Live the big rugby Heineken Cup!
Leicester Tigers
VS.
Ospreys
Match scheduled:
Heineken Cup
Date : 11-10-2009
Time : from 13:45 until 15:45
The European Rugby Cup (known as the Heineken Cup because of the tournament's sponsorship by Heineken) is an annual rugby union competition involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from six International Rugby Board (IRB) nations in Europe: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Romania competed in the first year of the competition only. The competition is organised by the European Rugby Cup, who are also responsible for the secondary championship, the European Challenge Cup. It is one of the most prestigious trophies in the sport. The tournament was launched in the European summer of 1995 on the initiative of the then Five Nations committee to provide a new level of professional cross-border competition. It is sponsored by Dutch brewing company Heineken International (it is known as H-Cup in France because of alcohol advertising restrictions).The 2008–09 tournament was won by Ireland's Leinster, who beat the Leicester Tigers of England 19–16 in the final at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. Toulouse have been the most successful team, winning the competition three times.
Each European nation has a different qualifying system, though in total, 24 teams contest the pool stages in six pools of four. According to performances, the number of clubs from each nation changes. The tournament is held from October to May, with various stages scheduled around domestic club competitions.
Each European nation has a different qualifying system, though in total, 24 teams contest the pool stages in six pools of four. According to performances, the number of clubs from each nation changes. The tournament is held from October to May, with various stages scheduled around domestic club competitions.
Qualification:
Diagram showing how qualification is obtained for Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup.The Heineken Cup is open to clubs in the Magners League, Guinness Premiership, Super 10 and the Top 14. Clubs that do not qualify for the Heineken Cup can enter the European Challenge Cup.
* England: 6 teams (selected by performance in Guinness Premiership and EDF Energy Cup)
* France: 6 teams (selected by performance in Top 14 Championship)
* Ireland: 3 teams (selected by performance in Magners League)
* Wales: 3 teams (selected by performance in Magners League)
* Scotland: 2 teams (selected by participation in Magners League)
* Italy: 2 teams (selected by performance in Super 10 Championship)
* France: 6 teams (selected by performance in Top 14 Championship)
* Ireland: 3 teams (selected by performance in Magners League)
* Wales: 3 teams (selected by performance in Magners League)
* Scotland: 2 teams (selected by participation in Magners League)
* Italy: 2 teams (selected by performance in Super 10 Championship)
Until the 2009–10 season, the remaining two places in the 24-team tournament were allocated as follows:
* One team comes from France, England or Italy; this place is allocated to the country whose team progressed further in the previous season's Heineken Cup.[1] For example, Leicester have progressed further in the 2008–09 competition than any French or Italian team, so there will be seven English teams in the 2009–10 competition.
* The final team is the winner of a play off between the best placed team in the Magners League who has not already qualified, and the best placed semi-finalist in the Italian Super 10. The play-off is a single match, which takes place alternately in Italy or the home of the Magners League side. In 2007–08, this play-off was scheduled to take place before the Italian Super 10 semi-finals, so no Italian team was nominated to take part. This meant that the Magners League nominee, the Newport Gwent Dragons, qualified without a playoff.
After the 2009–10 season, the remaining two places go to the home nations of the previous season's Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup winners. However, England and France are capped at seven places each, so if both winners come from one of the two then the last place will be filled by the highest-ERC ranked club not of that nation to not have otherwise qualified.
Regardless of how well they perform domestically, the winners of the Heineken Cup and the European Challenge Cup both qualify for the next year's Heineken Cup; from 2009–10 forward, these places are separate from the country allocations, except when England or France produces winners of both competitions in the same season.
The Heineken Cup is, generally speaking, the equivalent competition of the UEFA Champions League in professional football, whereas the European Challenge Cup is the equivalent to the secondary UEFA Europa League.
A proposal has been made that, in future, rather than Ireland, Wales and Scotland each sending their top-placed teams in the Magners League to the Heineken Cup, the top teams from the league as a whole should be sent, regardless of nationality.
* The final team is the winner of a play off between the best placed team in the Magners League who has not already qualified, and the best placed semi-finalist in the Italian Super 10. The play-off is a single match, which takes place alternately in Italy or the home of the Magners League side. In 2007–08, this play-off was scheduled to take place before the Italian Super 10 semi-finals, so no Italian team was nominated to take part. This meant that the Magners League nominee, the Newport Gwent Dragons, qualified without a playoff.
After the 2009–10 season, the remaining two places go to the home nations of the previous season's Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup winners. However, England and France are capped at seven places each, so if both winners come from one of the two then the last place will be filled by the highest-ERC ranked club not of that nation to not have otherwise qualified.
Regardless of how well they perform domestically, the winners of the Heineken Cup and the European Challenge Cup both qualify for the next year's Heineken Cup; from 2009–10 forward, these places are separate from the country allocations, except when England or France produces winners of both competitions in the same season.
The Heineken Cup is, generally speaking, the equivalent competition of the UEFA Champions League in professional football, whereas the European Challenge Cup is the equivalent to the secondary UEFA Europa League.
A proposal has been made that, in future, rather than Ireland, Wales and Scotland each sending their top-placed teams in the Magners League to the Heineken Cup, the top teams from the league as a whole should be sent, regardless of nationality.
RUGBY HISTORY:
Rugby football (usually just "rugby") may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of the United Kingdom. Today it refers to either rugby league or rugby union.
A ball-game resembling rugby football was a game played by ancient Greeks called episkuros (Greek: επίσκυρος). In Wales such a sport is called cnapan or "criapan," and has medieval roots. The old Irish predecessor of rugby may be caid. The Cornish called it "hurling to goals" which dates back to the bronze age, the West country called it "hurling over country" (neither should to be confused with Gaelic hurling in which the ball is hit with a stick called a hurley or hurl, not carried), East Anglians "Campball", the French "La Soule" or "Chole" (a rough-and-tumble cross-country game). English villages were certainly playing games of 'fute ball' during the 1100s. English boarding schools would certainly have developed their own variants of this game as soon as they were established - the Eton Wall Game being one example.
The "invention" of rugby was therefore not the act of playing early forms of the game at Rugby School or elsewhere but rather the events which led up to its codification.
The game of football which was played at Rugby School between 1750 and 1859 permitted handling of the ball, but no-one was allowed to run with it in their hands towards the opposition's goal. There was no fixed limit to the number of players per side and sometimes there were hundreds taking part in a kind of enormous rolling maul. The innovation of running with the ball was introduced some time between 1859 and 1865. William Webb Ellis has been credited with breaking the local rules by running forwards with the ball in a game in 1823. Shortly after this the Victorian mind turned to establishing written rules for the sports which had earlier just involved local agreements, and boys from Rugby School produced the first written rules for their version of the sport in 1870.
Around this time the influence of Dr Thomas Arnold, Rugby's headmaster, was beginning to be felt around all the other boarding schools, and his emphasis on sport as part of a balanced education naturally encouraged the general adoption of the Rugby rules across the country, and, ultimately, the world.
