The pool stage began in October 2014, and was completed in January 2015.

The 20 teams were seeded through a new system based on a club's performance in their domestic league for previous season alone, whereas the previous tournament, the European Challenge Cup, seeded teams based on performance in European Competition over 4 previous seasons.

The draw took place on 10 June 2014, at the Stade de la Maladière in Neuchâtel.

[1] Teams will play each other twice, both at home and away, in the group stage, that will begin on the weekend of 16/17/18/19 October 2014, and continue through to 22/23/24/25 January 2015, before the pool winners and three best runners-up progress to the quarter finals.

If at any point in the competition there is a tie between two or more teams from the same pool, the following criteria will be used as tie-breakers:[3] If this does not separate teams, and/or the tie relates to teams that haven't played each other (i.e. are in different pools), the following tie breakers are used: Fixtures were announced on Thursday 14 August 2014 at 2 pm.