing) Wales Will Harries (Ealing) 7 tries each
Final
Venue	Trailfinders Sports Ground
Attendance	1,386
Champions	Ealing Trailfinders (1st title)
Runners-up	Leinster A
← 2016–17 (Previous)

The 2017–18 British and Irish Cup is the ninth and final season of the annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs from Britain and Ireland. Munster A are the defending champions having won the 2016–17 final against Jersey Reds 29–28 at Irish Independent Park, Cork on 21 April 2017.^{[1] [2]} The format of the competition is similar to last season with Scottish clubs not competing. For the third consecutive season the four Welsh teams are the reserve sides of the teams competing in the Pro14 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 begin on 13 October 2017 and the final will be held in April 2018.

The allocation of teams is as follows:

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

Club	Country	League	Stadium	Capacity	Area
Bedford Blues	England England	RFU Championship	Goldington Road	6,000	Bedford
Bristol	England England	RFU Championship	Ashton Gate	27,000	Bristol
Cardiff Blues Premiership Select	Wales Wales	N/A	Sardis Road	7,861	Pontypridd
Connacht Eagles	Ireland Ireland	Irish Interprovincial	Galway Sportsgrounds Corinthian Park	8,100 1,000	Galway Galway
Cornish Pirates	England England	RFU Championship	Mennaye Field	4,000	Penzance
Doncaster Knights	England England	RFU Championship	Castle Park	5,000	Doncaster
Dragons Premiership Select	Wales Wales	N/A	CCB Centre Bridge Field	1,000 2,000	Ystrad Mynach Bedwas
Ealing Trailfinders	England England	RFU Championship	Trailfinders Sports Ground	3,020	West Ealing, London
Hartpury College	England England	RFU Championship	College Stadium	2,000	Hartpury
Jersey Reds	Jersey England [a]	RFU Championship	St. Peter	4,000	Saint Peter
Leinster A	Ireland Ireland	Irish Interprovincial	Donnybrook Stadium	6,000	Dublin
London Scottish	England England	RFU Championship	Richmond Athletic Ground	4,500	Richmond, London
Munster A	Ireland Ireland	Irish Interprovincial	Irish Independent Park	8,008	Cork
Nottingham Rugby	England England	RFU Championship	Lady Bay Sports Ground	3,000	Nottingham
Ospreys Premiership Select	Wales Wales	N/A	St Helen's The Gnoll Talbot Athletic Ground	4,500 5,000 3,000	Swansea Neath Port Talbot
Richmond	England England	RFU Championship	Richmond Athletic Ground	4,500	Richmond, London
Rotherham Titans	England England	RFU Championship	Clifton Lane	2,500	Rotherham
Scarlets Premiership Select	Wales Wales	N/A	Parc y Scarlets Talbot Athletic Ground Church Bank Playing Fields	14,870 3,000 3,000	Llanelli Aberavon Llandovery
Ulster A	Ireland Ireland	Irish Interprovincial	Rifle Park Eaton Park Shaw's Bridge	1,000 1,000 1,300	Banbridge Ballymena Belfast
Yorkshire Carnegie	England England	RFU Championship	Stacks Field Laund Hill Silver Royd	2,000 2,000 1,950	Ilkley Huddersfield Scalby

Key to colours

(Q) denotes the team has qualified for the quarter-finals as the pool winners
(q) denotes team has at least qualified for the quarter-finals as one of the three highest-scoring second-place teams

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
England Bedford Blues (Q)	6	5	0	1	165	102	+63	3	1	24	Qualified as pool winner
Ireland Munster A (Q)	6	5	0	1	136	62	+74	1	0	21	Qualified
England Nottingham	6	2	0	4	103	157	−54	2	1	11
Wales Ospreys Premiership Select	6	0	0	6	69	152	−83	0	2	2

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• Game postponed due to bad weather (snow). Game to be rescheduled for 9 March 2018.^[5]

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• Game rescheduled from 10 December 2017.

