Heineken Cup Round 5 review
All to play for going into Round 6
As the dust settles on another pulsating weekend of fast and furious action, no club is yet assured of a home Heineken Cup quarter-final going into Round 6 of Europe’s premier club rugby tournament.
Please find attached a comprehensive review of last weekend’s 12 Heineken Cup games including notes, match summaries, reaction, tournament statistics, tables, leading scorers and a discipline update.
While Ulster Rugby, reigning champions Toulon, Toulouse, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Munster Rugby and Leicester Tigers are all guaranteed coveted places in the last eight, the battle is now on for both the remaining two quarter-final spots and to determine which of the four clubs will have home advantage next April.
As many as 18 Heineken Cup clubs are still in contention for European silverware as the journey to Cardiff for the 2014 finals gains further momentum. Not alone are Heineken Cup quarter-final places on the line, the third, fourth and fifth best pool runners-up will book quarter-final slots in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
With €7 million (euro) to be shared in meritocracy payments among the countries of the clubs who qualify for the knockout stages of ERC’s tournaments, the stakes are as high as ever as Round 6 approaches.
Leicester and Ulster are set for what promises to be a titanic struggle at Welford Road next Saturday to decide who tops Pool 5, while three-time tournament winners, Leinster, need just one point from their game against Ospreys at the RDS to clinch Pool 1. If Saracens manage to see off the challenge Connacht Rugby at Alliianz Park next Saturday, they will join Toulouse as qualifiers from Pool 3.
Meanwhile, Northampton Saints are still in the mix to secure their place in the last eight, but they will probably need to defeat Castres Olympique with a bonus point at Franklin’s Gardens in their final Pool 1 fixture and hope that Leinster slip up.
Northampton are also in contention for Amlin Challenge Cup qualification along with Cardiff Blues, Edinburgh Rugby, Harlequins, Connacht Rugby, Glasgow Warriors, Scarlets, Gloucester Rugby, Exeter Chiefs and Castres.
The semi-final draws for both the Heineken Cup and the Amlin Challenge Cup will take place on Sunday at Thomond Park following the completion of the Round 6 matches.
Points to note
18 clubs remain in contention for European silverware going into Round 6 of the Heineken Cup with quarter-final places up for grabs both in Europe’s premier club rugby tournament and in the Amlin Challenge Cup
Six clubs (Ulster, Toulon, Toulouse, Clermont, Munster and Leicester Tigers) are through to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, but no club is yet assured of a home quarter-final going into Round 6
Munster have now reached the knockout stage of the Heineken Cup 15 times in the last 16 seasons (missing out in 2010/11) while Toulouse have also made the knockout stage on 15 occasions
Glasgow Warriors’ 15-10 victory over Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park was their first Heineken Cup win against an English club in England
With sell-outs at Toulouse, Gloucester and Ulster, the total attendance for Round 5 came to 137,713 bringing the total for the season to date to 773,302
31,170 spectators poured into the Allianz Riviera in Nice for the Toulon v Cardiff Blues game. The stadium became the 104th to stage a Heineken Cup fixture
233 tries have been scored in the five rounds at an average of just under four a game, while a total of 2,410 points have been accumulated at an average of 40 per game
Jean-Marc Doussain of Toulouse and Leinster’s Jimmy Gopperth were the Round 5 top scorers with 21 points apiece
Clermont’s Naipolioni Nalaga and Chris Ashton of Saracens, who crossed against Harlequins and Toulouse respectively, are the tournament’s top try scorers with five, while Ospreys’ Dan Biggar leads the points scoring charts on 62
