Heineken Cup Italo-Celtic play-off
Encyclopedia
The Heineken Cup 24th place play-off was a single game play-off that was formerly used to determine the final qualifier for the subsequent season's Heineken Cup
Heineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...

.

This play-off was scrapped, effective with the 2009–10 season, due to changes in the Heineken Cup qualification format.

Automatic qualification

Through the 2009–10 edition
2009–10 Heineken Cup
The 2009–10 Heineken Cup was the 15th season of the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby...

, the Heineken Cup was open to clubs in the Celtic League
Celtic League (rugby union)
The Celtic League is an annual rugby union competition involving professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....

, Guinness Premiership
Guinness Premiership
The English Premiership, also currently known as the Aviva Premiership because of the league's sponsorship by Aviva, is a professional league competition for rugby union football clubs in the top division of the English rugby system. There are twelve clubs in the Premiership...

, Super 10
Super 10 (Italian premiership)
The withdrawal of Viadana and Benetton Treviso from the league has been compounded by club mergers. Rugby Viadana, Gran Parma and Colorno have merged to form GranDucato Rugby. Overmach Parma and Noceto have merged to form Crociati, both new clubs to be based in Parma. These changes created 2...

 and the Top 14. The competition begins with six rounds of pool matches to determine the eight qualifiers for the knockout stages. 24 teams are arranged into six pools of four teams each, with the six pool winners and two best-placed runners-up entering the knockout stages. The 24 pool stage places were allocated as described below.

The first 22 places were awarded as follows:
  • England: 6 teams (selected by performance in Guinness Premiership
    Guinness Premiership
    The English Premiership, also currently known as the Aviva Premiership because of the league's sponsorship by Aviva, is a professional league competition for rugby union football clubs in the top division of the English rugby system. There are twelve clubs in the Premiership...

     and Anglo-Welsh Cup)
  • France: 6 teams (selected by performance in Top 14 Championship)
  • Ireland: 3 teams (selected by performance in Celtic League
    Celtic League (rugby union)
    The Celtic League is an annual rugby union competition involving professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....

    )
  • Wales: 3 teams (selected by performance in Celtic League
    Celtic League (rugby union)
    The Celtic League is an annual rugby union competition involving professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....

    )
  • Scotland: 2 teams (selected by participation in Celtic League
    Celtic League (rugby union)
    The Celtic League is an annual rugby union competition involving professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....

    )
  • Italy: 2 teams (selected by performance in Super 10
    Super 10 (Italian premiership)
    The withdrawal of Viadana and Benetton Treviso from the league has been compounded by club mergers. Rugby Viadana, Gran Parma and Colorno have merged to form GranDucato Rugby. Overmach Parma and Noceto have merged to form Crociati, both new clubs to be based in Parma. These changes created 2...

     Championship)


The 23rd team was chosen from either France, England or Italy and was allocated to the country whose team progressed further in the previous season's Heineken Cup.

The European Challenge Cup winner received an automatic place in the Heineken Cup, taken from its country's allocation.

The final qualifier was determined from the result of the 24th place or Italo-Celtic play-off.

The play-off

The final qualifier was the winner of the 24th place play-off, which took place between the best placed team in the Celtic League that did not automatically qualify and the best-placed semi-finalist in the Italian Super 10 competition. The play-off was a single match, which took place alternately in Italy or the home of the Celtic 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 Celtic League nominee, the Newport Gwent Dragons, qualified without a playoff.

The play-off first came about in 2004 after the dissolution of the Celtic Warriors
Celtic Warriors
The Celtic Warriors were a regional rugby union team from Wales, who played in the Celtic League and Heineken Cup between 2003 and 2004.-History:The Warriors were one of the five original regions of the Welsh Regional Rugby Era...

 meaning that there would be only four Welsh teams to compete for four places in the Heineken Cup
Heineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...

.

To ensure that there was some form of competition for the final place so not devaluing the league and provide an extra opportunity to increase the Italian representation in the competition, the final place in the Heineken Cup would be decided in a play-off to be played after the end of the domestic season.

In the 2007/08 season due to a dispute over a fixture clash with the semi-finals of the Super 10
Super 10
Super 10 may refer to:*Super 10 , the national rugby union competition in Italy*Super 10 , a Southern Hemisphere rugby union competition held between 1993 and 1995 which predated the Super 12...

 there would be no play-off against Italian opposition. Instead the 24th place would go to the highest placed of the lowest Welsh (Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons are one of the four professional Rugby Union regional teams in Wales. They are jointly owned by Newport RFC and the Welsh Rugby Union and play all their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport. They play in the RaboDirect Pro12, the Anglo-Welsh Cup and the Heineken Cup...

) and Irish (Connacht Rugby
Connacht Rugby
Connacht Rugby is an Irish professional rugby union team based in Connacht that competes in the RaboDirect Pro12 comprising teams from the Celtic nations plus Italy. Normally, it also competes in the second-tier pan-European club competition, the European Challenge Cup...

) teams in the Celtic League.

