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2014–15 British and Irish Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England Ireland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and knockout
Date	10 October 2014 — 3 April 2015
Tournament statistics
Teams	20
Matches played	67
Attendance	111,051 (1,657 per match)
Highest attendance	7,640 Bristol 50–34 Connacht Eagles (12 October 2014)
Lowest attendance	150 Ulster Ravens 25–12 Aberavon (13 December 2014)
Top point scorer(s)	Douglas Flockhart (Doncaster Knights) 89 points
Top try scorer(s)	Cian Kelleher (Leinster A) 9 tries
Final
Venue	Castle Park, Doncaster
Attendance	3,115
Champions	Worcester Warriors (1st title)
Runners-up	Doncaster Knights
← 2013–14 (Previous)(Next) 2015–16 →

The 2014–15 British and Irish Cup is the sixth season of the annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs from Britain and Ireland. Leinster A are the defending champions having won the 2013–14 final against Yorkshire Carnegie 44–17 at Donnybrook on 23 May 2014. There has been four different winners and five different losing finalists of the competition in the five seasons of its existence.

The format of the competition has been changed once again, with the Scottish withdrawing from the competition because of an increase, from four to six, in the number of the group matches before Christmas. Scottish Rugby felt that Scottish teams would not be able to compete fully in both the British and Irish Cup and the Scottish Premiership, the top-flight league for clubs in Scotland. The Welsh teams selection is based on regional play-offs involving the 2013–14 Premier Division clubs at the start of the season. This process yielded Pontypridd to represent the Cardiff Blues Region, Cross Keys to represent the Dragons Region, Aberavon to represent the Ospreys Region, and Carmarthen Quins to represent the Scarlets Region.

Matches in the competition proper were played on the same weekends as the European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup. First round matches began on 10 October 2014 and the final was held on 3 April 2015. Worcester Warriors beat Doncaster Knights 35 – 5 in the final held at Castle Park, Doncaster; the home ground of the Knights.

Participating teams and locations

The allocation of teams is as follows:

• – twelve clubs from RFU Championship
• – four Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams
• – four clubs from the Welsh Premier Division

Club	Country	League	Stadium	Capacity	Area
Aberavon	Wales	Welsh Premier Division	Talbot Athletic Ground	3,000	Port Talbot
Bedford Blues	England	RFU Championship	Goldington Road	6,500	Bedford
Bristol	England	RFU Championship	Ashton Gate Stadium	21,497	Bristol
Carmarthen Quins	Wales	Welsh Premier Division	Carmarthen Park Parc y Scarlets	3,000 14,870	Carmarthen Llanelli
Connacht Eagles	Ireland	Inter-Provincial Championship	Galway Sportsgrounds	7,500	Galway
Cornish Pirates	England	RFU Championship	Mennaye Field	3,500	Penzance
Cross Keys	Wales	Welsh Premier Division	Pandy Park	3,000	Crosskeys
Doncaster Knights	England	RFU Championship	Castle Park rugby stadium	5,000	Doncaster
Jersey	England	RFU Championship	St. Peter	5,000	Saint Peter
Leinster A	Ireland	Inter-Provincial Championship	Donnybrook Stadium	6,000	Dublin
London Scottish	England	RFU Championship	Richmond Athletic Ground	4,500	London
Moseley	England	RFU Championship	Billesley Common	3,000+	Birmingham
Munster A	Ireland	Inter-Provincial Championship	Musgrave Park Clonmel Rugby Club Temple Hill	9,251    1,000	Cork Clonmel Cork
Nottingham Rugby	England	RFU Championship	Meadow Lane Lady Bay Sports Ground	19,588 2,000 (est)	Nottingham
Plymouth Albion	England	RFU Championship	The Brickfields	8,500	Plymouth
Pontypridd	Wales	Welsh Premier Division	Sardis Road	7,861	Pontypridd
Rotherham Titans	England	RFU Championship	Clifton Lane	2,500	Rotherham
Ulster Ravens	Ireland	Inter-Provincial Championship	Kingspan Stadium Deramore Park	18,196 1,000+	Belfast
Worcester Warriors	England	RFU Championship	Sixways Stadium	12,024	Worcester
Yorkshire Carnegie	England	RFU Championship	Headingley Rugby Stadium Silver Royd Brantingham Park Laund Hill	20,250 1,950 1,500 2,000	Leeds Scalby Brantingham Huddersfield

Welsh qualification

The Welsh teams are selected, based on regional play-offs involving the twelve clubs from the 2013–14 Premier Division and played at the start of the season. Teams gained home advantage depending upon their finishing position at the end of last season.

Cardiff Blues Region

The two constituent clubs of the Cardiff Blues played in a one-off game to determine the region's representative in the Cup.

Dragons Region

The four teams that make up the Newport Gwent Dragons each played in semi-finals, with the winner of each progressing to play off for the opportunity to represent the region.

Ospreys Region

With three teams making up the Ospreys region, Aberavon and Neath faced each other first, with the winner going into the final play-off with Bridgend.

Scarlets Region

Like the Ospreys, the Scarlets region has three constituent clubs, so two teams played each other in a preliminary game for the chance to face the third team in the deciding match.

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, will progress to the knockout stage. The eight quarter-finalists will be ranked, with teams ranked 1-4 having home advantage. The four winning quarter-finalists will progress to the semi-final draw. Matches will take place on the same weekends as the European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup cups.

