2009–10 European Challenge Cup

2009–10 European Challenge Cup
Date	October 2009 to May 2010
Teams	20
Matches played	0/67
Attendance
Final
Venue
Attendance
Champions
Runner-up

The 2009–10 European Challenge Cup, also known as the Amlin Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the fourteenth edition of the European Challenge Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from six nations in European rugby. It started on 8 October 2009 at Sixways Stadium in Worcester with Worcester Warriors hosting Montpellier, and will end with the final on the weekend of 21-23 May 2010. The reigning champions are Northampton Saints.

Teams

Five English teams and eight French teams will compete because an English team - Leicester Tigers - progressed farther in the 2008-09 Heineken Cup than any French or Italian team.

Other countries will have their usual number of teams: Ireland one, Romania one and one from Spain.

France	England	Italy	Ireland	Romania	Spain
Albi Bayonne Bourgoin Castres Olympique Montauban Montpellier Racing Métro Toulon	Leeds Carnegie London Wasps Newcastle Falcons Saracens Worcester Warriors	Overmach Parma Petrarca Padova Rovigo Futura Park Rugby Roma	Connacht	Bucureşti Oaks	Olympus Madrid

Pool stage

The draw for the pool stages took place on 15 June 2009. The seeding system was the same as for the 2008-09 tournament. The 20 competing teams were ranked based on past Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup performance, with each pool receiving one team from each Tier. The requirement to have only one team per country in each pool will, however, still apply (with the exception of the inclusion of the sixth, seventh and eight French teams).

Beginning with this season's competition, only the pool winners will advance to the knockout stage. They will be joined by three clubs from the 2009–10 Heineken Cup, specifically the third- through fifth-highest ranking teams that finished second in their pool (the top two second-place teams enter the Heineken Cup knockout stage).

Team seedings

Seeding was determined by the teams position in the ERC Rankings at the time of the pool draw in June 2009.

Rank Team Total Points 2008-09 Points 2007-08 Points 2006-07 Points 2005-06 Points 7 London Wasps 19 3 2 11 3 12 Saracens 14 2 7 2 3 19 Bourgoin 8 3 2 1 2 22 Worcester 7 2 3 0 2 25 Newcastle 6 1 2 1 2 27 Castres 5 1 1 2 1 30 Leeds 4 0 1 0 3 31 Calvisano 3 1 0 1 1 34 Connacht 2 1 0 0 1 35 Montauban 1 1 0 0 0 37 Montpellier 1 0 1 0 0 38 Overmach Parma 1 0 0 1 0 39 Bayonne 1 0 0 0 1 Key to colours      Winner of each pool,advance to quarterfinals Along with 3rd, 4th and 5th best runners up in the Heineken Cup group stages. Seed # in parentheses      Eliminated at the pool stage Pool 1 Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts Leeds Carnegie 5 4 0 1 19 151 64 +87 3 19 Bourgoin 5 4 0 1 13 123 77 +46 3 19 Bucureşti Oaks 5 1 0 4 5 61 120 −59 2 6 Overmach Parma 5 1 0 4 4 62 136 −74 0 4 Pool 2 Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts Connacht 5 5 0 0 18 133 63 +70 1 21 Montpellier 5 3 0 2 17 150 89 +61 3 15 Worcester Warriors 5 2 0 3 18 137 75 +62 4 12 Olympus Madrid 5 0 0 5 4 44 237 −193 0 0 Pool 3 Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts Toulon 5 4 0 1 21 176 78 +98 2 18 Saracens 5 4 0 1 9 128 73 +53 1 17 Castres Olympique 5 2 0 3 22 163 85 +78 3 11 Rovigo 5 0 0 5 2 33 262 −229 0 0 Pool 4 Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts London Wasps 6 5 0 1 21 176 68 +108 3 23 Racing Métro 6 3 0 3 22 177 85 +92 4 16 Bayonne 5 3 0 2 14 129 67 +62 2 14 Rugby Roma Olimpic 5 0 0 5 1 22 283 −261 0 0 Pool 5 Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts Newcastle Falcons 6 5 0 1 16 146 77 +69 3 23 Montauban 5 4 0 1 10 105 76 +29 1 17 Albi 5 2 0 3 11 97 110 −13 3 11 Petrarca Padova 6 0 0 6 8 95 180 −85 1 1 See also 2009–10 Heineken Cup Notes and references External Links 2009–10 European Challenge Cup Official Site