2020–21 Pro14

2020–21 Pro14
Countries	Ireland Italy Scotland Wales
Date	2 October 2020 – 28 March 2021
Champions	Leinster (8th title)
Runners-up	Munster
Matches played	96
Tries scored	511 (average 5.3 per match)
Top point scorer	John Cooney (Ulster) 115 points
Top try scorer	Marcell Coetzee (Ulster) Scott Penny (Leinster) Alex Wootton (Connacht) 9 tries
Official website
www.pro14rugby.org

The 2020–21 PRO14 (also known as the Guinness PRO14 for sponsorship reasons) was the twentieth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League. It was the fourth season to be referred to as the PRO14 (the competition was named the Pro12 immediately prior to the addition of two South African teams).^[1][2]

Twelve teams competed in this season — four Irish teams: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster; two Italian teams: Benetton and Zebre; two Scottish teams: Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors; and four Welsh teams: Cardiff Blues, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets. Neither of the two South African teams competed this season, with the Cheetahs unable to compete due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Southern Kings having entered into voluntary liquidation due to heavy financial losses.^[3]

Due to the delays experienced during the 2019–20 season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020–21 season started later than usual on 2 October 2020.^[4] Leinster were the defending champions, having defeated Ulster 27–5 in the 2019–20 final to defend their title and complete a hat-trick of title wins.^[5]

It was won by Leinster who defeated Munster in the final on 27 March, it was their fourth consecutive Pro14 title and 8th overall.^[6][7]

On 23 December 2020 it was announced that the 2020-21 PRO14 season would conclude on 27 March 2021 after 16 rounds, and will be followed by the Pro14 Rainbow Cup, a competition featuring the four former South African Super Rugby sides, the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers. The Rainbow Cup would consist of two dual tournaments; one for the northern hemisphere teams and one for the four South African teams. The northern hemisphere tournament will run from 23 April to 19 June 2021.^[8]

Location of Irish, Scottish and Welsh teams: Ulster Connacht Leinster Munster Glasgow Warriors Edinburgh Scarlets Ospreys Dragons Cardiff	Location of Italian teams: Benetton Zebre Parma
Conference A; Conference B

Team	Coach / Director of Rugby	Captain	Stadium/ Stadia	Capacity
Benetton	Kieran Crowley	Dewaldt Duvenage	Stadio Comunale di Monigo, Treviso	6,700
Cardiff Blues	Dai Young (interim)	Ellis Jenkins	Cardiff Arms Park	12,125
Connacht	Andy Friend	Jarrad Butler	Galway Sportsgrounds	8,129
Dragons	Dean Ryan	Rhodri Williams	Rodney Parade	8,700
Edinburgh	Richard Cockerill	Stuart McInally	Murrayfield Stadium	67,144[a]
Glasgow Warriors	Danny Wilson	Fraser Brown Ryan Wilson	Scotstoun Stadium	7,351
Leinster	Leo Cullen	Johnny Sexton	RDS Arena Aviva Stadium	18,500 51,700
Munster	Johann van Graan	Peter O'Mahony	Thomond Park Irish Independent Park	25,600[b] 8,008
Ospreys	Toby Booth	Justin Tipuric	Liberty Stadium	20,827
Scarlets	Glenn Delaney	Ken Owens	Parc y Scarlets	14,870
Ulster	Dan McFarland	Iain Henderson	Kingspan Stadium	18,196
Zebre	Michael Bradley	Tommaso Castello	Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi	5,000

League Stage

The twelve teams were split into two conferences of six teams, with each conference featuring two teams from Ireland and Wales plus one team from Italy and Scotland.^[9] To ensure a competitive balance, the teams were distributed approximately evenly between the conferences based upon their performance in the previous season.^[10]

The regular season consisted of 16 rounds, a home-and-away double round robin with same conference opponents (10 matches), and a home or away tie against each team in the other conference (6 matches). This represented a reduction from previous years, due to a delayed start and in order to make space for the PRO14 Rainbow Cup to be played following the conclusion of the season, which will introduce former Super Rugby teams into the Pro14 competitions.^[8]

Final

The top-ranked team in each conference met in the final on 27 March 2021.

Champions Cup Qualification

The organiser of the European Rugby Champions Cup, EPCR, has not yet confirmed the format for the 2021–22 tournament. If the usual qualification rules apply, at least seven PRO14 teams would qualify. The top three teams in each conference would qualify automatically. Previously, the winner of a playoff match between the fourth-ranked eligible teams in each conference became the seventh qualifying team. However, the organiser has confirmed that no play-off game will be used for European qualification this season and that rankings after round 16 will be used to determine which teams will qualify.^[11] The seventh qualifying team would be the fourth-ranked team which accumulated the most match points.

