Heineken Cup quarter-final dates and kick-off times announced<\/p>\n
One of the most anticipated weekends in the rugby calendar will get underway with the all-French clash of ASM Clermont Auvergne and Montpellier at Stade Marcel Michelin on Saturday, 6 April following today\u2019s announcement by ERC of the dates and kick-off times for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
Saracens will be up against last season\u2019s beaten finalists, Ulster Rugby, in the second of the Saturday fixtures with a venue to be announced at a later date, while Sunday\u2019s matches on 7 April will kick off with the meeting of pool stage top seeds, Harlequins, and two-time former Heineken Cup champions, Munster Rugby, at the Twickenham Stoop.<\/p>\n
With all matches broadcast live, and with capacity crowds expected at every venue, the curtain will come down on the weekend when French heavyweights, Toulon, take on Leicester Tigers, who won the tournament in 2001 and 2002, in the first ever meeting between the clubs in Europe.<\/p>\n
Five of the clubs in the last eight of the world\u2019s most competitive club rugby tournament – Clermont, Harlequins, Leicester, Munster and Ulster \u2013 have European titles to their names, while Montpellier will be appearing in the knockout stage for the first time.<\/p>\n
FIXTURES
\n(All kick-offs are local time)<\/p>\n
Saturday, 6 April<\/p>\n
Saracens v Ulster Rugby, Venue TBC 18.30
\nSky Sports\/Canal+\/Sky Italia<\/p>\n
ASM Clermont Auvergne v Montpellier, Stade Marcel Michelin 16.40
\nFR2\/Sky Sports\/Sky Italia<\/p>\n
Sunday, 7 April<\/p>\n
Harlequins v Munster Rugby, Twickenham Stoop 14.00
\nSky Sports\/Canal+\/Sky Italia<\/p>\n
Toulon v Leicester Tigers, Venue TBC 17.30
\nFR2\/Canal+\/Sky Sports\/Sky Italia<\/p>\n
QUARTER-FINAL NOTES<\/p>\n
ASM Clermont Auvergne v Montpellier
\n\u2022 The match at Stade Marcel Michelin will be the first meeting of the clubs in a European tournament
\n\u2022 Clermont have now gone 54 matches unbeaten at home
\n\u2022 Clermont reached the last four last season before losing 19-15 to eventual champions, Leinster Rugby, in a memorable semi-final in Bordeaux
\n\u2022 Morgan Parra is the leading scorer from the pool stage with 90 points<\/p>\n
Saracens v Ulster Rugby
\n\u2022 The game will mark Saracens\u2019 third appearance in a Heineken Cup final
\n\u2022 Ulster bucked a tournament trend last season by with an away quarter-final victory over Munster at Thomond Park
\n\u2022 Owen Farrell set a tournament record of 10 penalties in a match during Saracens\u2019 key win over Racing Metro 92 at Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes in Round 5
\n\u2022 Saracens\u2019 Director of Rugby, Mark McCall, was Ulster captain in the club\u2019s Heineken Cup winning season of 1999 but missed the final through injury<\/p>\n
Harlequins v Munster Rugby
\n\u2022 Harlequins came through the pool stage as No 1 seeds for the first time in the club\u2019s history
\n\u2022 Munster have reached the knockout stage of the tournament 14 times in the past 15 seasons
\n\u2022 The last time the clubs met in European competition, Harlequins pulled off a famous 2011 Amin Challenge Cup semi-final victory at Thomond Park
\n\u2022 Munster have played in 13 Heineken Cup quarter-finals winning nine, and three of those wins were away from home: v Stade Francais Paris 2002, v Leicester Tigers 2003 and v Gloucester Rugby 2008<\/p>\n
Toulon v Leicester Tigers
\n\u2022 Toulon\u2019s only appearance to date in the last eight was in 2011 when they were defeated by Perpignan in front of a record quarter-final crowd of 55,000 at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona
\n\u2022 Leicester have played in 10 Heineken Cup quarter-finals, winning six and losing four
\n\u2022 Each club has one player in their Heineken Cup squads who have a tournament winner\u2019s medal: Freddie Michalak (with Toulouse in 2003 and \u201805) and Tigers\u2019 Geordan Murphy in 2001 and \u201802
\n\u2022 Leicester have won one of their 10 tournament quarter-finals away from home when they beat Leinster at Lansdowne Road in 2005<\/p>\n
HEINEKEN CUP SEMI-FINALS
\nMatches to be played on weekend of 26\/27\/28 April<\/p>\n
The winner of the first-named quarter-final match in each semi-final pairing will have home country advantage<\/p>\n
Semi-final 1: Saracens or Ulster Rugby v Toulon or Leicester Tigers
\nSemi-final 2: ASM Clermont Auvergne or Montpellier v Harlequins or Munster Rugby<\/p>\n
Heineken Cup final: Saturday, 18 May; Aviva Stadium, Dublin 17.00 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heineken Cup quarter-final dates and kick-off times announced One of the most anticipated weekends in the rugby calendar will get underway with the all-French clash of ASM Clermont Auvergne and Montpellier at Stade Marcel Michelin on Saturday, 6 April following today\u2019s announcement by ERC of the dates and kick-off times for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5519,4773,2994,7212,3959,1997],"class_list":["post-40324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ulster-rugby","tag-cup","tag-final","tag-heineken","tag-quarter","tag-rugby","tag-ulster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40325,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40324\/revisions\/40325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}