Changes from 2009–10

The play-off was scrapped for the 2009–10 season due to changes made that season by the competition organisers, European Rugby Cup, that will take effect with the 2010–11 Heineken Cup. The new qualifying system is as follows:
  • The first 22 places will remain unchanged, except that the two Italian places will be taken up by the two Italian teams entering the Celtic League for the 2010–11 season (the Super 10 will revert to a semi-professional developmental league to accommodate this change).
  • The remaining two places will now be filled by the winners of the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup. If a trophy winner has already qualified for the Heineken Cup by virtue of its league position, that country will receive an extra Heineken Cup place (assuming that the country has an extra team that can take up a place; Scotland has only two top-level professional teams, as will Italy from the 2010–11 season onward).
  • However, England and France are capped at seven Heineken Cup places each. If either country produces the winners of both European cups, the last place will be filled by the highest ERC-ranked club not of that nation to not have otherwise qualified.

Results

Season Winner Score Runner-up Venue Attendance
2004–05
2005-06 Heineken Cup
2005-06 Heineken Cup
The 2005–06 Heineken Cup was the eleventh edition of the European Heineken Cup rugby union club tournament. 24 teams from 7 different countries took part, with the opening game played on Friday October 21, 2005...

  Cardiff Blues
Cardiff Blues
Cardiff Blues are one of the four professional Welsh regional rugby union teams. Based in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, the team have played at Cardiff City Stadium since the start of the 2009/2010 season and are owned by Cardiff Rugby Football Club....

38 – 9
  Arix Viadana Stadio Luigi Zaffanella
Stadio Luigi Zaffanella
Stadio Luigi Zaffanella is a multi-use stadium in Viadana, Italy. It is currently used mostly for rugby union and football matches. It is the home ground of Aironi for their Celtic League games....

,
Viadana
Viadana
Viadana may refer to:* Lodovico Grossi da Viadana , an Italian composer, teacher, and Franciscan friar* Viadana, Lombardy, a town in the province of Mantua, Lombardy, northern Italy* Viadana Rugby, a rugby union club based in the town...

1,750
2005–06
2006-07 Heineken Cup
2006-07 Heineken Cup
The 2006–07 Heineken Cup was the 12th edition of the European Heineken Cup rugby union club tournament. The pool draw took place on 21 June at Twickenham. The pool stages started on 20 October and concluded in January, going for six rounds...

  Overmach Parma 24 – 15
  Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons are one of the four professional Rugby Union regional teams in Wales. They are jointly owned by Newport RFC and the Welsh Rugby Union and play all their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport. They play in the RaboDirect Pro12, the Anglo-Welsh Cup and the Heineken Cup...

Rodney Parade
Rodney Parade
Rodney Parade is a stadium in the city of Newport, south Wales. Located on the east bank of the River Usk in Newport city centre it is primarily used for rugby matches and is the home ground of Newport RFC and the Newport Gwent Dragons regional team.-History:...

,
Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

6,000
2006–07
2007-08 Heineken Cup
2007-08 Heineken Cup
The 2007–08 Heineken Cup was the 13th edition of the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby.The start of the tournament was delayed because of the 2007 Rugby World Cup...

  Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons are one of the four professional Rugby Union regional teams in Wales. They are jointly owned by Newport RFC and the Welsh Rugby Union and play all their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport. They play in the RaboDirect Pro12, the Anglo-Welsh Cup and the Heineken Cup...

22 – 15
  Ghial Calvisano
Rugby Calvisano
Rugby Calvisano are an Italian rugby union club currently competing in National Championship of Excellence.They are based in Calvisano , in Lombardy....

Rodney Parade
Rodney Parade
Rodney Parade is a stadium in the city of Newport, south Wales. Located on the east bank of the River Usk in Newport city centre it is primarily used for rugby matches and is the home ground of Newport RFC and the Newport Gwent Dragons regional team.-History:...

,
Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

5,326
2007–08
2008-09 Heineken Cup
2008-09 Heineken Cup
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 in Edinburgh...

  Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons are one of the four professional Rugby Union regional teams in Wales. They are jointly owned by Newport RFC and the Welsh Rugby Union and play all their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport. They play in the RaboDirect Pro12, the Anglo-Welsh Cup and the Heineken Cup...

N/A - decided on league position
Connacht
Connacht Rugby
Connacht Rugby is an Irish professional rugby union team based in Connacht that competes in the RaboDirect Pro12 comprising teams from the Celtic nations plus Italy. Normally, it also competes in the second-tier pan-European club competition, the European Challenge Cup...

N/A N/A
2008–09
2009-10 Heineken Cup
  Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons are one of the four professional Rugby Union regional teams in Wales. They are jointly owned by Newport RFC and the Welsh Rugby Union and play all their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport. They play in the RaboDirect Pro12, the Anglo-Welsh Cup and the Heineken Cup...

42 – 17
  Ghial Calvisano
Rugby Calvisano
Rugby Calvisano are an Italian rugby union club currently competing in National Championship of Excellence.They are based in Calvisano , in Lombardy....

Centro Sportivo San Michele,
Calvisano
Calvisano
Calvisano is a comune in the Italian province of Brescia, in Lombardy.It is the manufacturing base of Flyflot, the well known comfort shoe manufacturers.Agritech is a known fiberglass silos company....

2,250

External links

  • http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/5018_4285.php 2005 Play-off
  • http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/5018_5456.php 2006 Play-off
  • http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/5018_7016.php 2007 Play-off
  • http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/5018_10266.php 2008 No Italian Team
  • http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/5018_10267.php 2008 Dragons secure 24th place.
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