2008–09 Heineken Cup

2008–09 Heineken Cup
Date	10 October – 23 May
Teams	24
Matches played	79
Attendance	1,177,064 (14,900 per match)
Final
Venue	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Attendance	66,523
Champions	Leinster (Ireland)
Runner-up	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 in Edinburgh. Irish side Leinster became the champions, defeating Leicester Tigers 19–16 in the final.

Contents 1 Teams 2 Seeding 3 Pool stage 3.1 Pool 1 3.2 Pool 2 3.3 Pool 3 3.4 Pool 4 3.5 Pool 5 3.6 Pool 6 3.7 Seeding and runners-up 4 Knockout stage 4.1 Quarter-finals 4.2 Semi-finals 4.3 Final 5 Notes and references

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^[1] and a Welsh team were the highest-placed team in the previous year's Celtic league not to qualify otherwise.^[2]

Other nations had their usual number of participants: England six, Ireland three, Italy two and Scotland two.^[3]

England	France	Wales	Ireland	Scotland	Italy
Gloucester London Wasps Bath Leicester Tigers Sale Sharks Harlequins	Toulouse Biarritz Stade Français Clermont Perpignan Castres Montauban	Cardiff Blues Scarlets Ospreys Newport Gwent Dragons	Leinster Munster Ulster	Edinburgh Glasgow Warriors	Calvisano Benetton Treviso

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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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).^[6]

The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking before the start of the 2008–09 season.

Tier 1	Munster (Ireland) (1)	Toulouse (2)	Biarritz (3)	Leicester Tigers (4)	Stade Français (5)	London Wasps (6)
Tier 2	Leinster (Ireland) (7)	Bath (8)	Gloucester (9)	Perpignan (10)	Sale Sharks (12)	Scarlets (13)
Tier 3	Ospreys (15)	Cardiff Blues (17)	Clermont (18)	Newport Gwent Dragons (20)	Ulster (Ireland) (21)	Castres (22)
Tier 4	Glasgow Warriors (24)	Benetton Treviso (25)	Edinburgh (28)	Calvisano (32)	Harlequins (35)	Montauban

Pool stage

The draw for the pool stages took place on 17 June 2008 in Dublin.

Key to colours

	Winner of each pool, advance to quarterfinals. Seed # in parentheses
	Two highest-scoring second-place teams, advance to quarterfinals. Seed # in parentheses
	Eliminated at the pool stage

Pool 1

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Munster (Ireland) (2)	6	5	0	1	18	161	98	+63	3	23
Sale	6	3	0	3	14	136	115	+21	3	15
Clermont	6	3	0	3	13	137	129	+8	1	13
Montauban	6	1	0	5	5	81	173	–92	2	6

Pool 2

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Leinster (Ireland) (6)	6	4	0	2	15	140	70	+70	4	20
Wasps	6	4	0	2	9	114	112	+2	1	17
Edinburgh	6	2	0	4	8	91	103	−12	1	9
Castres	6	2	0	4	6	73	133	−60	1	9

Pool 3

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Leicester Tigers (4)	6	4	0	2	23	191	90	+101	5	21
Ospreys (7)	6	4	0	2	17	154	71	+84	4	20
Perpignan	6	4	0	2	17	154	120	+34	2	18
Benetton Treviso	6	0	0	6	5	72	291	−219	0	0

Pool 4

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Harlequins (3)	6	5	0	1	16	144	115	+29	2	22
Stade Français	6	3	0	3	13	131	109	+22	3	15
Ulster (Ireland)	6	2	1	3	13	113	134	−21	1	11
Scarlets	6	1	1	4	12	124	154	−30	2	8

Pool 5

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Bath (5)	6	4	1	1	13	104	89	+15	3	21
Toulouse (8)	6	4	1	1	12	118	85	+33	2	20
Glasgow	6	2	0	4	14	134	150	−16	4	12
Newport Gwent Dragons	6	1	0	5	8	83	115	−32	3	7

Pool 6

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Cardiff Blues (1)	6	6	0	0	23	202	99	+103	3	27
Biarritz	6	3	0	3	14	121	88	+33	3	15
Gloucester	6	3	0	3	17	156	109	+47	3	15
Calvisano	6	0	0	6	8	87	280	−183	0	0

Seeding and runners-up

Seed	Pool Winners	Pts	TF	+/−
1	Cardiff Blues	27	23	+103
2	Munster (Ireland)	23	18	+63
3	Harlequins	22	16	+29
4	Leicester Tigers	21	23	+101
5	Bath	21	13	+15
6	Leinster (Ireland)	20	15	+70
Seed	Pool Runners-up	Pts	TF	+/−
7	Ospreys	20	17	+84
8	Toulouse	20	12	+33
–	Sale	19	14	+21
–	Wasps	17	7	+8
–	Biarritz	15	14	+33
–	Stade Francais	15	13	+22

Knockout stage

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 27 January at Murrayfield.^[7]

