2009–10 European Challenge Cup

The 2009–10 Amlin Challenge Cup was the 14th season of the European Challenge Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from six nations in European rugby. It started on 8 October 2009 at Sixways Stadium in Worcester with Worcester Warriors hosting Montpellier, and ended with the final at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille on 23 May 2010. The reigning champions were Northampton Saints, who did not defend their title as they qualified for the 2009–10 Heineken Cup. Cardiff Blues won the trophy after a 28–21 win against Toulon.

Teams Five English teams and eight French teams competed because an English team – Leicester Tigers – progressed farther in the 2008–09 Heineken Cup than any French or Italian team.

Other countries will have their usual number of teams: Ireland one, Romania one and one from Spain.

FranceEnglandItalyIrelandRomaniaSpainAlbi Bayonne Bourgoin Castres Olympique Montauban Montpellier Racing Métro ToulonLeeds Carnegie London Wasps Newcastle Falcons Saracens Worcester WarriorsOvermach Parma Petrarca Padova Rovigo Roma OlimpicRome replaced Calvisano in RugbyramaConnachtBucurești OaksOlympus Madrid

Pool stage

The draw for the pool stages took place on 15 June 2009. The seeding system was the same as for the 2008–09 tournament. The 20 competing teams were ranked based on past Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup performance, with each pool receiving one team from each Tier. The requirement to have only one team per country in each pool was, however, still apply (with the exception of the inclusion of the sixth, seventh and eight French teams).

Beginning with this season's competition, only the pool winners advanced to the knockout stage. They were joined by three clubs from the 2009–10 Heineken Cup, specifically the third through fifth highest-ranking teams that finished second in their pool (the top two second-place teams entered the Heineken Cup knockout stage).

Team seedings Seeding was determined by the teams' position in the ERC Rankings at the time of the pool draw in June 2009.

RankTeamTotal points2008–09 points2007–08 points2006–07 points2005–06 points7London Wasps193211312Saracens14272319Bourgoin8321222Worcester7230225Newcastle6121227Castres5112130Leeds4010331Calvisano3101134Connacht2100135Montauban1100037Montpellier1010038Overmach Parma1001039Bayonne10001

{| class="wikitable" |+ Key to colours |- |bgcolor="#ccffcc"|     |Winner of each pool, advanced to quarterfinalsAlong with 3rd, 4th and 5th best runners up in the Heineken Cup group stages.Seed # in parentheses

Pool 1 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Bourgoin 6 5 0 1 16 6 +10 141 86 +55 2 1 23 Leeds Carnegie 6 4 0 2 19 6 +13 160 82 +78 3 0 19 Overmach Parma 6 2 0 4 5 17 −12 78 145 −67 0 0 8 București Oaks 6 1 0 5 5 16 −11 70 136 −66 0 3 7

Pool 2 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Connacht 6 6 0 0 28 5 +23 199 63 +136 2 0 26 Montpellier 6 4 0 2 18 10 +8 158 92 +66 2 1 19 Worcester Warriors 6 2 0 4 18 8 +10 140 83 +57 2 3 13 Olympus Madrid 6 0 0 6 4 45 −41 44 303 −269 0 0 0

Pool 3 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Toulon 6 5 0 1 27 7 +20 218 88 +130 3 0 23 Saracens 6 5 0 1 17 6 +11 184 83 +101 2 0 22 Castres Olympique 6 2 0 4 24 12 +12 173 127 +46 2 1 11 Rovigo 6 0 0 6 3 46 −43 41 318 −277 0 0 0

Pool 4 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts London Wasps 6 5 0 1 21 3 +18 176 69 +107 2 1 23 Bayonne 6 4 0 2 23 4 −19 184 73 +111 2 1 19 Racing Métro 6 3 0 3 22 7 +15 177 85 +92 2 2 16 Rugby Roma Olimpic 6 0 0 6 1 53 −52 28 338 −310 0 0 0

Pool 5 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Newcastle Falcons 6 5 0 1 16 6 +10 146 77 +69 2 1 23 Montauban 6 5 0 1 13 9 +4 132 96 +36 1 0 21 Albi 6 2 0 4 13 14 −1 117 137 −20 2 2 12 Petrarca Padova 6 0 0 6 9 22 −13 95 180 −85 0 1 1

Seeding Bare numbers indicate Challenge quarterfinal seeding. Numbers with "HC" indicate Heineken Cup 3rd-5th Runners-Up.

SeedsTop 4 Pool WinnersPtsTF+/−1 Connacht2628+1362 Toulon2327+1303 London Wasps2321+1084 Newcastle Falcons2316+69Non-Seeds(Worst Pool Winner and HC Runners-up)PtsTF+/−5HC Cardiff Blues1814+456HC Gloucester1712-107HC Scarlets1712-318 Bourgoin2315+55

Knock-out stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final On 28 April 2010, the competition organiser, European Rugby Cup, announced that the final would be held on 23 May. The time was set at 13:00 UTC (14:00 BST, 15:00 CEST), but the location would depend on the result of the Connacht–Toulon semi-final. Since Toulon won, the final was held at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille.

Cardiff Blues were designated as the home team for the final. However, it was an effective home game for Toulon; Stade Vélodrome hosted two of that club's matches in their domestic season. Cardiff Blues won the final against Toulon by 28–21.

See also 2009–10 Heineken Cup

Notes and references

External links 2009–10 European Challenge Cup Official Site