1995–96 Heineken Cup

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1995–96 Heineken Cup
Tournament details
Countries	France  Ireland  Italy  Romania  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and Knockout
Date	31 October 1995 to 7 January 1996
Tournament statistics
Teams	12
Matches played	15
Attendance	97,535 (6,502 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Adrian Davies (Cardiff) (58 points)
Top try scorer(s)	Philippe Bernat-Salles (Bordeaux) (Toulouse) Thomas Castaignède (Toulouse) (Treviso) Mike Hall (Cardiff) (Swansea) (Bordeaux) (Treviso) Andy Moore (Cardiff) Émile Ntamack (Toulouse) Conor O'Shea (Leinster) (Treviso) (2 tries)
Final
Venue	National Stadium, Cardiff
Attendance	21,800
Champions	Toulouse (1st title)
Runners-up	Cardiff
(Next) 1996–97 →

The 1995–96 Heineken Cup was the first edition of the Heineken Cup, which was to become the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby. Competing teams, from France, Ireland, Italy, Wales and, for the only time to date, Romania (teams from England and Scotland were not permitted to enter the competition by the RFU and SRU respectively), were divided into four pools of three, in which teams played each other only once, meaning one home and one away game per team. The winners of the pools qualified for the knock-out stages.

Teams[]

France	Wales	Ireland	Romania	Italy
Castres Toulouse Bordeaux	Cardiff Pontypridd Swansea	Leinster Munster Ulster	Farul Constanţa	Benetton Treviso Rugby Milano

Pool stage[]

The twelve teams were arranged into four pools of three, with each team playing the other team in their pool once. Two points were awarded for a win, and one point for a draw. The four pool winners qualified for the knockout stage.

Pool 1[]

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	Pts	Status
Toulouse	2	2	0	0	8	1	7	72	19	53	4	Advanced to the semi-finals
Benetton Treviso	2	1	0	1	12	1	11	95	26	69	2	Eliminated
Farul Constanţa	2	0	0	2	2	20	−18	18	140	−122	0

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Pool 2[]

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	Pts	Status
Cardiff	2	1	1	0	7	1	6	60	20	40	3	Advanced to the semi-finals
Bègles-Bordeaux	2	1	1	0	6	3	3	43	30	13	3	Eliminated
Ulster	2	0	0	2	2	11	−9	22	75	−53	0

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Pool 3[]

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	Pts	Status
Leinster	2	2	0	0	4	3	1	47	43	4	4	Advanced to the semi-finals
Pontypridd	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	53	35	18	2	Eliminated
Milan	2	0	0	2	2	3	−1	33	55	−22	0

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Pool 4[]

Team	P	W	D	L	Tries for	Tries against	Try diff	Points for	Points against	Points diff	Pts	Status
Swansea	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	35	27	8	2	Advanced to the semi-finals
Munster	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	29	32	−3	2	Eliminated
Castres	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	29	34	−5	2

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Seeding[]

Seed	Pool Winners	Pts	TF	+/−
1	Toulouse	4	8	+53
2	Leinster Lions	4	4	+4
3	Cardiff	3	7	+40
4	Swansea	2	3	+8

Knockout stage[]

	Semi-finals					Final
	1	Toulouse	30
	4	Swansea	3
						1	Toulouse (a.e.t)	21
						3	Cardiff	18
	2	Leinster Lions	14
	3	Cardiff	23

Semi-finals[]

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Final[]

The 1996 Heineken Cup Final was the final match of the 1995–96 Heineken Cup, the inaugural season of Europe's top club rugby union competition. The match was played on 6 January 1996 at the Arms Park in Cardiff. The match was contested by Cardiff of Wales and Toulouse of France. Toulouse won the match 21–18 after extra time; they took the lead with two tries in the first 10 minutes, but the kicking of Adrian Davies kept Cardiff level. With the scores at 15–12 as the clock ticked past 80 minutes, Davies stepped up again and slotted over a penalty to take the game to extra time. Christophe Deylaud restored Toulouse's lead with another penalty shortly after the game restarted, before Davies tied the scores up again. Then, going into the final few seconds of extra time, the referee penalised Cardiff for using hands in the ruck; Deylaud slotted the resulting penalty to seal Toulouse's victory.

Match details[]

References[]