2009–10 Heineken Cup

2009–10 Heineken Cup
Date	October – 22 May
Teams	24
Matches played	79
Attendance
Final
Venue	Stade de France, Saint-Denis, Paris
Attendance
Champions
Runner-up

The 2009–10 Heineken Cup is the fifteenth 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 2009 and will end on 22 May 2010 with the final at Stade de France in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

Teams

Seven English teams will participate, as an English team, Leicester Tigers, progressed further in the previous year's tournament than any French or Italian team. France have six participants, Ireland three, Wales three, Italy two and Scotland two.

On Friday 29 May 2009, Newport Gwent Dragons defeated Calvisano 42-17 in a play-off to secure the 24th and final qualification place.

England	France	Wales	Ireland	Scotland	Italy
Leicester Tigers Harlequins London Irish Gloucester Bath Sale Sharks Northampton Saints	Perpignan Toulouse Clermont Stade Français Biarritz Brive	Ospreys Cardiff Blues Scarlets Newport Gwent Dragons	Leinster Munster Ulster	Edinburgh Glasgow Warriors	Benetton Treviso Viadana

Seeding

The seeding system will be the same as in the 2008-09 tournament. The 24 competing teams are ranked based on past Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup performance, with each pool receiving one team from each quartile, or 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 seventh English team).

The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking at the start of the 2009–10 season.

Tier 1	Munster (Ireland) (1)	Leicester Tigers (2)	Leinster (Ireland) (3)	Toulouse (4)	Bath (5)	Biarritz (6)
Tier 2	Cardiff Blues (8)	Stade Français (9)	Gloucester (10)	Perpignan (11)	Ospreys (13)	London Irish (14)
Tier 3	Northampton Saints (15)	Sale Sharks (16)	Clermont (17)	Scarlets (18)	Ulster (Ireland) (20)	Newport Gwent Dragons (21)
Tier 4	Harlequins (23)	Glasgow Warriors (24)	Edinburgh (26)	Benetton Treviso (28)	Brive (29)	Viadana (36)

Pool stage

Further information: 2009–10 Heineken Cup pool stage

The draw for the pool stage took place on 9 June 2009 in Paris.

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
	Third- through fifth- highest-scoring second-place teams parachute into the knockout stage of the European Challenge Cup. Seed # in parentheses
	Eliminated at the pool stage

Pool 1

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Munster (Ireland) (1 or 2)	6	5	0	1	19	185	94	+91	4	24
Northampton Saints (8)	6	4	0	2	16	138	104	+32	4	19
Perpignan	6	2	0	4	12	108	157	−49	3	11
Benetton Treviso	6	1	0	5	7	68	222	−154	1	5

Pool 2

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Biarritz (2–5)	5	4	0	1	15	147	77	+70	2	23
Gloucester	5	3	0	2	8	87	106	−19	0	17
Glasgow Warriors	5	2	0	3	10	100	99	+1	1	9
Newport Gwent Dragons	5	1	0	4	7	85	137	−52	2	6

Pool 3

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Clermont Auvergne (3–5)	6	4	0	2	24	201	120	+81	5	21
Ospreys (7)	6	4	1	1	21	188	121	+67	2	20
Leicester Tigers	6	3	1	2	23	187	123	+64	4	18
Viadana	6	0	0	6	6	83	295	−212	0	0

Pool 4

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Stade Français (6)	6	4	0	2	11	124	95	+29	2	18
Ulster (Ireland)	6	4	0	2	11	127	94	+33	1	17
Edinburgh	6	3	0	3	3	64	94	−30	1	13
Bath	6	1	0	5	6	84	116	−32	3	7

Pool 5

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Toulouse (1–5)	5	4	0	1	12	124	79	+45	3	19
Sale Sharks	5	3	0	2	14	113	134	−21	1	13
Cardiff Blues	5	3	0	2	8	104	84	+20	1	13
Harlequins	5	0	0	5	10	82	126	−44	2	2

Pool 6

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/−	BP	Pts
Leinster (Ireland) (2–4)	6	4	1	1	19	154	60	+94	4	22
Scarlets	6	4	0	2	12	116	147	−29	1	17
London Irish	6	3	1	2	16	150	94	+36	3	17
Brive	6	0	0	6	7	68	177	−109	1	1

• Scarlets win the tiebreaker over London Irish by virtue of winning both of the matches between the two teams.

Knock-out stage seeding and runners-up (in progress)

• Bare numbers indicate Heineken Cup quarterfinal seeding.
• Numbers with "C" indicate Challenge Cup quarterfinal seeding.

Seed	Pool Winners	Pts	TF	+/−
1	Munster (Ireland)	24	19	+91
2	Leinster (Ireland)	22	19	+94
3	Clermont	21	24	+81
4	Toulouse*	19	12	+45
5	Biarritz*	18	15	+70
6	Stade Francais	18	11	+29
Seed	Pool Runners-up	Pts	TF	+/−
7	Ospreys	20	17	+67
8	Northampton	19	16	+34
5C	Scarlets	17	12	−29
6C	Ulster (Ireland)	17	11	+33
7C	Cardiff Blues*	13	8	+20
–	Gloucester*	12	8	–19
–	Sale Sharks*†	13	14	–21
–	Glasgow Warriors*†	9	10	+1

• * Still one match to play
• † Currently in third place in their pool, but with a chance to finish second

In the knock-out stage of the Heineken Cup, the 1st-seeded team will play the 8th-seeded team, with 2nd playing 7th, 3rd vs 6th, and 4th against 5th. The higher-ranked team will play at home in each case.

The semi-final draw will take place shortly after the end of the final match on 24 January.

Final

The final is scheduled to be played at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, on 22 May 2010, the same date as the 2010 UEFA Champions League Final in Madrid.

Leading scorers

The leading scorers in the 2009-10 Heineken Cup are as follows (players in bold are still active in the competition):

Points

#	Name	Club	Matches played	Points
1	Ronan O'Gara	Munster	6	80
2	Dan Biggar	Ospreys	6	77
3	Dimitri Yachvili	Biarritz	4	73

Tries

#	Name	Club	Matches played	Tries
1	Tommy Bowe	Ospreys	6	7
2	Scott Hamilton	Leicester Tigers	6	6
2	Chris Ashton	Northampton Saints	6	6
4	Napolioni Nalaga	Clermont Auvergne	4+1	5

See also

• 2009–10 European Challenge Cup