2017–18 British and Irish Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England 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)	Brendan Cope (Jersey) Luke Daniels (Ealing) 83 points each
Top try scorer(s)	James Cordy-Redden (Ealing) 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.

Competition format

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.

Participating teams and locations

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.

Pool stages

Key to colours

	Winner of each pool, advance to quarter-finals.
	Three highest-scoring second-place teams advance to quarter-finals.

(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

Pool 1

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Bedford Blues (Q)	6	5	0	1	165	102	63	3	1	24
Munster A (Q)	6	5	0	1	136	62	74	1	0	21
Nottingham	6	2	0	4	103	157	-54	2	1	11
Ospreys Premiership Select	6	0	0	6	69	152	-83	0	2	2
Source: Updated: 9 March 2018 Points breakdown: *4 points for a win *2 points for a draw *1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less *1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 3 (rescheduled game)

• Game rescheduled from 10 December 2017.

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Pool 2

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Leinster A (Q)	6	5	0	1	235	141	94	6	0	26
Doncaster Knights (Q)	6	4	0	2	231	167	64	5	1	22
Bristol	6	3	0	3	208	168	40	4	0	16
Cardiff Blues Premiership Select	6	0	0	6	83	281	-198	2	0	2
Source: Updated: 21 January 2018 Points breakdown: *4 points for a win *2 points for a draw *1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less *1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Pool 3

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Jersey Reds (Q)	6	5	0	1	215	85	130	5	1	26
Yorkshire Carnegie	6	4	0	2	130	127	3	3	0	19
London Scottish	6	3	0	3	119	170	-51	3	0	15
Dragons Premiership Select	6	0	0	6	109	191	-82	1	3	4
Source: Updated: 20 January 2018 Points breakdown: *4 points for a win *2 points for a draw *1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less *1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Pool 4

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Ealing Trailfinders (Q)	6	6	0	0	320	67	253	6	0	30
Rotherham Titans	6	3	0	3	120	151	-31	1	0	13
Connacht Eagles	6	2	0	4	146	228	-82	2	1	11
Richmond	6	1	0	5	81	221	-140	1	0	5
Source: Updated: 20 January 2018 Points breakdown: *4 points for a win *2 points for a draw *1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less *1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Pool 5

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Ulster A (Q)	6	5	0	1	143	111	32	3	0	23
Cornish Pirates (Q)	6	4	0	2	162	86	76	3	0	19
Scarlets Premiership Select	6	2	0	4	107	158	-51	1	1	10
Hartpury College	6	1	0	5	124	180	-56	2	2	8
Source: Updated: 3 February 2018 Points breakdown: *4 points for a win *2 points for a draw *1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less *1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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

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Round 6 (rescheduled game)

• Game rescheduled from 20 January 2018.

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Knock-out stage

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	Ealing Trailfinders (Q)	30	6	253
2	Jersey Reds (Q)	26	5	130
3	Leinster A (Q)	26	5	94
4	Bedford Blues	24	5	63
5	Ulster A	23	5	32
Seed	Pool Runners–up	Pts	Wins	Pts diff
6	Doncaster Knights	22	4	64
7	Munster A	21	4	74
8	Cornish Pirates	19	4	76
9	Yorkshire Carnegie	19	4	3
10	Rotherham Titans	13	-31	−58

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	31 March 2018 - Trailfinders Sports Ground
	Ealing Trailfinders	28
					21 April 2018 - Trailfinders Sports Ground
	Cornish Pirates	25
					Ealing Trailfinders	36
	31 March 2018 - Goldington Road
					Bedford Blues	16
	Bedford Blues	16
									May 2018 - Trailfinders Sports Ground
	Ulster A	10
									Ealing Trailfinders	22
	30 March 2018 - St. Peter
									Leinster A	7
	Jersey Reds	22
					21 April 2018 - St. Peter
	Doncaster Knights	19
					Jersey Reds	27
	30 March 2018 - Donnybrook
					Leinster A	29
	Leinster A	17
	Munster A	6

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Final

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Attendances

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

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

Individual statistics

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

Season records

Notes

References

External links

• England Rugby