The 2008–09 European Challenge Cup was the 13th season of the European Challenge Cup, the annual

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

European club competition for clubs from six nations in European rugby. It started in October 2008 and ended with the final at the Twickenham Stoop in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 22 May 2009, in which

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", ...

defeated

Bourgoin Bourgoin-Jallieu (; frp, Brégon) is a commune in the Isère department in the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France. The city had 28,834 inhabitants in 2019 and lies 35 kilometres east-southeast of Lyon. It was formed by the merger of th ...

15–3. With the win, the Saints not only claimed the trophy, but also won a berth in the 2009–10 Heineken Cup.

Teams

Seven French teams competed instead of the normal eight, as a French team,

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. The city is on t ...

, progressed farther in the previous year's Heineken Cup than any English or Italian team. Other nations had their usual number of participants: England six, Italy four, Ireland one, Spain one and Romania one.

Pool stage

The draw for the pool stages took place on 23 June 2008. The draw was conducted using the ERC European Ranking system which was based on the qualified teams' performances and participation in the Heineken Cup and knock-out stages of the European Challenge Cup over the past four seasons. :

Pool 1

Pool 2

Pool 3

Pool 4

Pool 5

Seeding and runners-up

Knockout stage

Unlike the Heineken Cup, the Challenge Cup did not conduct a semi-final draw at the time (such a draw would be instituted for the 2009–10 edition). The top half of the draw matched the 1 and 8 seeds in one quarter-final, and the 4 and 5 seeds in the other, and the bottom half matched 2 against 7 and 3 against 6; the higher (lower-numbered) seeds all play at home. The knockout stage was not reseeded after the quarter-finals. Home advantage for the semi-finals was awarded to the highest remaining seed in each half of the draw. Home advantage in the final went to the top remaining seed.

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Notes and references

External links

2008–09 European Challenge Cup Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:European Challenge Cup 2007-08 2008–09 rugby union tournaments for clubs 2008–09 in European rugby union 2008–09 in Irish rugby union 2008–09 in English rugby union 2008–09 in Spanish rugby union 2008–09 in French rugby union 2008–09 in Italian rugby union 2008–09 in Romanian rugby union