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2008–09 Heineken Cup
Annual rugby union competition
Annual rugby union competition
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | 2008–09 Heineken Cup |
| imagesize | 200px |
| caption | Official logo |
| countries | England |
| France | |
| Ireland | |
| Italy | |
| Scotland | |
| Wales | |
| tournament format | Round-robin and Knockout |
| date | 10 October 2008 – 23 May 2009 |
| teams | 24 |
| matches | 79 |
| attendance | 1177064 |
| top point scorer | Ben Blair (Cardiff) |
| (99 points) | |
| top try scorer | Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster) |
| (5 tries) | |
| venue | Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh |
| attendance2 | 66,523 |
| champions | IRE Leinster |
| count | 1 |
| runner-up | ENG Leicester Tigers |
| website | https://web.archive.org/web/20080506141030/http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/ |
| previous year | 2007–08 |
| previous tournament | 2007–08 Heineken Cup |
| next year | 2009–10 |
| next tournament | 2009–10 Heineken Cup |
France Ireland Italy Scotland Wales (99 points) (5 tries) | runner-up = ENG Leicester Tigers The 2008–09 Heineken Cup was the fourteenth edition of the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby. It started in October 2008 and ended on 23 May 2009 at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. Irish side Leinster became the champions, defeating Leicester Tigers 19–16 in the final.
Teams
Seven French teams competed, as a French team, Toulouse, progressed further in the previous year's tournament than any English or Italian team.
Four Welsh teams competed, as Italy forfeited its place in the Italo-Celtic playoff and a Welsh team were the highest-placed team in the previous year's Celtic league not to qualify otherwise. Other nations had their usual number of participants: England six, Ireland three, Italy two and Scotland two.
| England | France | Wales | Ireland | Scotland | Italy |
|---|
Seeding
The seeding system for participating teams changed from previous editions of the Heineken Cup. Previously, each participating nation would seed one of their teams and these six teams would be drawn in different groups at the group stage. Starting with the 2008–09 edition, the 24 competing teams were ranked based on past Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup performance, with each group receiving one team from each quartile, or Tier. The requirement to have only one team per country in each group however, still applied (with the exception of the inclusion of the seventh French team).
The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking before the start of the 2008–09 season.
| Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRE Munster (1) | FRA Toulouse (2) | FRA Biarritz (3) | ENG Leicester Tigers (4) |
| IRE Leinster (7) | ENG Bath (8) | ENG Gloucester (9) | FRA Perpignan (10) |
| WAL Ospreys (15) | WAL Cardiff Blues (17) | FRA Clermont (18) | WAL Newport Gwent Dragons (20) |
| SCO Glasgow Warriors (24) | ITA Benetton Treviso (25) | SCO Edinburgh (28) | ITA Calvisano (32) |
Pool stage
The draw for the pool stages took place on 17 June 2008 in Dublin.
:{| class="wikitable"
| + Key to colours |
|---|
| Winner of each pool, and two best runners-up, |
| advance to quarterfinals. Seed # in parentheses |
| } |
Pool 1
| Team | P | W | D | L | Tries for | Tries against | Try diff | Points for | Points against | Points diff | TB | LB | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRE Munster (2) | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 6 | 12 | 161 | 98 | 63 | 2 | 1 | 23 |
| ENG Sale | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 11 | 3 | 136 | 115 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| FRA Clermont | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 13 | 1 | 137 | 129 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| FRA Montauban | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 21 | −16 | 81 | 173 | −92 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
Pool 2
| Team | P | W | D | L | Tries for | Tries against | Try diff | Points for | Points against | Points diff | TB | LB | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRE Leinster (6) | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 140 | 70 | 70 | 2 | 2 | 20 |
| ENG Wasps | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 12 | −3 | 114 | 112 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 17 |
| SCO Edinburgh | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 91 | 103 | −12 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| FRA Castres | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 15 | −9 | 73 | 133 | −60 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
Pool 3
| Team | P | W | D | L | Tries for | Tries against | Try diff | Points for | Points against | Points diff | TB | LB | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENG Leicester Tigers (4) | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 23 | 6 | 17 | 191 | 90 | 101 | 3 | 2 | 21 |
