By Billy Hamilton
December 18 2002

Hopefully I can clarify our present position in the competition and set out the various scenarios in the next two rounds of games....

Heineken Cup Qualification
By Billy Hamilton

Hopefully I can clarify our present position in the competition and set out the various scenarios in the next two rounds of games.

HEINEKEN CUP - Pool 5 -- Correct at 16/12/2002
TEAM	P	W	D	L	T	F	A	Pts
Toulouse	4	4	0	0	17	142	68	8
London Irish	4	2	0	2	8	107	57	4
Edinburgh	4	1	0	3	5	61	121	2
Newport	4	1	0	3	4	57	115	2

Group Winners

Round 4 - 10th/12th January 2003

Toulouse beat or draws with Newport - they go through as Group Winners with 9 or 10 points a total we cannot achieve.

Toulouse loses and we beat Edinburgh - we are still in the hunt.

Round 5 - 17th/19th January 2003

Toulouse draws with or beat us - they go through

We beat Toulouse then we are equal in match points and the next criterion is tries in our head to head games. Currently Toulouse is 2 tries ahead so we would have to score three tries more than them in this game to go through. If we scored two tries more than them then the next criterion is points difference in our head to head games which currently lies at 5 in favour of Toulouse. If we score one try more then they go through.

Best Runners-Up

The two best runners-up from the group matches join the 6 group winners in the quarter finals. The criteria, for teams equal on match points, are 1) tries 2) points difference 3) fewest players sent off and 4) toss of a coin.

The leading contenders showing criteria 1 and 2 are:

TEAM	DIFF	TRIES	PTS
Gloucester *	+80	22	6
Munster *	+87	21	6
Bourgoin *	+35	13	6
Llanelli *	+30	12	6
Northampton *	+65	11	6
Biarritz *	+15	7	6
Perpignan	+1	14	4
Bristol	+30	10	4
London Irish	+50	8	4
Glasgow	-31	8	4
Beziers	-35	5	4
Ulster	-5	4	4

* Potential Group winners