2013–14 European Challenge Cup
| 2013–14 Amlin Challenge Cup | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament details | |||
| Countries |
 England France Italy Portugal Romania Wales
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| Tournament format(s) | Round-robin and knockout | ||
| Date | 10 October 2013 – 23 May 2014 | ||
| Tournament statistics | |||
| Teams | 23 | ||
| Matches played | 67 | ||
| Attendance | 321,736 (4,802 per match) | ||
| Tries scored | 383 (5.72 per match) | ||
| Top point scorer(s) |
Jérôme Porical (Stade Français) (83 points) |
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| Top try scorer(s) |
William Helu (London Wasps) (7 tries) |
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| Final | |||
| Venue | Cardiff Arms Park | ||
| Attendance | 12,483 | ||
| Champions |
Northampton Saints (2nd title) |
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| Runner-up |
Bath
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| Official website | http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/ | ||
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The 2013–14 Amlin Challenge Cup was the 18th and final season of the European Challenge Cup, Europe's second tier club rugby union competition. A total of 23 teams participated: 20 in the pool stage, plus three teams parachuting into the knockout stages from the Heineken Cup. The original 20 teams represented six different countries.
The pool stage began on 10 October 2013 and ran until 19 January 2014, followed by the knockout stages. The final was originally to be held in France in May 2014, however the Federation Française de Rugby subsequently announced that they had withdrawn their application to host due to uncertainty over the availability of Stade de France.ERC invited the Heineken Cup participating countries to submit tenders for the right to host the Heineken Cup and Challenge Cup finals and three – England, Scotland and Wales – submitted bids. Cardiff was selected with the Heineken Cup Final to be held in the Millennium Stadium on Saturday, 24 May 2014 and the Challenge Cup Final to be held the previous day in the Cardiff Arms Park.
The defending Challenge Cup champions, Ireland's Leinster, did not defend their crown because they earned an automatic berth in the Heineken Cup, and qualified for the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup. In an all-English final, Northampton Saints defeated Bath 30–16 at the Cardiff Arms Park, to win the tournament for the second time.
On 10 April 2014, following nearly two years of negotiations, an agreement for a new European club competition structure was reached. ERC will be wound up and replaced by a new Swiss-based organising body known as European Professional Club Rugby. The European Challenge Cup will undergo a minor name change to become the European Rugby Challenge Cup. It will remain a 20 team competition, though two of these teams will come from a new competition, featuring teams from nations who do not compete in the Six Nations. The Heineken Cup will be replaced by a new top-tier competition, the European Rugby Champions Cup, which will continue to involve clubs from all of the top six European nations, but will feature 20 clubs instead of the 24 in the Heineken Cup. The new third-tier competition, to be known as the Qualifying Competition, will feature clubs from second-tier European rugby nations, plus Italian clubs that do not play in the Pro12.
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