The Heineken Cup 24th place play-off, in

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 ...

, was a single game play-off that was formerly used to determine the final qualifier for the subsequent season's

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 ...

. This play-off was scrapped, effective with the 2009–10 season, due to

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in the Heineken Cup qualification format.

Automatic qualification

Through the 2009–10 edition, the Heineken Cup was open to clubs 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 ...

Guinness 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 ...

, Super 10 (now

Top12 The Top10, known as the Peroni Top10 for sponsorship reasons, and formerly Top 12, is Italy's top level professional men's rugby union competition. The Top 10 is run by Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR) and is contested by 10 teams as of the 2019� ...

) and 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 ...

. 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

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 (selected by performance in

Championship) *Ireland: 3 teams (selected by performance in

) *Wales: 3 teams (selected by performance in

) *Scotland: 2 teams (selected by participation in

) *Italy: 2 teams (selected by performance in ''Eccellenza'') 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 meaning that there would be only four Welsh teams to compete for four places in the

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

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Italo-Celtic Heineken Cup 2004–05 Heineken Cup 2005–06 Heineken Cup 2006–07 Heineken Cup 2007–08 Heineken Cup 2008–09 Heineken Cup