The 2010–11 Heineken Cup was the 16th season of the

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

, the annual

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby. It started with three matches on 8 October 2010 and ended on 21 May 2011 with the final at

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national rug ...

where

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

beat

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...

33 – 22.

Teams

The default allocation of teams is as follows: * England: 6 teams, based on performance in the

Aviva Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

and

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

* France: 6 teams, based on regular-season finish in the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

* Ireland and Wales: 3 teams each, based on regular-season finish in the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places part ...

* Italy and Scotland: 2 teams each, based on participation in the Celtic League The remaining two places are filled by the winners of the previous year's

and

Amlin Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception ...

. If the cup winners are already qualified through their domestic league, an additional team from their country will claim a Heineken Cup place (assuming another team is available). The only exception is when teams from England or France win both cups, which did not happen in 2009–10. Because 2010 Heineken Cup winners

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

were already qualified for this season's Heineken Cup by virtue of their fourth-place regular-season finish in the 2009–10 Top 14, the extra place for France went to seventh-placed

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. ...

(who were also Toulouse's defeated opponent in the Heineken Cup Final). Because Amlin Challenge Cup winners

Cardiff Blues Cardiff Rugby ( cy, Rygbi Caerdydd) are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby competitions. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms ...

were already qualified for the Heineken Cup by finishing second among the four Welsh teams in the 2009–10 Celtic League, the extra Welsh place went to the lowest-placed Welsh team in the league,

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...

Seeding

The seeding system was the same as in the 2009–10 tournament. The 24 competing teams are ranked based on past Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup performance, with each pool receiving one team from each quartile, or Tier. The requirement to have only one team per country in each pool, however, still applies (with the exception of the inclusion of the seventh French team). The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking at the end of the 2009–10 season. Aironi inherited the ranking of

Viadana Viadana may refer to: Surname * Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (c. 1560 – 1627), Italian composer, teacher, and Franciscan friar * Gilberto Viadana (born 1973), Italian figure skater Other * Viadana, Lombardy, a town in the province of Mantua, Lom ...

, the principal shareholders in the new Celtic League team.

Pool stage

The draw for the pool stage took place on 8 June 2010. Under rules of the competition organiser,

European Rugby Cup European Rugby Cup Ltd (or ERC) was the governing body and organiser of the two major European rugby union club tournaments; the Heineken Cup and the Amlin Challenge Cup. It was replaced by the European Professional Club Rugby governing body in ...

, tiebreakers within each pool are as follows. * Competition points earned in head-to-head matches * Total tries scored in head-to-head matches * Point differential in head-to-head matches ERC has four additional tiebreakers, used if tied teams are in different pools, or if the above steps cannot break a tie between teams in the same pool: * Tries scored in all pool matches * Point differential in all pool matches * Best disciplinary record (fewest players receiving red or yellow cards in all pool matches) * Coin toss

Pool 1

Pool 2

Pool 3

Pool 4

Pool 5

Pool 6

Seeding and runners-up

* Bare numbers indicate Heineken Cup quarterfinal seeding. * Numbers with "C" indicate Challenge Cup quarterfinal seeding.

Knockout stage

The semi-final draw for both the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup was conducted on 23 January at the press box of

Adams Park Adams Park is an association football stadium in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Built in 1990, it is the home ground of the local Wycombe Wanderers in League One. It was also leased from 2002 to 2014 to the rugby union club London Was ...

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...

shortly after the London Wasps–Toulouse match. All times are local times.

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Final

Individual statistics

Top points scorers

Final Standings ''(correct as of 21 May 2011)''

Top try scorers

Final Standings ''(Correct as of 21 May 2011)''

External links

Official ERC website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2010-11 Heineken Cup Heineken Cup seasons