The 2006–07 Heineken Cup was the 12th edition of the European Heineken Cup rugby union club tournament. The pool draw took place on 21 June at Twickenham. The pool stages started on 20 October and concluded in January, going for six rounds. Following the quarter- and semi-finals, the final was played on 20 May before a near-capacity crowd at the 82,000-seat redeveloped Twickenham in London. London Wasps defeated Leicester Tigers 25–9, denying Tigers the domestic and European treble.

Draw The top seeds from each of the participant nations (France, England, Scotland, Italy, Wales and Ireland) were all drawn into separate pools. These top seeds were; Benetton Treviso (pool 1), Edinburgh (pool 2), Sale Sharks (pool 3), Cardiff Blues (pool 4), Ulster (pool 5) and Biarritz (pool 6). Rules state that no two sides from the same country could be allocated the same pool. However, the seventh French club Castres could be drawn into any pool. The draw took place on 21 June. The greatest team representation is from France, which has seven teams participating in the tournament. England has the second largest representation with six teams. Ireland, Wales and Italy all have three teams, and Scotland have two.

Competition 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, regardless of the match result a bonus point for losing by seven or fewer points

Ties between two teams are broken in the following order: Competition 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. 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 (and did in 2006–07), 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.

Pool stage Full results can be found at 2006–07 Heineken Cup pool stage. All times are local to the match location.

{| class="wikitable" |+ Key to colours |- | style="background: #ccffcc;" |      |Winner of each pool, plus two highest-ranked second-place teams,advance to quarterfinals. Seed # in parentheses

Pool 1 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts London Wasps (3)650123518195641312123 Perpignan640219910161108532018 Castres630317134146136102216 Benetton Treviso60061143−3283277−194000

Notes: Wasps earn third seed over Leicester Tigers on the first possible tiebreaker, scoring 23 tries in pool play to Leicester's 22.

Pool 2 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Leinster (6)640221101117497773221 Agen64021214−211911901017 Gloucester63031916315214482115 Edinburgh61051022−1295180−85015

Pool 3 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Stade Français (5)64112051517480943122 Ospreys641119811147108392020 Sale Sharks63031610614790572115 Calvisano6006638−3274264−190000

Pool 4 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Leicester Tigers (4)650122616172601122123 Munster (7)650116115152112402123 Cardiff Blues6204818−1087138−51019 Bourgoin60061324−1195196−101224

Notes: Leicester Tigers win the pool on the second tiebreaker of head-to-head tries, 3–2.

Pool 5 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Llanelli Scarlets (2)660020128169120493027 Toulouse63031817114714523217 Ulster62041015−5111129−181110 London Irish61051519−4124157−33239

Notes: Llanelli Scarlets become only the fourth team in the history of the Heineken Cup to win all their pool matches (after Wasps in 1997–98, Bath in 2000–01, and Leinster in both 2002–03 and 2004–05). They also set a record for most points earned in pool play since the competition adopted a bonus point system in 2003–04. This record would be broken about two hours later by Biarritz.

Pool 6 TeamPWDLTries forTries againstTry diffPoints forPoints againstPoints diffTBLBPts Biarritz (1)660029524186451415029 Northampton Saints (8)640227131418892964020 Border Reivers61051523−8121166−45206 Parma6105939−3079271−192105

Notes: Biarritz entered their final pool match away to Northampton Saints on 21 January 2007 with a chance to become the first club since the Heineken Cup adopted the bonus point system in 2003–04 to score bonus point wins in all their pool matches. Biarritz won, becoming the fifth team to win all their pool matches, but failed to earn a bonus point. They also broke the record for competition points earned in pool play set earlier that day by Llanelli Scarlets.

Seeding and runners-up SeedPool winnersPtsTF+/−1 Biarritz2929+1412 Llanelli Scarlets2720+493 London Wasps2323+1314 Leicester Tigers2322+1125 Stade Français2220+946 Leinster2121+77SeedPool runners-upPtsTF+/−7 Munster2322+1128 Northampton Saints2027+96 – Ospreys2019+39 – Perpignan1819+53 – Toulouse1718−2 – Agen17120

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

References Venues and attendances: Heineken Cup 2006–07 Fixtures & Results (pool stages). European Rugby Cup. Accessed 22 January 2007. Referees: Heineken Cup 2006–07 Match Officials (pool stages). European Rugby Cup. Accessed 22 January 2007.

External links ERCrugby.com Details of the draw