Pool stages

Pool 1

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Bristol	6	6	0	0	181	119	+62	3	0	27
Pontypridd	6	4	0	2	158	115	+43	2	1	19
London Scottish	6	1	0	5	110	129	−19	0	3	7
Connacht Eagles	6	1	0	5	111	197	−86	1	0	5

Pool 2

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Rotherham Titans	6	5	0	1	204	104	+100	4	1	25
Yorkshire Carnegie	6	5	0	1	208	110	+98	4	0	24
Ulster Ravens	6	1	0	5	121	162	−41	1	3	8
Aberavon	6	1	0	5	89	246	−157	1	0	5

Pool 3

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Worcester Warriors	6	6	0	0	189	94	+95	3	0	27
Munster A	6	4	0	2	149	112	+37	1	2	19
Moseley	6	2	0	4	95	172	−77	1	1	10
Nottingham	6	0	0	6	109	164	−55	1	3	4

Pool 4

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Doncaster Knights	6	6	0	0	204	122	+82	5	0	29
Bedford Blues	6	3	0	3	180	154	+26	3	2	17
Cornish Pirates	6	2	0	4	187	189	−2	4	4	16
Cross Keys	6	1	0	5	119	225	−106	2	1	7

• This match finished with a 35 – 34 victory to Cornish Pirates. However, in the 72nd minute the match went to uncontested scrums as Pirates were unable to provide a front-row replacement for injured prop Tyler Gendall. Pirates should have reduced to 14 men on the pitch, in accordance with the regulations but, instead, Gendall was replaced with fly-half Bertie Hokpin (who scored the winning try) and continued with 15 men. The Organising Committee decided to award the match to Bedford with a 28 – 34 scoreline, the score at the time that the scums went uncontested. Pirates are considering an appeal. Pirates' appeal failed to overturn the decision.

Pool 5

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Leinster A	6	5	0	1	229	115	+114	3	1	24
Carmarthen Quins	6	4	0	2	126	169	−43	1	0	17
Jersey	6	2	0	4	109	128	−19	1	1	10
Plymouth Albion	6	1	0	5	121	173	−52	2	3	9

Knock-out stage

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	24 January 2015 – Castle Park
	Doncaster Knights	38
					14 March 2015 – Castle Park
	Munster A	17
					Doncaster Knights	27
	23 January 2015 – Ashton Gate
					Bristol	22
	Bristol	41
									3 April 2015 – Castle Park
	Yorkshire Carnegie	28
									Doncaster Knights	5
	24 January 2015 – Sixways Stadium
									Worcester Warriors	35
	Worcester Warriors	24
					13 March 2015 – Sixways Stadium
	Pontypridd	10
					Worcester Warriors	15
	24 January 2015 – Clifton Lane
					Leinster A	13
	Rotherham Titans	32
	Leinster A	51

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Total season attendances

• Does not include Welsh qualification matches.

1. No attendance found for the game between Connacht Eagles and Pontypridd so Connacht only had 2 home game attendances listed.

Individual statistics

• Note if players are tied on tries or points the player with the lowest number of appearances will come first. Also note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals.

Top points scorers Rank Player Team Appearances Points 1 Douglas Flockhart Doncaster Knights 8 89 2 Tiff Eden Worcester Warriors 6 75 3 Tom Barrett Rotherham Titans 6 70 4 Simon Humberstone Pontypridd 7 68 5 Cathal Marsh Leinster A 6 66 6 Rory Scannell Munster A 7 65 7 James Pritchard Bedford Blues 4 52 8 Aaron Penberthy Jersey 6 47 9 Ross Byrne Leinster A 3 45 9 Kieran Hallett Cornish Pirates 3 45

Top try scorers Rank Player Team Appearances Tries 1 Cian Kelleher Leinster A 8 9 2 Jonah Holmes Yorkshire Carnegie 4 7 3 Sam Coghlan-Murray Leinster A 8 7 4 Paul Jarvis Doncaster Knights 9 7 5 Oliver Robinson Bristol 3 6 6 Jack Preece Rotherham Titans 7 6 7 Sam Betty Worcester Warriors 3 5 8 Michael Keating Rotherham Titans 5 5 9 Patrick Tapley Bedford Blues 5 5 10 Liam Belcher Pontypridd 6 5

Notes

1. Jersey is listed in the English section because they play in the English RFU Championship.

References

1. "Scots pull out of B&I Cup". The RUGBYPaper. Greenways Publishing. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
2. "Worcester Warriors win 2014/15 British & Irish Cup final". England Rugby. Rugby Football Union. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
3. ^ "2014-15 British and Irish Cup fixtures". Rugby Week. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
4. Smart, Chris (31 August 2014). "B&I Cup round-up". The RUGBYPaper. No. 311.
5. ^ "British & Irish Cup". The RUGBYPaper. No. 325. Rugby Paper Ltd. 7 December 2014. pp. 28–29 & 38.
6. ^ "British & Irish Cup". The RUGBYPaper. No. 326. Rugby Paper Ltd. 14 December 2014. pp. 28–29 & 38.
7. "Cornish Pirates v Bedford Blues". Bedford Blues. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
8. "Cornish Pirates To Seek Legal Advice". Cornish Pirates. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
9. "Cornish Pirates fail to overturn British & Irish Cup punishment". BBC. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
10. "British & Irish Cup". The RUGBYPaper. No. 332. Rugby Paper Ltd. 25 January 2015. pp. 26–27 & 36.
11. "British & Irish Cup 14/15 Leading top scorers". Rugby Statbunker. 5 April 2015.
12. "British & Irish Cup 14/15 Leading try scorers". Rugby Statbunker. 5 April 2015.

External links

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

• British and Irish Cup
• 2014–15 rugby union tournaments for clubs
• 2014–15 RFU Championship
• 2014–15 in Irish rugby union
• 2014–15 in Welsh rugby union
• 2014–15 in British rugby union