| WAL Ospreys (7) | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 3 | 14 | 155 | 71 | 84 | 2 | 2 | 20 |
| FRA Perpignan | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 10 | 7 | 154 | 120 | 34 | 1 | 1 | 18 |
| ITA Benetton Treviso | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 43 | −38 | 72 | 291 | −219 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Pool 4
| Team | P | W | D | L | Tries for | Tries against | Try diff | Points for | Points against | Points diff | TB | LB | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENG Harlequins (3) | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 144 | 115 | 29 | 2 | 0 | 22 |
| FRA Stade Français | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 131 | 109 | 22 | 1 | 2 | 15 |
| IRE Ulster | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 113 | 134 | −21 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| WAL Scarlets | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 18 | −6 | 124 | 154 | −30 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
Pool 5
| Team | P | W | D | L | Tries for | Tries against | Try diff | Points for | Points against | Points diff | TB | LB | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENG Bath (5) | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 107 | 92 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 21 |
| FRA Toulouse (8) | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 121 | 88 | 33 | 1 | 1 | 20 |
| SCO Glasgow | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 17 | −3 | 134 | 150 | −16 | 1 | 3 | 12 |
| WAL Newport Gwent Dragons | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 14 | −6 | 83 | 115 | −32 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
Pool 6
| Team | P | W | D | L | Tries for | Tries against | Try diff | Points for | Points against | Points diff | TB | LB | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAL Cardiff Blues (1) | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 9 | 14 | 202 | 99 | 103 | 3 | 0 | 27 |
| FRA Biarritz | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 4 | 10 | 121 | 88 | 33 | 1 | 2 | 15 |
| ENG Gloucester | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 156 | 109 | 47 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| ITA Calvisano | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 37 | −29 | 87 | 270 | −183 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Seeding and runners-up
| Seed | Pool Winners | Pts | TF | +/− | Seed | Pool Runners-up | Pts | TF | +/− |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WAL Cardiff Blues | 27 | 23 | +103 | |||||
| 2 | IRE Munster | 23 | 18 | +63 | |||||
| 3 | ENG Harlequins | 22 | 16 | +29 | |||||
| 4 | ENG Leicester Tigers | 21 | 23 | +101 | |||||
| 5 | ENG Bath | 21 | 13 | +15 | |||||
| 6 | IRE Leinster | 20 | 15 | +70 | |||||
| 7 | WAL Ospreys | 20 | 17 | +84 | |||||
| 8 | FRA Toulouse | 20 | 12 | +33 | |||||
| – | ENG Sale | 19 | 14 | +21 | |||||
| – | ENG Wasps | 17 | 7 | +8 | |||||
| – | FRA Biarritz | 15 | 14 | +33 | |||||
| – | FRA Stade Français | 15 | 13 | +22 |
Knockout stage
The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 27 January at Murrayfield Stadium.
Quarter-finals
Skrela (1/1) 64'
Maddock 64' m
O'Connell 55' c Earls (2) 63' c, 65' c
- This match became notorious for the "Bloodgate" scandal. Quins coach Dean Richards was banned from rugby for three years for his role in faking an injury to wing Tom Williams so that Quins could send in a blood replacement. Williams himself was initially banned for a year, but after he revealed the full extent of the scheme, the ban was reduced to four months.
Semi-finals
Report Fitzgerald 42' c B. O'Driscoll 61' c
Main article: Cardiff Blues vs Leicester Tigers (2008–09 Heineken Cup)
James 74' c Halfpenny 27', 35' G. Murphy 45' c N. Robinson Halfpenny Sweeney James Shanklin Rees M. Williams Vesty G. Murphy J. Murphy Hamilton Mauger Newby Crane
Final
Main article: 2009 Heineken Cup Final
Sexton (1/1) 17'
References
- Thornley, Gerry. "Leinster soar highest in bluest of blue days". The Irish Times.
- (6 May 2008). "Fourth team for Ireland or Wales in 2008/2009". European Rugby Cup.
- (7 May 2008). "Newport Gwent Dragons Secure 4th Heineken Cup Spot for Wales". European Rugby Cup.
- "Heineken Cup – Key Tournament Rules". European Rugby Cup.
- (11 June 2007). "Heineken Cup Pool Draw Confirmed". European Rugby Cup.
- "ERC European Rankings (May 2008)". European Rugby Cup.
- "ERC Draw Regulations (June 2008)". European Rugby Cup.
- (27 January 2009). "Heineken Cup semi-final draw completed". European Rugby Cup.
- Benammar, Emily. (2009-08-18). "Dean Richards ban: how 'Bloodgate' saga unfolded". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
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