The 2008–09 Heineken Cup was the fourteenth edition of the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby. It started in October 2008 and ended on 23 May 2009 at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. Irish side Leinster became the champions, defeating Leicester Tigers 19–16 in the final.
Teams Seven French teams competed, as a French team, Toulouse, progressed further in the previous year's tournament than any English or Italian team.
Four Welsh teams competed, as Italy forfeited its place in the Italo-Celtic playoff and a Welsh team were the highest-placed team in the previous year's Celtic league not to qualify otherwise. Other nations had their usual number of participants: England six, Ireland three, Italy two and Scotland two.
EnglandFranceWalesIrelandScotlandItaly Gloucester London Wasps Bath Leicester Tigers Sale Sharks Harlequins Toulouse Biarritz Stade Français Clermont Perpignan Castres Montauban Cardiff Blues Scarlets Ospreys Newport Gwent Dragons Leinster Munster Ulster Edinburgh Glasgow Warriors Calvisano Benetton Treviso
Seeding The seeding system for participating teams changed from previous editions of the Heineken Cup. Previously, each participating nation would seed one of their teams and these six teams would be drawn in different groups at the group stage. Starting with the 2008–09 edition, the 24 competing teams were ranked based on past Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup performance, with each group receiving one team from each quartile, or Tier. The requirement to have only one team per country in each group however, still applied (with the exception of the inclusion of the seventh French team).
The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking before the start of the 2008–09 season.
Tier 1 Munster (1) Toulouse (2) Biarritz (3) Leicester Tigers (4) Stade Français (5) London Wasps (6) Tier 2 Leinster (7) Bath (8) Gloucester (9) Perpignan (10) Sale Sharks (12) Scarlets (13) Tier 3 Ospreys (15) Cardiff Blues (17) Clermont (18) Newport Gwent Dragons (20) Ulster (21) Castres (22) Tier 4 Glasgow Warriors (24) Benetton Treviso (25) Edinburgh (28) Calvisano (32) Harlequins (35) Montauban
Pool stage
The draw for the pool stages took place on 17 June 2008 in Dublin.
{| class="wikitable" |+ Key to colours |- | bgcolor="#ccffcc" | | Winner of each pool, and two best runners-up,advance to quarterfinals. Seed # in parentheses
Pool 1 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Munster (2)65011861216198632123 Sale630314113136115212115 Clermont63031413113712981013 Montauban6105521−1681173−92026
Pool 2 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Leinster (6)64021531214070702220 Wasps6402912−311411220117 Edinburgh620488091103−12109 Castres6204615−973133−60019
Pool 3 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Leicester Tigers (4)640223617191901013221 Ospreys (7)64021731415571842220 Perpignan640217107154120341118 Benetton Treviso6006543−3872291−219000
Pool 4 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Harlequins (3)650116124144115292022 Stade Français630313112131109221215 Ulster621313130113134−210111 Scarlets61141218−6124154−30028
Pool 5 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Bath (5)6411138510792152121 Toulouse (8)6411128412188331120 Glasgow62041417−3134150−161312 Newport Gwent Dragons6105814−683115−32037
Pool 6 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Cardiff Blues (1)660023914202991033027 Biarritz63031441012188331215 Gloucester630317125156109472115 Calvisano6006837−2987270−183000
Seeding and runners-up SeedPool WinnersPtsTF+/−1 Cardiff Blues2723+1032 Munster2318+633 Harlequins2216+294 Leicester Tigers2123+1015 Bath2113+156 Leinster2015+70SeedPool Runners-upPtsTF+/−7 Ospreys2017+848 Toulouse2012+33 – Sale1914+21 – Wasps177+8 – Biarritz1514+33 – Stade Français1513+22
Knockout stage The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 27 January at Murrayfield Stadium.
Quarter-finals
This match became notorious for the "Bloodgate" scandal. Quins coach Dean Richards was banned from rugby for three years for his role in faking an injury to wing Tom Williams so that Quins could send in a blood replacement. Williams himself was initially banned for a year, but after he revealed the full extent of the scheme, the ban was reduced to four months.
Semi-finals
Final
Notes and references