The Welsh and Irish rugby unions thereafter reinstituted the Celtic Cup competition for its development sides.

A total of twenty-four teams from England (twelve), Ireland (three), Scotland (three) and Wales (six) competed in the inaugural competition.

The allocation of teams for the second season was very similar to that of the first: The format closely mirrored that of the first season, the only difference being the introduction of a quarter final stage The teams were divided into four pools of six, playing over five weekends during the Autumn International and Six Nations windows, with quarter-finals on 5 or 6 March, semi-finals on 23 April and the final on 7 May.

[8] The final round of pool matches, due to be played on the weekend of 18/19/20 January, was considerably disrupted.

Of 16 matches, 7 were postponed: Connacht Eagles v Newport was not played until 27 April, the weekend of the semi-finals.

[11] The top four seeds (Leinster A, Leeds Carnegie, Cornish Pirates and Bristol) had home advantage in the quarter-finals.

[12] On 14 April, it was announced that the final would be played at the home of the winner of the Pontypridd / Leinster A semi-final.

The Scottish clubs withdrew because of an increase in the number of the pool matches before Christmas, from four to six.