Gallery
 |  |
An editor has nominated this article for deletion. You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion , which will decide whether or not to retain it. |
Leicester versus Leinster is a rugby union rivalry between two of the top European sides, both of whom have won their respective domestic tournaments and the European Rugby Champions Cup. They have met several times in the latter competition including a Leinster victory in the 2009 final; as such, a healthy rivalry has developed between the two clubs. Since the first match in 1996, the sides have met 15 occasions with Leinster winning 10 and Leicester winning five. Several players have played for both clubs including Tony O'Reilly, Eric Miller, Leo Cullen, Shane Jennings, Owen Finegan, Brad Thorn, and Jimmy Gopperth.
| Details | Played | Won by Leicester | Won by Leinster | Drawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leicester Home | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Leinster Home | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| Neutral Venue | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Overall | 15 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
RecordsNote: Date shown in brackets indicates when the record was or last set.
| AttendanceUp to date as of 8 April 2024
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | Home | Away | Winner | Location | Attendance | Competition | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 October 1996 | Leinster 10 | Leicester 27 | Leicester (1) | Lansdowne Road, Dublin | 3,500 | Heineken Cup Pool stage | [1] |
| 12 September 1997 | Leinster 16 | Leicester 9 | Leinster (1) | Donnybrook Stadium, Dublin | 7,000 | Heineken Cup Pool stage | [2] |
| 27 September 1997 | Leicester 47 | Leinster 22 | Leicester (2) | Welford Road, Leicester | 10,392 | Heineken Cup Pool stage | [3] |
| 19 November 1999 | Leinster 27 | Leicester 20 | Leinster (2) | Donnybrook Stadium, Dublin | 6,500 | Heineken Cup Pool stage | [4] |
| 15 January 2000 | Leicester 10 | Leinster 32 | Leinster (3) | Welford Road, Leicester | 12,458 | Heineken Cup Pool stage | [5] |
| 27 January 2002 | Leicester 29 | Leinster 18 | Leicester (3) | Welford Road, Leicester | 16,249 | Heineken Cup Quarter-finals | [6] |
| 2 April 2005 | Leinster 13 | Leicester 29 | Leicester (4) | Lansdowne Road, Dublin | 48,500 | Heineken Cup Quarter-finals | [7] |
| 10 November 2007 | Leinster 22 | Leicester 9 | Leinster (4) | RDS Arena, Dublin | 18,563 | Heineken Cup Pool stage | [8] |
| 19 January 2008 | Leicester 25 | Leinster 9 | Leicester (5) | Welford Road, Leicester | 17,033 | Heineken Cup Pool stage | [9] |
| 23 May 2009 | Leinster 19 | Leicester 16 | Leinster (5) | Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh | 66,523 | 2009 Heineken Cup final | [10] |
| 9 April 2011 | Leinster 17 | Leicester 10 | Leinster (6) | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | 49,762 | Heineken Cup Quarter-finals | [11] |
| 7 May 2022 | Leicester 14 | Leinster 23 | Leinster (7) | Welford Road, Leicester | 19,066 | European Rugby Champions Cup Quarter-finals | [12] |
| 7 April 2023 | Leinster 55 | Leicester 24 | Leinster (8) | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | 27,000 | European Rugby Champions Cup Quarter-finals | [13] |
| 20 January 2024 | Leicester 10 | Leinster 27 | Leinster (9) | Welford Road, Leicester | 24,849 | European Rugby Champions Cup Pool stage | [14] [15] |
| 6 April 2024 | Leinster 36 | Leicester 22 | Leinster (10) | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | 40,775 | European Rugby Champions Cup Round of 16 | [16] [17] |
| | |
Leicester Tigers are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
Martin Osborne Johnson CBE is an English retired rugby union player who represented and captained England and Leicester in a career spanning 16 seasons. He captained England to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and is regarded as one of the greatest locks ever to have played, and one of England's greatest ever players.
Wasps Rugby Football Club was a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby, until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022, the club entered administration, resulting in relegation from the league and all staff being made redundant. They exited administration on 16 December 2022.
Martin Edward Corry MBE is a retired English rugby union player who represented and captained England and Leicester Tigers in a career spanning 14 seasons. Corry played 64 times for England between 1997 and 2007, played 7 tests for the British & Irish Lions on tours in 2001 & 2005, and played 290 times for Leicester between 1997 and 2009. Earlier in his career he played top division rugby for Newcastle Gosforth and Bristol. A versatile player his principal positions were number eight and blindside flanker, he also played lock more as his career progressed.
