The competition consisted of the four Welsh Magners League teams and the twelve Aviva Premiership clubs arranged into pools consisting of three English and one Welsh team.

The competition made history this season when London Wasps announced that their Round 3 match against Harlequins would be played in Abu Dhabi on January 30, 2011 – making it the first competitive game between two English clubs to take place abroad.

[3] Gloucester claimed the cup with a comprehensive 34–7 victory over Newcastle Falcons in the final at Franklin's Gardens in Northampton.

It was the fifth victory for Gloucester in the competition (including one shared title), and the first since the current Anglo-Welsh format was adopted in 2005.

The points scoring system for the pool stages will be as follows:[4] The ranking criteria were: The top teams from each pool qualify for the knockout stages.