The Heineken Cup is Europe’s Premier Rugby Tournament for Clubs and Regions.
The Heineken Cup is rugby’s answer to football’s Champions League bringing the best rugby teams in Europe together in a season long tournament.
Widely regarded as the World's best, most intense rugby competition played below international level, the Heineken European Rugby Cup is played each season between October and May.
What is the Format for the Heineken Cup?
The Heineken Cup is played throughout the traditional rugby season. It begins in October and is played in chunks until the final which is held in late May.
The tournament begins with a pool stage, where the competing teams are split into 6 groups of 4 teams who play a round robin series of matches on a home and away basis.
The competition uses rugby’s most common league format, with teams awarded 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw and a bonus point for losing by 7 points or less or for scoring 4 tries or more during the match.
The winner of each group and the two best runners up (the teams with the most pool points from the 6 matches) go through to the knockout stages.
The quarter finals fixtures are calculated on a seeding basis, with the best performing team in the pools playing at home against the 8th best, the 2nd playing at home against the 7th etc. As the majority of quarter finals are won by the home team, it adds extra spice to the pool stages as teams fight to be one of the top 4 seeds.
The semi-finals are drawn at the same time as the quarter finals are announced and teams drawn ‘at home’ have the option of playing in a stadium of their choice, providing it has a capacity in excess of 20,000 and is not their normal home stadium.
The final is played in a stadium pre-selected at the start of the season. This has always, to date, been one of the national stadiums of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland or France. The 2010 final of the Heineken Cup will be held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff
How do Teams Qualify for the Heineken Cup?
The Heineken Cup is played between 24 of the best club or regional teams from the countries who make up Europe’s Six Nations Championship, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy.
Each country has a number of allocated slots in the tournament. Scotland and Italy have two slots which are automatically taken by their two professional regions. Wales and Ireland have three slots each. These are filled by the three best performing teams from each country in the Magners league tournament in the previous season.
France and England have six automatic slots into the Heineken Cup. The French enter the best performing sides in their domestic Top 14 tournament and the English enter the top 5 teams from the Aviva Premiership and the winner of the EDF energy cup.
The final two places are given to the winner of the previous season’s Heineken Cup and the winner of the second tier Amlin Challenge. In the 2010-2011 tournament, these places went to England and Wales. Both France and England have a limit of seven teams in the competition, so if both competitions were won by teams from either of these countries, then the final spot would be given to the highest ranked team from one of the other five countries who had not already qualified.
How are the Pools Drawn for the Heineken Cup?
When the qualifiers for the Heineken Cup have been decided, they are seeded based on performance in the previous 5 seasons in both the Heineken and Amlin competitions.
Each team is given a number of points depending on how far they progressed in the tournaments. The winner of the Heineken Cup getting 11 points, winners of the Amlin Challenge get 5 points and teams even get a solitary point for coming bottom of their pools.
When the points are allocated, teams are split into 4 tiers, with the previous season’s winner always being given a tier 1 slot.
The six pools are then drawn with one team from each tier in each pool, keeping teams from the same country apart (unless England or France has 7 teams in the tournaments).
Who has Won the Heineken Cup Most Times?
The scene for Europe’s premier rugby tournament was set in the very first final at the National Stadium in Cardiff. Toulouse, who would go on to win the title 4 times, beat Cardiff 21-18 in a thriller which went to extra time. Toulouse are the current holders.
Since then, England have won the tournament 6 times, French teams have won the Cup 6 times and Ireland 4. Wales, Scotland and Italy have still to supply a winner.
The most successful sides in the history of the Heineken Cup are:
- Toulouse 4 wins
- Leicester Tigers 2 wins
- Munster 2 wins
- London Wasps 2 wins
The following sides have also won the Heineken Cup, Brive, Ulster, Northampton Saints, Bath Rugby, Leinster.
Want to Buy Tickets for the Heineken Cup Final?
Rugby fans wanting to buy tickets for a Heineken Cup final should go to the ERC rugby site, where tickets for the Heineken Cup Final are on sale. The 2011 final will be held at Cardiff’s Millennium stadium on the 21st of May and fans can make a weekend of it as the Amlin Challenge final is also being played in Cardiff the day before.
Neil Hughes - Growing up in West Wales, there was little doubt that rugby would be one of the great passions of my life. I played with great enthusiasm ...
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