Heineken Cup

The Heineken Cup was established in 1995 with the intention of providing a new stage for club rugby. It has grown since then to become the premier club competition in the northern hemisphere. The tournament was originally set up under the auspices of the (then) Five Nations Committee by European Rugby Cup Ltd (now ERC) under the name of 'European Rugby Cup', but within days of its announcement it succeeded in attracting a title sponsor and the name was changed to the Heineken Cup. A second competition, the European Challenge Cup, is also run by the ERC, for teams who have not qualified for the senior competition.

Format of competition

The Heineken Cup is played between the top 24 club teams drawn from the countries competing in the Six Nations Championship: Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy. Teams are seeded and divided into six pools of four teams each.

Each team plays every other team in its pool, both home and away. Four points are awarded for a win, and two are awarded for a draw. An interesting innovation, though, is that teams can score bonus points: a Try Bonus of one point is awarded if a team scores four or more tries in a match, and a Losing Bonus of one point is awarded if a team loses by seven points or less. This has the effect of making games a more interesting spectacle as teams attempt to win bonus pool points with exciting plays to score tries or minimise the winning team's margin.

The six pool winners and the two best placed runners-up (in terms of points scored) go through to the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners go through to the semi-finals, and the semi-final winners meet in the final.

History

The first competition, in 1995/96, was played between twelve teams from Ireland, France, Wales, Italy and Romania (who have not competed since). England and Scotland entered teams for the 1996/97 competition, which was expanded to 20 teams. English teams didn't compete in 97/98, despite Bath having won the previous year. Since 98/99 on, all of the Six Nations countries have entered teams.

(CC) Photo: Anton Sweeney
The Leinster squad thank the fans after their Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Munster at Croke Park.

On 2nd May, 2009, the world record for attendance at a club rugby game was broken when 82,208 supporters watched Leinster beat Munster 25-6 in a Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park, Dublin. Leinster went on to win the 08/09 competition, beating Leicester Tigers 19-16 in the final, played in Murrayfield on 24th May, 2009.

On 22nd May, 2010, Toulouse beat Biarritz Olympique by 21-19 in an all-French final to take the 09/10 competition, becoming the only team to win four Heineken Cups.

Final results

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Venue	Attendance
1995–96	Toulouse	21 – 18	Cardiff	Cardiff Arms Park	21,800
1996–97	Brive	28 – 9	Leicester Tigers	Cardiff Arms Park	41,664
1997–98	Bath	19 – 18	Brive	Stade Lescure	36,500
1998–99	Ulster	21 – 6	Colomiers	Lansdowne Road	49,000
1999–2000	Northampton Saints	9 – 8	Munster	Twickenham	68,441
2000–01	Leicester Tigers	34 – 30	Stade Français	Parc des Princes	44,000
2001–02	Leicester Tigers	15 – 9	Munster	Millennium Stadium	74,000
2002–03	Toulouse	22 – 17	Perpignan	Lansdowne Road	28,600
2003–04	London Wasps	27 – 20	Toulouse	Twickenham	73,057
2004–05	Toulouse	18 – 12	Stade Français	Murrayfield	51,326
2005–06	Munster	23 – 19	Biarritz	Millennium Stadium	74,534
2006–07	London Wasps	25 – 9	Leicester Tigers	Twickenham	81,076
2007–08	Munster	16 – 13	Toulouse	Millennium Stadium	74,417
2008–09	Leinster	19 – 16	Leicester Tigers	Murrayfield	66,523
2009–10	Toulouse	21 - 19	Biarritz	Stade de France	80,000
2010–11	Leinster	33 - 22	Northampton Saints	Cardiff Arms Park	72,456