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	11 April – Millennium Stadium
	Cardiff Blues	9
					3 May – Millennium Stadium
	Toulouse	6
					Cardiff Blues	26 (6)
	11 April – Walkers Stadium
					Leicester Tigers (p)	26 (7)
	Leicester Tigers	20
									23 May – Murrayfield
	Bath	15
									Leicester Tigers	16
	12 April – Thomond Park
									Leinster	19
	Munster	43
					2 May – Croke Park
	Ospreys	9
					Munster	6
	12 April – Twickenham Stoop
					Leinster	25
	Harlequins	5
	Leinster	6

Quarter-finals

Quarter-final 1

11 April 2009 15:30	Cardiff Blues	9 – 6	Toulouse	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 36,728 Referee: Chris White (England)
	Pen: Blair (3/3) 1', 30', 57'	Report	Pen: Michalak (1/1) 5' Skrela (1/1) 64'

Quarter-final 2

11 April 2009 18:00	Leicester Tigers	20 – 15	Bath	Walkers Stadium, Leicester Attendance: 26,100 Referee: Alan Lewis (Ireland)
	Try: Dupuy 80' m Pen: Vesty (5/5) 20', 22', 51', 55', 67'	Report	Tries: Berne 35' c Maddock 64' m Con: James (1/2) Pen: James (1/2) 45'

Quarter-final 3

12 April 2009 13:00	Munster	43 – 9	Ospreys	Thomond Park, Limerick Attendance: 26,000 Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
	Tries: Warwick 34' c O'Connell 55' c Earls (2) 63' c, 65' c Con: O'Gara (4/4) Pen: O'Gara (3/3) 14', 20', 50' Drop: Warwick (2) 39', 58'	Report	Pen: Hook (3/6) 16', 30', 45'

Quarter-final 4

12 April 2009 15:30	Harlequins	5 – 6	Leinster	Twickenham Stoop, London Attendance: 12,638 Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
	Try: Brown 65' m	Report	Pen: Contepomi (2/2) 15', 39'

• 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.^[8]

Semi-finals

Semi-final 1

2 May 2009 17:30	Munster	6 – 25	Leinster	Croke Park, Dublin Attendance: 82,208 Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
	Pen: O'Gara (2/2) 18', 36'	Report	Tries: D'Arcy 30' m Fitzgerald 42' c B. O'Driscoll 61' c Con: Sexton (2/3) Pen: Sexton (1/1) 26' Drop: Contepomi (1/1) 15'

Semi-final 2

3 May 2009 15:00	Cardiff Blues	26 – 26 (a.e.t.)	Leicester Tigers	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 44,212 Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)
	Tries: Roberts 73' c James 74' c Con: Blair (2/2) Pen: Blair (2/2) 14', 33' Halfpenny 27', 35'	Report	Tries: Hamilton 21' c G. Murphy 45' c Con: Dupuy (2/2) Pen: Dupuy (4/7) 24', 38', 54', 56'

		Penalties
	Blair Y N. Robinson Y Halfpenny Y Sweeney Y James N Shanklin Y Rees Y M. Williams N	6 – 7	Y Dupuy Y Vesty Y G. Murphy N J. Murphy Y Hamilton Y Mauger Y Newby Y Crane

Final

23 May 2009 17:00	Leicester Tigers	16 – 19	Leinster	Murrayfield, Edinburgh Attendance: 66,523 Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
	Try: Woods 38' c Con: Dupuy (1/1) Pen: Dupuy (3/3) 8', 33', 42'	(Report)	Try: Heaslip 49' c Con: Sexton (1/1) Pen: Sexton (2/3) 24', 70' Drop: O'Driscoll (1/1) 5' Sexton (1/1) 17'

Notes and references

v • d • e Heineken Cup 2009–10 teams Bath · Benetton Treviso · Biarritz · Brive · Cardiff Blues · Clermont · Edinburgh · Glasgow Warriors · Gloucester · Harlequins · Leicester Tigers · Leinster · London Irish · Munster · Newport Gwent Dragons · Northampton Saints · Ospreys · Perpignan · Scarlets · Sale Sharks · Stade Français · Toulouse · Ulster · Viadana Seasons 1995–96 · 1996–97 · 1997–98 · 1998–99 · 1999–2000 · 2000–01 · 2001–02 · 2002–03 · 2003–04 · 2004–05 · 2005–06 · 2006–07 · 2007–08 · 2008–09 · 2009–10 Finals 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 www.ercrugby.com

v • d • e Rugby union schedule for 2008
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup		Mid-Year Tests				H. Cup	End of year Int'ls	H. Cup
Guinness Premiership								Guinness Premiership
Magners League								Magners League
Top 14							Top 14
			Shute Shield
					Currie Cup
Sevens											Sevens
			Pacific Rugby Cup		Churchill Cup	Air New Zealand Cup
	Super 14				Pacific Nations Cup	Tri Nations

v • d • e Rugby union schedule for 2009
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup		Mid-Year Tests				H. Cup	End of year Int'ls
				British & Irish Lions Tour
Guinness Premiership								Guinness Premiership
Magners League								Magners League
Top 14							Top 14
Top League							Top League
			Shute Shield
						Currie Cup
Sevens											Sevens
		World Cup Sevens	Pacific Rugby Cup		Churchill Cup	Air New Zealand Cup
	Super 14				Pacific Nations Cup	Tri Nations