2011–12 Heineken Cup

2011–12 Heineken Cup
Tournament details
Countries  England
 France
 Ireland
 Italy
 Scotland
 Wales
Tournament format(s) Round-robin and Knockout
Date 11 November 2011 – 19 May 2012
Tournament statistics
Teams 24
Matches played 48
Attendance 611,738 (12,745 per match)
Tries scored 195 (4.06 per match)
Top point scorer(s) Dan Biggar (Ospreys)
Jonathan Sexton (Leinster)
(60 points)
Top try scorer(s) Mike Brown (Harlequins)
(4 tries)
Final
Venue Twickenham, London
Official website http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/
← 2010–11 (Previous) (Next) 2012–13 →

The 2011–12 Heineken Cup is the 17th season of the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby. The final will be at Twickenham[1] on the weekend of 19–20 May 2012.[2][3]

Contents

Teams

The default allocation of teams is as follows:[4]

The remaining two places are filled by the winners of the previous year's Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup. If the cup winners are already qualified through their domestic league, an additional team from their country will claim a Heineken Cup place (assuming another team is available). Accordingly, Harlequins claimed the Challenge Cup winner's berth, and since Heineken Cup winners Leinster were already domestically qualified, the extra Irish berth went to Connacht.

England France Ireland Wales Italy Scotland

Seeding

The seeding system was the same as in the 2010–11 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, however, still applies (with the exception of the inclusion of the seventh English team).[8]

The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking at the end of the 2010–11 season.

Tier 1 Leinster (1) Toulouse (2) Munster (3) Cardiff Blues (4) Biarritz (5) Leicester Tigers (6)
Tier 2 Northampton Saints (7) Clermont (10) Ospreys (11) Bath (12) Harlequins (13) London Irish (15)
Tier 3 Ulster (16) Saracens (17) Gloucester (18) Glasgow Warriors (20) Scarlets (21) Edinburgh (24)
Tier 4 Connacht (25) Benetton Treviso (30) Castres (31) Montpellier Hérault RC (32) Racing Métro (33) Aironi (37)

Pool stage

For more details on this topic, see 2011–12 Heineken Cup pool stage.

The draw for the pool stage took place on 7 June 2011.

Under rules of the competition organiser, European Rugby Cup, tiebreakers within each pool are as follows.[9]

ERC has four additional tiebreakers, used if tied teams are in different pools, or if the above steps cannot break a tie between teams in the same pool:

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 brackets

Pool 1

Team P W D L Tries for Tries against Try diff Points for Points against Points diff TB LB Pts
Munster 4 4 0 0 7 6 +1 86 72 +14 0 0 16
Scarlets 4 2 0 2 9 6 +3 86 82 +4 1 2 11
Northampton Saints 4 1 0 3 13 10 +3 111 92 +19 2 2 8
Castres 4 1 0 3 8 15 −7 88 125 −37 1 1 6

Pool 2

Team P W D L Tries for Tries against Try diff Points for Points against Points diff TB LB Pts
Cardiff Blues 4 3 0 1 5 3 +2 87 65 +22 0 1 13
Edinburgh 4 3 0 1 10 7 +3 95 103 −8 1 0 13
London Irish 4 1 0 3 6 6 0 90 83 +7 1 3 8
Racing Métro 4 1 0 3 8 13 −5 106 127 −21 1 2 7

Pool 3

Team P W D L Tries for Tries against Try diff Points for Points against Points diff TB LB Pts
Leinster 4 3 1 0 13 6 +7 124 69 +55 2 0 16
Glasgow Warriors 4 2 1 1 5 8 −3 72 87 −15 0 0 10
Bath 4 1 0 3 6 10 −4 77 109 −32 0 2 6
Montpellier 4 0 2 2 5 5 0 57 65 −8 0 2 6

Pool 4

Team P W D L Tries for Tries against Try diff Points for Points against Points diff TB LB Pts
Ulster 4 3 0 1 12 6 +6 102 61 +41 2 0 14
Leicester Tigers 4 3 0 1 8 4 +4 83 70 +13 0 0 12
Clermont 4 2 0 2 13 5 +8 114 54 +60 1 2 11
Aironi 4 0 0 4 4 22 −18 45 159 −114 0 0 0

Pool 5

Team P W D L Tries for Tries against Try diff Points for Points against Points diff TB LB Pts
Saracens 4 3 0 1 10 7 +3 99 71 +28 1 1 14
Biarritz 4 2 0 2 12 5 +7 91 80 +11 2 2 12
Ospreys 4 1 1 2 6 9 −3 93 94 −1 0 2 8
Benetton Treviso 4 1 1 2 8 15 −7 85 123 −38 0 0 6

Pool 6

Team P W D L Tries for Tries against Try diff Points for Points against Points diff TB LB Pts
Toulouse 4 3 0 1 9 7 +2 102 68 +34 0 1 13
Harlequins 4 3 0 1 8 6 +2 94 71 +23 0 0 12
Gloucester 4 2 0 2 5 7 −2 63 78 −15 0 1 9
Connacht 4 0 0 4 5 7 −2 56 98 −42 0 2 2

Knock-out stages

Quarter-finals

To be played on the weekend of 5–8 April 2012

Semi-finals

To be played on the weekend of 27–29 April 2012

Final

To be played on the weekend of 18–20 May 2012

References

  1. ^ http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/finals/twickenham2012.php
  2. ^ http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/1136.php
  3. ^ "Teams learn 2011/2012 Heineken Cup pool stages fate". BBC Sport. 7 June 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/13679220.stm. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  4. ^ http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/heinekencup/rules/qualification_process.php
  5. ^ http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/qualification/england.php
  6. ^ http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/qualification/france.php
  7. ^ a b c http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/qualification/celtic_countries.php
  8. ^ Heineken Cup Pool Draw. European Rugby Cup. 7 June 2011. http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/matchdaytv/play/media/id/8618. Retrieved 22 July 2011. 
  9. ^ "Key Tournament Rules". European Rugby Cup. http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/heinekencup/rules/index.php. Retrieved 2010-10-10. 
2011–12 teams
Seasons
Finals
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Pool stages
Rankings