JAECOO NEXT GEN CUP PREVIEW

The JAECOO Next Gen Cup officially kicks off this weekend, with four exciting fixtures taking place on Saturday 19th September.

At 1pm on Saturday, Bristol Bears will host Trailfinders Women in the opening fixture of the Next Gen Cup at North Bristol RFC.

The Bears had a strong cup run last season, earning a spot in the semi-final against Harlequins. The London side were the better team on the day, securing a 41-36 win, but it was a tournament to be proud of for Bristol Bears.

Trailfinders Women started off the 2025-26 campaign with a strong 60-12 win over Gloucester Hartpury. However, difficult games against Harlequins and Exeter Chiefs caused them to bow out of the competition after Round 5.

Up next is Harlequins v Gloucester Hartpury, scheduled for 1.30pm at Twickenham Stoop.

After convincing wins against Exeter Chiefs, Trailfinders Women, Gloucester Hartpury, and Bristol Bears, Harlequins secured their space in last year’s final. Falling short to their London rivals, Saracens, they lost 43-33.

In the same fixture last year, Harlequins came out on top with a 24-41 win away from home, boosted by Nicole Wythe’s brace in the first half.

It was a tough tournament for Gloucester Hartpury last time out, suffering 3 defeats from 3 games. Their performance against Exeter Chiefs in Round 3 was positive, fighting back from being 7-24 down at half-time, to 33-36 at full-time, just 3 points short of the Chiefs.

The final fixtures of the weekend both come at 2pm, starting off with Leicester v Saracens at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Leicester Tigers were another team with a tough run last season, with 4 losses from 4 games. The Tigers travelled to StoneX in Round 5 of the cup last year, where they met an unfortunate 68-7 loss to Saracens. Looking for redemption, all is to play for on Saturday.

Saracens are the ones to beat this season, with the current title holders flaunting an unbeaten streak from last time out. Collectively scoring 281 points from their 6 games in the 2025 cup, Saracens will only be looking to add to the tally this year.

Sale Sharks v Loughborough Lightning is the final fixture of the weekend, hosted at Morson Stadium. The two sides met in the first fixture of the 2025 cup, where Sale Sharks secured a 28-37 win at Loughborough University.

The Northern side narrowly missed out on a spot in the semi-final after suffering a 15-12 defeat to Bristol Bears in Round 5. With 2 strong wins from 4 games, Sale Sharks will be looking to hit the ground running this season.

Loughborough Lightning came back from their Round 1 defeat last season, with a 12-69 win over Leicester Tigers just 1 week later. They fell short to Saracens and Bristol Bears in the following weeks, bowing out after Round 4.

Round 1 tickets are available via the links below, and on home club websites for each of the following JAECOO Next Gen Cup rounds.

Venue and ticketing information for the semi-finals and final will be released after Round 5, once teams and seedings have been confirmed.

The Format for the 2026-27 season:

The Cup will comprise a pool stage, involving the nine PWR clubs, followed by a knockout stage for the top qualifiers. There are two Pools. Pool A is made up of five teams, and Pool B of four teams.

Pool A will consist of Saracens, Exeter Chiefs, Sale Sharks, Loughborough Lightning and Leicester Tigers, with pool B containing Harlequins, Bristol Bears, Trailfinders and Gloucester Hartpury.

The pools were drawn based on seedings using the final standings from 2025/26 cup competition. The top eight teams were allocated to the pools using the alternate seeding method (i.e. one in Pool A, two in Pool B, three in Pool A, four in Pool B etc.). The ninth team were drawn into the pools randomly to determine which pool had the make-up of five teams.

The knock-outs will comprise the top two teams from each pool advancing to crossover Semi-final fixtures.

Semi-finals: A1 v B2 and B1 v A2.

The two winning semi-finalists will compete in the Final. All knock-out fixtures will be played at the home venue of the highest-seeded club (based on pool standings – finer details for calculating seeding order, if necessary, will be confirmed in the competition regulations).

All other teams will play no further part in the Cup competition and are free to arrange their own fixtures during the knock-out period.