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Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
Ireland Leinster A (Q)	6	5	0	1	235	141	+94	6	0	26	Qualified as pool winner
England Doncaster Knights (Q)	6	4	0	2	231	167	+64	5	1	22	Qualified
England Bristol	6	3	0	3	208	168	+40	4	0	16
Wales Cardiff Blues Premiership Select	6	0	0	6	83	281	−198	2	0	2

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Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
Jersey Jersey Reds (Q)	6	5	0	1	215	85	+130	5	1	26	Qualified as pool winner
England Yorkshire Carnegie	6	4	0	2	130	127	+3	3	0	19
England London Scottish	6	3	0	3	119	170	−51	3	0	15
Wales Dragons Premiership Select	6	0	0	6	109	191	−82	1	3	4

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Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
England Ealing Trailfinders (Q)	6	6	0	0	320	67	+253	6	0	30	Qualified as pool winner
England Rotherham Titans	6	3	0	3	120	151	−31	1	0	13
Ireland Connacht Eagles	6	2	0	4	146	228	−82	2	1	11
England Richmond	6	1	0	5	81	221	−140	1	0	5

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Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
Ireland Ulster A (Q)	6	5	0	1	143	111	+32	3	0	23	Qualified as pool winner
England Cornish Pirates (Q)	6	4	0	2	162	86	+76	3	0	19	Qualified
Wales Scarlets Premiership Select	6	2	0	4	107	158	−51	1	1	10
England Hartpury College	6	1	0	5	124	180	−56	2	2	8

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• Game postponed due to unplayable pitch caused by bad weather (rain). Game to be rescheduled for 3 February 2018.^[15]

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• Game rescheduled from 20 January 2018.

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The eight qualifiers are 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. However, if two teams qualify from the same group they can not be drawn together. Therefore, Leinster A cannot be drawn against Doncaster Knights. 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	England Ealing Trailfinders (Q)	30	6	253
2	Jersey Jersey Reds (Q)	26	5	130
3	Ireland Leinster A (Q)	26	5	94
4	England Bedford Blues	24	5	63
5	Ireland Ulster A	23	5	32
Seed	Pool Runners–up	Pts	Wins	Pts diff
6	England Doncaster Knights	22	4	64
7	Ireland Munster A	21	4	74
8	England Cornish Pirates	19	4	76
9	England Yorkshire Carnegie	19	4	3
10	England Rotherham Titans	13	-31	−58

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Club	Home matches	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
England Bedford Blues	4	8,801	2,200	2,360	1,912	37%
England Bristol	3	19,832	6,611	7,428	6,150	24%
Wales Cardiff Blues Premiership Select	3	2,638	879	2,225	200	11%
Ireland Connacht Eagles	3	1,201	400	601	250	23%
England Cornish Pirates[a 3]	2	1,990	995	1,074	916	25%
England Doncaster Knights	3	3,027	1,009	1,173	875	20%
Wales Dragons Premiership Select	3	823	274	500	110	19%
England Ealing Trailfinders	6	4,851	809	1,386	407	27%
England Hartpury College[a 4]	4	2,118	530	736	275	26%
Jersey Jersey Reds	5	6,630	1,326	1,837	712	33%
Ireland Leinster A	4	5,250	1,313	1,659	786	22%
England London Scottish	3	2,455	818	879	768	18%
Ireland Munster A	3	741	247	341	200	3%
England Nottingham	3	2,764	921	1,091	750	31%
Wales Ospreys Premiership Select	3	1,495	498	584	364	13%
England Richmond	3	1,626	542	623	420	12%
England Rotherham Titans	3	933	311	417	227	12%
Wales Scarlets Premiership Select	3	450	150	300	50	4%
Ireland Ulster A	3	1,831	610	781	450	55%
England Yorkshire Carnegie	3	1,371	457	650	200	23%

^{[3] [4] [6] [7] [8] [9] [17] [10] [18] [19]}

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

• England Rugby

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