Attendance 50,148 Dates 12 Oct 2012 – 18 May 2013 Teams 24 Tries scored 293 | Champion RC Toulonnais Matches played 79 | |
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Attendance 1,063,218 (13,458 per match) Similar 2013–14 Heineken Cup, 2011–12 Heineken Cup, 2014–15 European Rugby C, 1996–97 Heineken Cup, 2013–14 Top 14 season | ||
The 2012–13 Heineken Cup was the 18th season of the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby. The tournament began with two pool matches on 12 October 2012 and ended with the final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on 18 May 2013.
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Leinster, who became one of only two clubs ever to win two consecutive Heineken Cups in 2012, attempted to become the first club ever to win the competition three straight years. However they were eliminated at the pool stages, the first defending champions to do so since London Wasps in 2007–08. Toulon won an all-French final 16–15 against Clermont.
Teams
The default allocation of teams is as follows:
The remaining two places are filled by the winners of the previous year's Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup. If the cup winners are already qualified through their domestic league, an additional team from their country will claim a Heineken Cup place (assuming another team is available). Accordingly, Biarritz claimed the Challenge Cup winner's berth, and since Heineken Cup winners Leinster were already qualified through Pro12, the extra Irish berth went to Connacht.
Teams are listed in the order they are presented to Heineken Cup organiser European Rugby Cup by their respective leagues. In the cases of England and France, this does not necessarily match the teams' placement in their national leagues in the preceding season.
Seeding
The seeding system was the same as in the 2011–12 tournament. The 24 competing teams are ranked based on past Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup performance, with each pool receiving one team from each quartile, or Tier. The requirement to have only one team per country in each pool, however, still applies (with the exception of the inclusion of the seventh French team).
The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking at the end of the 2011–12 season.
Pool stage
The draw for the pool stage took place on 12 June 2012 at the Aviva Stadium.
Under the rules of the competition organiser, European Rugby Cup, tie–breakers within each pool are as follows.
ERC has four additional tie–breakers, used if tied teams are in different pools, or if the above steps cannot break a tie between teams in the same pool:
Seeding and runners–up
Knock–out stages
All kick–off times are local to the match location.