EPCR Challenge Cup - 2024 final preview

There’s an added incentive for Friday evening’s two finalists as the winner will be guaranteed a place in the 2024/25 Investec Champions Cup. Neither Gloucester Rugby nor the Hollywoodbets Sharks can qualify by virtue of their league positions, so whoever lifts the trophy will take the place of the eighth-ranked club in their league in next season’s elite tournament.

• By qualifying for the final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Gloucester will equal RC Toulon’s record of five appearances in the tournament’s deciding match.

• If the Hollywoodbets Sharks claim the silverware they will become the first South African club to win an EPCR title.

• Gloucester are two-time tournament winners (2006 and 2015) and they have also experienced the disappointment of defeat in two finals (2017 and 2018). If they triumph at Tottenham, they will join ASM Clermont Auvergne and Harlequins on three wins.

• If the Hollywoodbets Sharks lift the trophy, they will become the 19th to have won the EPCR Challenge Cup.

• Gloucester captain, Lewis Ludlow, leads this season’s tournament tackling statistics with 78.

• Two-time Champions Cup winner with Saracens, Vincent Koch, as well as Eben Etzebeth, who was part of the RC Toulon Challenge Cup side which was defeated by Lyon in Marseille in 2022, are the only members of the Sharks squad to have experienced an EPCR final.

• If selected in Gloucester’s 23, Jonny May will be the only EPCR Challenge Cup winner in the Premiership club’s line up having tasted success in 2015 when the West country club defeated Edinburgh Rugby at the Twickenham Stoop.

• Of the current Gloucester squad, Freddie Clarke, Ludlow and May played in the losing 2017 final against Stade Francais Paris at Murrayfield, while Ruan Ackermann, Fraser Balmain, Val Rapava Ruskin and Ludlow all featured in the 31-30 defeat by Cardiff in the 2018 decider in Bilbao.

• The Sharks second row, Gerbrandt Grobler, who played for Gloucester between 2018 and 2020, could end up facing some of his former teammates on Friday evening.

• Gloucester’s highly influential No 8, Zach Mercer, is the tournament’s top carrier to date with 109.

Ek weet nie of ons reg is om in die champions cup te speel nie