It is unclear if there will be any further qualifiers as it will influenced by the format of the 2021-22 tournament and, potentially, the final placings in the 2020-21 Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. In April 2021 EPCR confirmed a 24 team tournament featuring the top 8 teams.^[12]

Southern Kings entered liquidation in September 2020 and withdrew from the league, while the Cheetahs did not compete due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a vote by the South African Rugby Union, the four former South African Super Rugby sides, the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers, are likely to join an expanded tournament beginning in the 2021–22 season.^[13] The future of the Cheetahs is in doubt and they will likely be withdrawn from the PRO14.

table
Conference A
	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TBP	LBP	PTS
1	Leinster (CH)	16	14	0	2	576	285	+291	82	33	14	1	71
2	Ulster	16	14	0	2	469	263	+206	65	34	8	0	64
3	Ospreys	16	8	0	8	301	318	-17	34	39	1	3	36
4	Glasgow Warriors	16	6	0	10	335	377	-42	40	47	2	4	30
5	Dragons	16	6	0	10	215	394	-79	36	50	2	3	29
6	Zebre	16	4	0	12	237	508	-271	22	69	0	1	17
Conference B
	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TBP	LBP	PTS
1	Munster (RU)	16	14	0	2	413	250	+163	49	26	7	2	64
2	Connacht	16	8	0	8	396	353	+43	53	36	7	6	45
3	Scarlets	16	8	0	8	319	333	-14	36	38	3	4	39
4	Cardiff Blues	16	8	0	8	265	284	-19	30	32	3	1	36
5	Edinburgh	16	5	1	10	247	344	-97	29	43	1	4	29*
6	Benetton	16	0	1	15	252	415	-164	34	53	1	6	7*
* Cancelled fixture: Edinburgh awarded four match points.
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:[14] number of matches won the difference between points for and points against the number of tries scored the most points scored the difference between tries for and tries against the fewest red cards received the fewest yellow cards received
Green background indicates teams that will compete in the Pro14 Final, and also earn a place in the 2021–22 European Champions Cup Blue background indicates teams outside the play-off places that earn a place in the 2021–22 European Champions Cup Plain background indicates teams that earn a place in the 2021–22 European Rugby Challenge Cup. (CH) Champions. (RU) Runners-up. (PO) Champions Cup play-off winners.

Fixtures for the first 11 rounds of matches were announced on 23 September 2020. Several matches were scheduled on Monday nights to avoid clashes with the extended international calendar.^[15] The remaining fixtures for rounds 12 to 16 were confirmed on 25 January 2021.^[11]

All times are local.

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• Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Edinburgh were awarded four match points.

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Pro14 2018–19 14-man referee elite squad: (number of matches refereed):^[18]

Note: Additional referees are used throughout the season, selected from a select development squad.

Club	Home games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Benetton	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Cardiff Blues	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Connacht	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Dragons	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Edinburgh	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Glasgow Warriors	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Leinster	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Munster	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Ospreys	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Scarlets	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Ulster	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Zebre	0	0	0	0	0	0%

The 2020–21 Pro14 Dream team is:^[19]

Pos		Player	Team
FB	15	Michael Lowry	Ulster
RW	14	Alex Wootton	Connacht
OC	13	Huw Jones	Glasgow Warriors
IC	12	Damian de Allende	Munster
LW	11	Dave Kearney	Leinster
FH	10	Jack Carty	Connacht
SH	9	John Cooney	Ulster
N8	8	Marcell Coetzee	Ulster
OF	7	Scott Penny	Leinster
BF	6	Josh Turnbull	Cardiff Blues
RL	5	Gavin Thornbury	Connacht
LL	4	Billy Holland	Munster
TP	3	Michael Bent	Leinster
HK	2	Kevin O'Byrne	Munster
LP	1	Eric O'Sullivan	Ulster

The 2020–21 Pro14 award winners were:^{[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]}

Award	Winner
Players' Player of the Season	Marcell Coetzee (Ulster)
Next-Gen Star of the Season	Scott Penny (Leinster)
Chairman's Award	Dr. Vincenzo Ieracitano (FIR) Dr. Rod McLoughlin (IRFU) Dr. Michael Dunlop (Edinburgh) Dr. James Robson (SRU) Clint Readhead (SARU) Prav Mathema (WRU)
Golden Boot	Stephen Myler (Ospreys)
Top Try Scorer	Marcell Coetzee (Ulster) Scott Penny (Leinster Rugby) Alex Wootton (Conancht)
Tackle Machine	Brok Harris (Dragons)
Turnover King	Chris Cloete (Munster)
Ironman Award	Ashton Hewitt (Dragons)

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

• Official website