News

2008/9 Heineken dates confirmed

April 24 2008

The Heineken Cup semi-finals at Twickenham Stadium and the Ricoh Arena are just a few days away, but the planning for the next tournament is already well on course.

The 14th season of the Heineken Cup will kick-off on the second week of October - with the Pool stages again played over three weekend blocks of two Rounds of matches each.

ERC, the organisers of the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup, announced on Wednesday the dates for next season's tournaments with the big European kick-off reverting to October following the later start this season for the Rugby World Cup year.

The second block of Pool matches will be played in early December following the autumn international matches and the final block in January.

There will be three-week intervals between the quarter-finals in April and the semi-finals in May and between the semi-finals and finals on the weekend of 22 / 23 / 24 May, 2009.

The 2008/9 Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup weekends:

2008

ROUND 1 - 10 / 11 / 12 October

ROUND 2 - 17 / 18 / 19 October

ROUND 3 - 5 / 6 / 7 December

ROUND 4 - 12 / 13 / 14 December

2009

ROUND 5 - 16 / 17 / 18 January

ROUND 6 - 23 / 24 / 25 January

QUARTER-FINALS - 10 / 11 / 12 April

SEMI-FINALS - 1 / 2 / 3 May

FINALS - 22 / 23 / 24 May