The Ospreys, formerly the Neath–Swansea Ospreys is one of the four professional rugby union teams from Wales. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team formed as a result of Neath RFC and Swansea RFC combining to create a new merged entity, as part of the new regional structure of Welsh rugby, that began in 2003. They are also affiliated with a number of local semi-professional and amateur clubs, including Welsh Premier Division sides Aberavon RFC, Bridgend Ravens, and original founding clubs Neath and Swansea. The regional area represented by the team has widely become known for rugby purposes as 'Ospreylia'.
Harlequins is a professional rugby union club that plays in Premiership Rugby, the top level of English rugby union. Their home ground is the Twickenham Stoop, located in Twickenham, south-west London.
Munster Rugby is one of the professional provincial rugby teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU's Munster Branch, which is responsible for rugby union throughout the Irish province of Munster. The team motto is "To the brave and faithful, nothing is impossible." This is derived from the motto of the MacCarthy clan – "Forti et Fideli nihil difficile". Their main home ground is Thomond Park, Limerick, though some games are played at Musgrave Park, Cork.
Leinster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial club rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup.
Leo Francis Matthew Cullen is an Irish rugby coach and former professional rugby union player. He played at lock for Leinster Rugby and Ireland. He was appointed coach of Leinster rugby on 19 August 2015.
Cian Eoin James Healy is an Irish professional rugby union player who plays as a prop for United Rugby Championship club Leinster and the Ireland national team.
Richard Eric Peter Wigglesworth is an English rugby union coach and former professional player. He is the record appearance maker for Premiership Rugby, he played for Sale Sharks, Saracens and Leicester Tigers. He has won Seven Premiership titles, one with Sale, five with Saracens, and one with Leicester as well as three European Rugby Champions Cups with Saracens. Between 2008 and 2018 he won 33 caps for England. In his career he has played over 400 club games.
The 2009 Heineken Cup Final was the final match of the 2008–09 Heineken Cup, the 14th season of Europe's top club rugby union competition. The match was played on 23 May 2009 at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh; this was the second time that the Heineken Cup final had been held at Murrayfield after the 2005 final, when Toulouse beat Stade Français 18–12 after extra time.
Aviva Stadium also known as Lansdowne Road or Dublin Arena is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators. It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and replaced it as home to its chief tenants: the Irish rugby union team and the Republic of Ireland football team. The decision to redevelop the stadium came after plans for both Stadium Ireland and Eircom Park fell through. Aviva Group Ireland signed a 10-year deal for the naming rights in 2009, and subsequently extended the arrangement until 2025.
The Ikey Tigers are a South African rugby union team from the University of Cape Town in the Western Cape who compete in the FNB Varsity Cup.
The 2013 Heineken Cup Final was the final match of the 2012–13 Heineken Cup, the 18th season of Europe's top club rugby union competition. The match was played on 18 May 2013 in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, kicking off at 5 pm. The all-French game was won by Toulon, defeating Clermont 16–15.
The European Rugby Champions Cup is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a predominantly European league. Clubs qualify for the Champions Cup via their final positions in their respective national/regional leagues or via winning the second-tier Challenge Cup; those that do not qualify are instead eligible to compete in the second-tier Challenge Cup.
History of Leicester Tigers details the history of the rugby union club based in Leicester, England. Nicknamed the Tigers from 1885, Leicester have been a prominent club from the earliest days of organised English rugby dominating midlands rugby before the First World War; providing British Lions captains in 1930, 1936, 1997 and 2001; and winning 21 major titles since 1979 including a record 11 Premiership Rugby titles.
Connacht Rugby and Leinster Rugby are two Irish rugby union provincial teams that possess a rivalry that dates back to their IRFU Interprovincial Championship clashes during the amateur era. That rivalry has continued and even intensified since the emergence of the professional era in the late 1990s. Connacht and Leinster comprise two of the four Irish provincial teams competing in the Pro14. As such, the two sides regularly face each other during the regular season, and occasionally during the knock-out rounds.
The 2022 European Rugby Champions Cup Final was the final match of the 2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup, and the twenty-seventh European club rugby final in general. The final was contested between La Rochelle and Leinster with La Rochelle winning the game with a late try.