Here’s a quick crash course to the tournament (in case you need one) – 20 teams divided into five pools of four teams each. Each team plays the others in it’s pool twice – once at home and once away. Four points for a win and an extra bonus point if you get either a) four tries or b) lose but within 7 points of the winning score. The top team from each of the five pools automatically goes through to the next round along with the next three best teams (on points) from any of the groups.
Teams are then seeded based on their overall points tally from the group stages and ranked 1st to 8th. Generally, for the quarter finals 1st plays 8th, 2nd plays 7th, 3rd plays 6th and 4th plays 5th to determine the semi finalists. The final is then played in a pre-determine stadium in May.
Toulouse are the most successful Heineken Cup team followed by Munster who have made it out of the group stages every single year since the competition began – they also have the single best supporters of any team (ok, I’m biased but hey).
Now, what I find strange about this year is that Toulouse are not even top of their group and yet they’ve flown in as the favs – in fact Leinster, Ulster, Scarlets and Leicester Tigers all have more points than them and Toulouse were lucky to scrape a win at the weekend!
Though you can never rule them out, I don’t think it’s their year this year and would be looking to put my money somewhere else…Paddy Power Bookmakers are offering pretty decent odds, especially on Leinster and Munster who can never be ruled out – beware though – injuries are hampering both teams and now Brian O’Driscoll is looking likely to be ruled out of this weekends game against Saracens…
Check out Paddy Power Bookmakers for full odds on the tournament…
Tags: heineken cup 2010 odds, heineken cup favourites, heineken cup odds, munster odds to win heineken cup, toulouse heineken cupShare
No comments:
Post a Comment