2007–08 Heineken Cup

2007–08 Heineken Cup
Official logo
Tournament details
Countries	England  France  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and Knockout
Date	9 November 2007 to 24 May 2008
Tournament statistics
Teams	24
Matches played	79
Attendance	942,373 (11,929 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Glen Jackson (Saracens) (123 points)
Top try scorer(s)	Vincent Clerc (Toulouse) Richard Haughton (Saracens) Kameli Ratuvou (Saracens) Aurélien Rougerie (Clermont) (5 tries)
Final
Venue	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Attendance	74,417
Champions	Munster (2nd title)
Runner-up	Toulouse
Official website	http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/
← 2006–07 (Previous) (Next) 2008–09 →
v t e

The 2007–08 Heineken Cup was the 13th edition of the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby.

The start of the tournament was delayed because of the 2007 Rugby World Cup. After much doubt over the competition's future, caused by the threat of English and French clubs not participating, showdown talks ensured that teams from both countries would be competing in the 2007–08 tournament.^[1] The cup was won by Munster, who succeeded London Wasps as European champions after a 16–13 win over Toulouse in the final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Italo-Celtic Playoff

The Italo-Celtic Playoff was a match played between the highest-placed Magners League team not automatically qualified for the Heineken Cup and the third-placed Italian team to decide the 24th qualifying team. This year, the match was between Newport Gwent Dragons of Wales and Calvisano.

Teams

Seven English teams participated, as an English team, London Wasps, progressed farther in the previous year's tournament than any French or Italian team.

Four Welsh teams competed, as a Welsh team won the Italo-Celtic playoff.

Other nations have their usual number of participants: France six, Ireland three, Italy two and Scotland two.

England	France	Wales	Ireland	Scotland	Italy
London Irish Gloucester Bristol Harlequins Saracens London Wasps Leicester Tigers	Perpignan Bourgoin Stade Français Biarritz Clermont Toulouse	Newport Gwent Dragons Ospreys Cardiff Blues Llanelli Scarlets	Ulster Munster Leinster	Glasgow Warriors Edinburgh	Benetton Treviso Viadana

Seeding and pool draw

Each of the six participating nations nominated a top seed:

• London Wasps
• Stade Français
• Leinster
• Benetton Treviso
• Glasgow Warriors
• Ospreys

The draw then progressed as follows, with at no stage except the last a team being drawn into a pool containing a team from the same nation:

• The seeded teams were drawn separately into each of the six pools.
• Five of the six remaining English teams were drawn into five separate pools.
• The five remaining French teams were drawn into five separate pools.
• The three remaining Welsh teams were drawn into three separate pools.
• The two remaining Irish teams were drawn into two separate pools.
• The remaining Italian and Scottish teams were drawn into two separate pools.
• The seventh English team was drawn into the final remaining pool spot.

The pools are shown below.

Competition format

In the pool matches, teams receive:

• four points for a win
• two points for a draw
• a bonus point for scoring four or more tries, regardless of the match result
• a bonus point for losing by seven or fewer points

Ties between two teams are broken in the following order:

1. Competition points earned in head-to-head matches. For example, if tied teams are in the same pool, and split their head-to-head matches, but one team earned a bonus point and the other failed to do so, the team that earned the bonus point will win.
2. Tries scored in head-to-head matches.
3. Point difference in head-to-head matches.
4. Tries scored in all pool matches. This is the first tiebreaker between teams in different pools, which can come into play for determining seeding among first-place teams (and did in 2007–08, with the top three pool winners all finishing on 24 points), or breaking ties among second-place teams.
5. Point difference in all pool matches.
6. Best disciplinary record in pool play. The team with the fewest players sent off or sin-binned during pool play wins.
7. Coin toss.

The quarter-finals are seeded from 1 to 8. The six pool winners receive the top six seeds, based on their point totals. The top two second-place finishers are seeded 7 and 8. The seeds of the qualifying teams are in parentheses next to their names in the tables.

Pool stage

The draw for the pool stages took place on June 20, 2007 at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. The winner of each pool, plus the two best runners-up, qualify for the quarter-finals.

