The 2005–06 Heineken Cup was the eleventh edition of the European

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec 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 ...

rugby union club tournament. 24 teams from 7 countries took part, with the opening game played on Friday October 21, 2005.

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

won the tournament, beating

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; also spelled ; ) 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. It is a luxu ...

in the final held at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, on 20 May 2006. The teams were divided into six pools of four, in which teams played home and away matches against each other. The winners of the pools, together with the two best runners-up, qualified for the knock-out stage.

Format

In the pool matches, teams receive: * four points for a win * two points for a draw * a bonus point for scoring four or more tries * a bonus point for losing by seven or fewer points Ties between two teams are broken in the following order: # ''Match points earned in head-to-head matches.'' For example, if tied teams are in the same pool, and split their head-to-head matches, but one team earned a bonus point and the other failed to do so, the team that earned the bonus point will win.

won a tiebreaker over

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Its team play in Premiership Rugby, and have been in England's top division of rugby union continuously since 1995. Originally founded in 1861 as ...

in Pool 1 in this very manner. # ''Tries scored in head-to-head matches.'' # ''Point difference in head-to-head matches.'' # ''Tries scored in all pool matches.'' This is the first tiebreaker between teams in different pools, which can come into play for determining seeding among first-place teams, or breaking ties among second-place teams. # ''Point difference in all pool matches.'' # ''Best disciplinary record in pool play.'' The team with the fewest players sent off or sin-binned during pool play wins. # ''Coin toss.'' The quarterfinals are seeded from 1 to 8. The six pool winners receive the top six seeds, based on their point totals. The top two-second-place finishers are seeded 7 and 8. The seeds of the qualifying teams are in parentheses next to their names in the tables.

Teams

Pool stage

''Full results can be found at 2005–06 Heineken Cup pool stage.''
''All times are local to the match location.''

Pool 1

Note: Munster took first place over Sale Sharks on competition points in head-to-head matches, 5–4.

Pool 2

Pool 3

Pool 4

Pool 5

Pool 6

Seeding and runners-up

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Final

Statistics

Top point scorers

* 131 – Felipe Contepomi (Leinster) *115 –

Ronan O'Gara Ronan John Ross O'Gara (born 7 March 1977) is an Irish former rugby union player and current coach. O'Gara played as a fly-half and is Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland's third most-capped player and second highest points scorer. He i ...

(Munster) *99 – Andy Goode (Leicester Tigers)

Top try scorers

* 6 – Sireli Bobo (Biarritz Olympique) * 6 – Vincent Clerc (Toulouse) * 6 – Felipe Contepomi (Leinster)

External links

ERC Rugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:2005-06 Heineken Cup Heineken Cup seasons

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...