2016–17 British and Irish Cup
| 2016–17 British and Irish Cup | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament details | |||
| Countries |
 England Ireland Wales
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| Tournament format(s) | Round-robin and knockout | ||
| Date | 14 October 2016 — 21 April 2017 | ||
| Tournament statistics | |||
| Teams | 19 | ||
| Matches played | 63 | ||
| Attendance | 62,823 (997 per match) | ||
| Highest Attendance | 4,813 Ulster A v London Scottish 13 January 2017 |
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| Lowest Attendance | 200 (x3) | ||
| Top point scorer(s) |
Johnny McPhillips Ulster A 62 |
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| Top try scorer(s) |
Tom Williams Scarlets PS 8 |
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| Final | |||
| Venue | Irish Independent Park | ||
| Champions | Munster A (2nd title) | ||
| Runner-up | Jersey Reds | ||
| Official website | B&I Cup Website | ||
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The 2016–17 British and Irish Cup is the eighth season of the annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs from Britain and Ireland. London Welsh are the defending champions having won the 2015–16 final against Yorkshire Carnegie 10–33 at Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds on 10 April 2016. There have been six different winners and six different losing finalists in the seven seasons of its existence. The format of the competition is similar to last season with Scottish clubs not competing. For the second consecutive season the four Welsh teams are the reserve sides of the teams competing in the Pro12 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 14 October 2016 and the final will be held on the 22 April 2017.
The allocation of teams is as follows:
London Welsh entered liquidation on 8 December 2016 and were disqualified from the competition and their results from rounds 1 and 2 were annulled.
The eight qualifiers are seeded according to performance in the pool stage, and compete in the quarter-finals. The four top seeds host the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 format. If two teams have qualified from the same group then they cannot be drawn together despite the seeding, therefore, Jersey Reds will not face Ulster A. The quarter-finals are to be held over the weekend of 10/11/12 March 2017, the semi-finals are to be held over the weekend of 31 March and 1 & 2 April 2017 and the final will be played on 21/22/23 April 2017.
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