Heineken Cup Knockout Stages

wixfjord

When are the draws for the knockout stages of the heineken cup made? Or are the qf draws made already??

Stev_o

wixfjord wrote: »

When are the draws for the knockout stages of the heineken cup made? Or are the qf draws made already??

All can be found here

http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/31_58.php

wixfjord

Yea but have the qf draws been made eg winner group 1 vs second group 5 etc?? Or are they made with the sf draws?

Stev_o

wixfjord wrote: »

Yea but have the qf draws been made eg winner group 1 vs second group 5 etc?? Or are they made with the sf draws?

There made with the semi final draws it seems so your just going to have to wait

wixfjord

cheers

Snickers Man

Have they changed the rules this year?

Normally there isn't a "draw" for the quarter finals. Normally the eight quarter finalists are ranked 1 to 8 according to their performance in the pool stages. The top four play at home with first ranked playing eighth ranked, second playing seventh ranked etc.

There is a draw then for the semis.

Stev_o

Soo predictions for the group stages then people?

Group1: Perpignan and London Irish to go through

Group2: Gloucester and Ospreys

Group3:Stade Francais and Bristol

Group4: Biarrititz and Scarries [Decider will be Scarries vs Glasgow]

Group5:Clermount and Scarlets [Wasps have been dire and i mean dire the past 3 months Munster also havent been impressive so i decided to go with Scarlet on their performance so far though i hope Munster manage to get by somehow]

Group6 : Toulouse and Leicester [This is a extremely hard one as both Leinster and Tigers have been on form in both domestic leagues, Tigers are lacking leadership and cutting edge at the moment whether they can go back to their pre RWC form remains to be seen. Leinster well for once seem out of ideas and seem incredibly blunt which is very ironic]

Erin Go Brath

My predictions to reach Quarterfinals:

1) Perpignan
2) Gloucester
3) Stade
4) Biarritz
5) Scarlets
6) Toulouse
7) (1st runner up - Saracens)
8) (2nd runner up - Cardiff)

I think the Irish teams are going to be squeezed out on account of the tough groups, plus the rubbish they are playing at the moment.

il gatto

It'll be tough for the provinces, and I can't forsee any of them progressing. I wouldn't rule out one of them squeezing through (Munster maybe? Depends on Scarletts as I'd imagine Wasps will top the group). It's a pity as it's not the sort of thing Irish rugby needs at the moment, to see all teams out in the group stages for a second year running.:(

wixfjord

Perpignan Gloucester Stade Biarritz Wasps and Leicester as pool winners with London Irish and Cardiff as best runners up. Such a flawed system tho. I think Gloucester might be in with a shout good forwards and vainakolo and patterson added to balshaw lamb allen tindall etc. Vainokolo espec should be a monster.

Stev_o

wixfjord wrote: »

I think Gloucester might be in with a shout good forwards and vainakolo and patterson added to balshaw lamb allen tindall etc. Vainokolo espec should be a monster.

They'v been playing some of the best rugby you ll ever see put Leinster to shame but the problem is that they are hugely suspect at the line outs sadly its some what the same with alot of the English clubs lack of decent hookers. So if you want to beat them you got target their line outs and boss them up front then stay away from the volcano!!!

wixfjord

True dat. James might add a bit of lineout experience tho. Itll be interesting to see whether patterson is played out half or wing. Dont think lamb is cut out for 10 at all myself great player but a contepomi esque loose cannon/renegade! Willie Walker and Mercier arent world class replacements either.

Stev_o

wixfjord wrote: »

True dat. James might add a bit of lineout experience tho. Itll be interesting to see whether patterson is played out half or wing. Dont think lamb is cut out for 10 at all myself great player but a contepomi esque loose cannon/renegade! Willie Walker and Mercier arent world class replacements either.

Patterson plays wing for them at the moment and to be honest i think they'v shot themselves in the foot signing him mainly because they have the Volcano on one wing and Balshaw on the other with Scarborough at FB. Fact is Paterson isnt a 10 even though he likes it he may be a far better place kicker then Lamb mainly because Lamb was never a kicker but Lamb beats the hell out of him when it comes to line breaks distribution etc

redmca

The way the last 2 QF places are filled need changing. I haven't checked back over the years, but my guess is that the 2 best 2nd places have almost always come from the pools containing the Italians who so far are just there to make up the numbers. Hopefully like their national side, they will improve in time, but that's the current reality.
Therefore this year the last 2 QF places will probably come from Pools 1 and 4.

The solution to this imbalance is relatively simple - for picking the 2 qualifying teams, disregared the results of the games played against the 4th team in the pool, i.e. just the top 3 team results only. This would give a fairer result.

As for the seeding of teams into the pools ---- I give up !!

Clareman

I think it works
1 v 8
2 v 7
3 v 6
4 v 5

Where 1 is the team with the most points from the group stages, in the case of a tie, the team with the most tries, down to 6. 7 and 8 are the teams with the most points that finish second.

Personally I don't know why they can't have 4 groups of 6 and the top 2 go through and get rid of the AIs, but that's just me, I think an international should be a special occasion, not a place where teams put out weakened sides