Heineken Cup quarter-finals Unforgettable weekend in prospect
With 10 days to go to the kick-off of the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, eight elite clubs with 16 European titles among them are counting down to what promises to be yet another unforgettable weekend of world-class rugby.
Please find attached an in-depth Heineken Cup quarter-final update. Further updates, as well as comprehensive statistical match pack previews of the four quarter-finals, will follow next week
With all four quarter-finals on course for sell-out attendances, the list of contenders for Heineken Cup silverware reads like a veritable who’s who of the European game.
The knockout stage gets underway on Saturday, 5 April with the heavyweight clash of Munster Rugby and Toulouse which marks the first visit of the French four-time tournament champions to Thomond Park.
Munster, who topped Pool 6 and qualified as fourth seeds, will be appearing in a record 15th Heineken Cup quarter-final, and a 26,600-capacity crowd which will include 3,000 travelling fans from Toulouse is set to witness a mouthwatering confrontation between two of the great European clubs.
Next up is the much anticipated meeting of ASM Clermont Auvergne and Leicester Tigers at the Stade Marcel-Michelin cauldron where Clermont hold an astonishing 74-game unbeaten run in all competions.
Tigers Director of Rugby, Richard Cockerill, will be returning to the French club for whom he played five Heineken Cup games during the 2002/03 season, while the home side, who qualified as No 2 seeds, will be looking to atone for the disappointment of last season when they were edged out in the final by Toulon.
The Saturday series concludes with a repeat of last year’s quarter-final between No 1 seeds, Ulster Rugby, and Saracens. The current Aviva Premiership leaders will be hell bent on registering a similar result to 2013 when they defeated the Irish province at Twickenham Stadium, however, Ulster and their passionate supporters will have other ideas with the game staged on this occasion at the revamped Ravenhilll Stadium.
Those Ulster supporters will probably be mindful of the curse of the 100 per cent pool record. No club in the history of the Heineken Cup which was won all six of its pool matches has gone on to lift the trophy in the same season. The 100 per cent pool record has been achieved 13 times – most recently by Ulster, and last season by Clermont and Harlequins – but those six-out-of-six clubs have never tasted success in the same year.
The quarter-final weekend will be wrapped up in style with reigning Heineken Cup champions, Toulon, taking on reigning Amlin Challenge Cup champions, Leinster Rugby, at the atmospheric Stade Felix Mayol on Sunday, 6 April. The first meeting of the clubs will feature two greats of the game with either Jonny Wilkinson or Brian O’Driscoll signing off on their European careers at the final whistle.
Of the 68 quarter-finals to date, a total of 51 (75%) have been won by the home club with 17 victories for the away club.
