With the Blues set to play Castres this Friday night in the Heineken Cup Round 2, the evidence is, after a record breaking opening round the tournament is getting tighter and tighter.
With the Blues set to play Castres this Friday night in the Heineken Cup Round 2, the evidence is, after a record breaking opening round the tournament is getting tighter and tighter.
Seven of the 12 Round 1 games ended within the seven point margin needed for a losing bonus point – a record high for the competition since bonus points were first introduced in the 2003/04 season.
In the previous 42 Pool rounds over the last seven seasons the most losing bonus points secured in a round were six on four occasions (Rd2 09/10; Rds 4 & 6 08/09; Rd 3 04/05).
But not only were there a record seven matches that saw the losers taking something out of the game, but the points difference between the teams in those matches was a mere 24.
Two games were won by a single point and another by two.
Across the 12 games over the opening weekend there was only a points difference of 96 between the winning and losing teams, an average gap of only eight points per match.
The losing bonus points in Round 1 were registered in the following matches:
Northampton Saints 18-14 Castres Olympique; Toulon 19-14 Ospreys; Benetton Treviso 29-34 Leicester Tigers; Cardiff Blues 18-17 Edinburgh; London Irish 23-17 Munster Bath 11-12 Biarritz Olympique and Toulouse 18-16 London Wasps. In addition, Perpignan picked up a try bonus in their 43-34 defeat at the Scarlets