The 2011–12 Amlin Challenge Cup was the 16th season of the European Challenge Cup, Europe's second-tier club rugby union competition. The tournament began with two matches on 10 November 2011 and ended with the final on 18 May 2012 at the Twickenham Stoop in London. A total of 23 teams from six countries participated—20 in the pool stage, plus three teams parachuting into the knockout stages from the Heineken Cup. In an all-French final, Biarritz claimed their first Challenge Cup, defeating Toulon 21–18. The Basque club claimed a place in the 2012–13 Heineken Cup, which will be their 13th consecutive appearance in Europe's top club competition.

The defending Challenge Cup champions, England's Harlequins, did not initially have a chance to defend their crown because they had earned an automatic berth in the Heineken Cup. However, Quins parachuted into the knockout stage of this season's Challenge Cup, losing to Toulon in the quarter-finals. All four semi-finalists were from France, equalling the achievement of 1996–97 and 1998–99.

Teams Teams that parachuted in from the Heineken Cup are in italics. England France Italy Romania Spain WalesLondon Wasps Sale Sharks Newcastle Falcons Worcester Warriors Exeter Chiefs HarlequinsStade Français Perpignan Toulon Brive Agen Bayonne Lyon Bordeaux BiarritzCavalieri Prato Crociati Parma Petrarca Padova RovigoBucharest WolvesLa VilaNewport Gwent Dragons Scarlets

Seeding Teams that did not qualify for the 2011–12 Heineken Cup were ordered into four tiers according to the European Rugby Club Ranking. Five pools of four teams were drawn comprising one team from each tier.

The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking at the end of the 2010–11 season.

Tier 1 Stade Français (8) Perpignan (9) London Wasps (14) Toulon (19) Sale Sharks (22) Tier 2 Newport Gwent Dragons (26) Brive (27) Newcastle Falcons (28) Worcester Warriors (29) Bayonne Tier 3 Petrarca Padova Crociati Parma Rugby Rovigo Agen Exeter Chiefs Tier 4 Cavalieri Prato Lyon Bordeaux-Bègles Bucharest Wolves Club Rugby La Vila Comunidad Valencia

Pool stage

{| class="wikitable" |+ Key to colours |- | style="background:#cfc;"|     |Winner of each pool advances to quarterfinals.Seed # in parentheses.

Pool 1 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Stade Français (1) 6 6 0 0 33 5 +28 241 43 +198 5 0 29 Worcester Warriors 6 4 0 2 30 9 +21 194 95 +99 4 0 20 București Wolves 6 2 0 4 12 27 −15 102 184 −82 2 0 10 Crociati Parma 6 0 0 6 4 38 −34 36 251 −215 0 0 0

Pool 2 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Toulon (3) 6 5 0 1 26 5 +14 197 73 +124 3 1 25 Newcastle Falcons 6 4 0 2 18 9 +9 133 82 +51 2 0 18 Lyon 6 3 0 3 16 11 +5 143 114 +29 1 1 14 Petrarca Padova 6 0 0 6 3 38 −28 50 254 −204 0 0 0

Pool 3 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts London Wasps (4) 6 5 0 1 21 7 +14 189 75 +114 4 0 24 Bayonne 6 5 0 1 10 3 +7 197 61 +136 2 0 22 Bordeaux Bègles 6 2 0 4 9 14 −5 82 132 −50 1 1 10 Rovigo 6 0 0 6 5 21 −16 51 251 −200 0 1 1

Pool 4 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Exeter Chiefs (8) 6 5 0 1 22 4 +18 202 64 +121 2 1 23 Perpignan 6 4 0 2 17 9 +8 153 112 +41 2 0 18 Newport Gwent Dragons 6 3 0 3 16 7 +9 139 100 +10 2 1 15 Cavalieri Prato 6 0 0 6 6 41 −35 62 280 −218 0 0 0

Pool 5 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Brive (2) 6 6 0 0 26 7 +19 209 79 +130 3 0 28 Sale Sharks 6 4 0 2 31 8 +23 225 96 +129 4 0 20 Agen 6 2 0 4 24 21 +3 168 166 +2 2 0 10 La Vila 6 0 0 6 6 51 −45 64 325 −261 0 0 0

Knockout stage

Seeding Following the end of the pool stage, the 5 pool winners were seeded alongside the top 3 2011–12 Heineken Cup pool runners-up who failed to qualify for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

(HC) Means a team has entered the competition from the Heineken Cup SeedTeam1 Stade Français2 Brive3 Toulon4 London Wasps5 (HC) Biarritz6 (HC) Harlequins7 (HC) Scarlets8 Exeter Chiefs

Quarter-finals To be played on the weekend of 5–8 April 2012.

Semi-finals This is the fifth time that one country has supplied all four semi-finalists: they were all French in 1996–97 and 1998–99, and all English in the 2005–06 and 2007–08 seasons.

Final

References