2008–09 EDF Energy Cup explained

2008–09 EDF Energy Cup
Countries:
Tournament Format:Round-robin and knockout
Date:October 2008 - April 2009
Teams:16
Venue:Twickenham
Attendance2:54,899
Champions: Cardiff Blues
Count:1
Runner-Up: Gloucester
Previous Year:2007–08
Previous Tournament:2007–08 EDF Energy Cup
Next Year:2009–10
Next Tournament:2009–10 LV Cup

The 2008–09 Anglo-Welsh Cup, known as the EDF Energy Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 38th season of England's national rugby union cup competition, and the fourth to follow the recently adopted Anglo-Welsh format.

As in the previous two years, the competition is contested between the twelve teams of the Guinness Premiership and the four Welsh regions from the Celtic League. The sixteen teams are arranged into four pools, with one Welsh and three English teams in each. Teams are randomly drawn into groups, as opposed to previous years when English sides were grouped according to proximity to one another. Each team plays the other team from their group only once, meaning that two teams in each group face two away games, whereas the other two teams have two home games.

Group stage

In the pool matches, teams receive:

The winner of each pool advances to the semi-finals, at which stage a draw takes place to determine the teams that will play each other. The winners of the semi-final advance to the final to determine the competition winner; no "third place final" is played.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Semi-finals

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Final

FB 15 Olly Morgan
RW 14 Matthew Watkins
OC 13 James Simpson-Daniel
IC 12 Anthony Allen
LW 11 Mark Foster
FH 10 Ryan Lamb
SH 9 Rory Lawson
N8 8 Gareth Delve (c)
OF 7 Akapusi Qera
BF 6 Luke Narraway
RL 5 Alex Brown
LL 4 Will James
TP 3 Greg Somerville
HK 2 Olivier Azam
LP 1 Nick Wood
Replacements:
HK 16 Scott Lawson
PR 17 Carlos Nieto
LK 18 Marco Bortolami
FL 19 Andy Hazell
SH 20 Gareth Cooper
FH 21 Olly Barkley
WG 22 Charlie Sharples
Coach:
Dean Ryan
FB 15 Ben Blair
RW 14 Leigh Halfpenny
OC 13 Tom Shanklin
IC 12 Jamie Roberts
LW 11 Tom James
FH 10 Nicky Robinson
SH 9 Jason Spice
N8 8 Xavier Rush
OF 7 Martyn Williams
BF 6 Maama Molitika
RL 5 Paul Tito (c)
LL 4 Bradley Davies
TP 3 Taufaʻao Filise
HK 2 Gareth Williams
LP 1 Gethin Jenkins
Replacements:
PR 16 John Yapp
HK 17 Rhys Thomas
LK 18 Deiniol Jones
FL 19 Andy Powell
SH 20 Richie Rees
FH 21 Ceri Sweeney
FB 22 Gareth Thomas
Coach:
Dai Young

See also

External links