Pool 1

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
London Irish (2)	6	5	0	1	25	10	15	182	100	82	4	0	24
Perpignan (7)	6	5	0	1	20	7	13	171	79	92	2	0	22
Dragons	6	1	0	5	16	22	−6	117	191	−74	2	2	8
Benetton Treviso	6	1	0	5	8	30	−22	107	207	−100	0	1	5

Pool 2

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Gloucester (3)	6	5	0	1	24	13	11	184	119	65	4	0	24
Ospreys (8)	6	5	0	1	16	9	7	164	102	62	1	0	21
Bourgoin	6	1	0	5	12	19	−7	118	174	−56	1	3	8
Ulster	6	1	0	5	13	24	−11	102	173	−71	0	1	5

Pool 3

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Cardiff Blues (5)	6	4	1	1	12	7	5	124	76	48	1	1	20
Stade Français	6	4	0	2	12	8	4	120	92	28	2	0	18
Bristol	6	3	0	3	10	9	1	83	80	3	0	0	12
Harlequins	6	0	1	5	7	17	−10	62	141	−79	0	0	2

Pool 4

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Saracens (1)	6	5	0	1	27	11	16	225	119	106	3	1	24
Biarritz	6	4	0	2	9	11	−2	109	116	−7	1	1	18
Glasgow Warriors	6	3	0	3	12	14	−2	130	127	3	1	3	16
Viadana	6	0	0	6	13	25	−12	106	208	−102	2	1	3

Pool 5

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Munster (6)	6	4	0	2	13	7	6	148	95	53	1	2	19
Clermont	6	4	0	2	22	15	7	189	128	61	2	1	19
London Wasps	6	4	0	2	19	12	7	152	127	25	2	0	18
Llanelli Scarlets	6	0	0	6	8	28	−20	74	213	−139	0	0	0

Pool 6

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	TB	LB	Pts
Toulouse (4)	6	4	0	2	13	7	6	130	76	54	2	2	20
Leicester Tigers	6	3	0	3	10	5	5	110	79	31	1	1	14
Leinster	6	3	0	3	7	11	−4	95	123	−28	0	0	12
Edinburgh	6	2	0	4	8	15	−7	85	142	−57	0	1	9

Seeding and runners-up

Seed	Pool winners	Pts	TF	+/−
1	Saracens	24	27	+106
2	London Irish	24	25	+82
3	Gloucester	24	24	+65
4	Toulouse	20	13	+54
5	Cardiff Blues	20	12	+48
6	Munster	19	13	+53
Seed	Pool runners-up	Pts	TF	+/−
7	Perpignan	22	20	+92
8	Ospreys	21	16	+62
–	Clermont	19	22	+61
–	Stade Français	18	12	+28
–	Biarritz	18	9	−7
–	Leicester Tigers	14	10	+31

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

The final was hosted at the neutral Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, and refereed by Welsh referee Nigel Owens. Toulouse kicked off and managed to regain possession.^[5] Toulouse dominated the early parts of the game,^[6] and although they missed a penalty goal five minutes into the game, scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Élissalde successfully kicked a drop-goal after eight minutes to give them a 3–0 lead. Toulouse continued to dominate territory but Munster winger Doug Howlett made a break in the 29th minute setting up a ruck close to the Toulouse try-line. Munster number eight Denis Leamy then broke from a ruck and attempted to place the ball over the try-line, but lost it forward in the process. From the resulting scrum, Toulouse were pushed off their own ball and Munster gained possession from which Leamy scored. The try was converted by Ronan O'Gara to give Munster a 7–3 lead after 33 minutes.^[5][6] Three minutes later, Munster were awarded a penalty after Toulouse captain Fabien Pelous was caught not rolling away in the ruck. O'Gara kicked the penalty to extend Munster's lead to 10–3. On the 40-minute mark, Leamy was penalised for going into a ruck off his feet and Élissalde kicked the penalty to reduce Munster's lead to four points at half-time.^[5]

Ten minutes into the second half, Munster centre Rua Tipoki threw a pass that would have given a try to Howlett, but the pass was deemed forward. One minute later Toulouse's Pelous kicked Munster flanker Alan Quinlan after Quinlan had stood on Pelous' hand.^[7] After the intervention of touch judge Nigel Whitehouse, Pelous was shown a yellow card for his part in the incident and sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. O'Gara kicked Munster's resulting penalty to give his team a 13–6 lead after 51 minutes.^[5] Three minutes later, Toulouse fullback Cédric Heymans threw the ball into himself, then kicked ahead before collecting his own kick. He then chipped ahead which Toulouse's Yannick Jauzion kicked once more before wing Yves Donguy grounded the ball to give Toulouse a try. Elissalde converted the try to tie the scores at 13–13 after 54 minutes. Pelous returned from the sin-bin in the 61st minute, and four minutes later was penalised yet again for not rolling away in the ruck. O'Gara kicked the penalty which gave Munster a 16–13 lead. For most of the remaining time, Munster employed the pick-and-go technique, where the forwards would drive the ball from ruck to ruck in an effort to retain possession and use up time. Munster were penalised in the 78th minute after 17 phases of play; the ball was kicked downfield by Toulouse who counter-attacked. Munster turned the ball over, however, and won a kickable penalty with ten seconds left on the clock. Referee Nigel Owens stopped the clock until the penalty was taken; because of the risk of Toulouse recovering possession, the options of kicking for goal and kicking for touch were ruled out. Instead, Ronan O'Gara tapped the penalty and went into contact. With the ten seconds used up, the ball became unplayable in the collapsed maul, Owens blew the final whistle, and Munster had won 16–13.^[5][6]

Statistics

Top point scorers

Points	Name	Club	Apps	Tries	Con	Pen	Drop
113	Ronan O'Gara	Munster	9	1	12	28	0
98	Glen Jackson	Saracens	6	2	20	16	0
84	James Hook	Ospreys	6	0	12	20	0
75	Peter Hewat	London Irish	6	4	14	9	0
75	Dan Parks	Glasgow Warriors	6	1	8	17	1
73	Ryan Lamb	Gloucester	6	4	13	9	0
67	Marius Goosen	Benetton	6	0	5	19	0
65	Felipe Contepomi	Leinster	6	1	6	15	1
65	Andy Goode	Leicester Tigers	6	1	6	16	0
65	Brock James	Clermont	4	1	12	12	0

Top try scorers

Player	Club	Tries	Apps
Aurélien Rougerie	Clermont	5	4
Richard Haughton	Saracens	5	5
Vincent Clerc	Toulouse	4	6
Tomás de Vedia	London Irish	4	6
Jaco Erasmus	Viadana	4	5
Guilhem Guirado	Perpignan	4	6
Peter Hewat	London Irish	4	6
Ryan Lamb	Gloucester	4	5
Kameli Ratuvou	Saracens	4	6
Julien Arias	Stade Français	3	5
Delon Armitage	London Irish	3	6
John Barclay	Glasgow Warriors	3	6
Steven Bortolussi	Viadana	3	6
Simon Danielli	Ulster	3	5
Sonny Parker	Ospreys	3	5
James Simpson-Daniel	Gloucester	3	5
Richard Thorpe	London Irish	3	5

Notes and references

v t e Heineken Cup 2013–14 Teams Benetton Treviso Cardiff Blues Castres Clermont Auvergne Connacht Edinburgh Exeter Chiefs Glasgow Warriors Gloucester Harlequins Leicester Tigers Leinster Montpellier Munster Northampton Saints Ospreys Perpignan Racing Métro Saracens Scarlets Toulon Toulouse Ulster Zebre Seasons 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 Finals 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Pool stages 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 Rankings European Rugby Club Rankings www.ercrugby.com

v t e Top-level rugby union club competitions Major competitions Major competitions (Europe) Anglo-Welsh Cup British and Irish Cup English Premiership (England) European Challenge Cup (England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Romania, Portugal and Spain) Heineken Cup (clubs from the Pro 12, the English Premiership, the Top 14 and the Anglo-Welsh Cup) Pro 12 (Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy) Super 10 (Italy) Top 14 (France) Major competitions (Southern Hemisphere) Currie Cup (South Africa) ITM Cup (New Zealand) Super Rugby (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) Domestic competitions (Northern Hemisphere) Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark Finland Georgia Germany Japan Netherlands Norway Rugby Championship Poland Portugal Regional Rugby Championship (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Greece) Romania Russia Spain Sweden Ukraine United States Domestic competitions (Southern Hemisphere) Argentina Nacional de Clubes Campeonato Argentino Brazil Kenya Pacific Rugby Cup (Academy teams of Australia, Argentina, Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga} Uruguay

v t e Rugby union schedule for 2008
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup		Mid-Year Tests				H. Cup	End of year Int'ls	H. Cup
Guinness Premiership								Guinness Premiership
Celtic League								Celtic League
Top 14							Top 14
			Shute Shield
					Currie Cup
Sevens											Sevens
			Pacific Rugby Cup		Churchill Cup	Air New Zealand Cup
	Super 14				Pacific Nations Cup	Tri Nations

v t e Rugby union schedule for 2007
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup					World Cup		H. Cup
Guinness Premiership								Guinness Premiership
				Mid-Year Test Series			Pre-RWC tests			End of Year Tests
			Under 19 World Championship		Pacific Nations Cup
Celtic League								Celtic League
			Shute Shield
Top 14									Top 14
Sevens							Australian Rugby Championship			Sevens
				Churchill Cup		Air New Zealand Cup
					Currie Cup
	Super 14				Tri Nations