The second semi-final of the 2008–09 Heineken Cup, the premier European club rugby union competition, saw Cardiff Blues take on Leicester Tigers at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on 3 May 2009. The scores were level after regular time and neither team was able to score during extra time, resulting in the first ever penalty shoot-out in a professional rugby union match. Both teams missed one of their first five kicks, taking the shoot-out to sudden death. Both teams were successful with their kicks in the first two rounds of sudden death, before Martyn Williams missed Cardiff's eighth kick allowing Jordan Crane to win the game for Leicester with his successful kick.
In regular time, Cardiff took an early lead with a penalty before Leicester's Scott Hamilton scored a converted try and they kicked another penalty. Cardiff scored three further penalties to put them back into the lead, before another successful penalty by Leicester gave them a one-point lead going into half-time. Early in the second half, Geordan Murphy scored another try for Leicester, which again was converted and kicked two more penalties to extend their lead to 26–12 with 20 minutes remaining. Leicester then had two players sent to the sin bin, and Cardiff scored two tries in the last 10 minutes of regular time, first by Jamie Roberts and then Tom James, with both conversions successful to bring the scores level at 26–26 and take the game into extra time.
Following the match, there was criticism of the format used for the penalty shoot-out, specifically the way that the game was decided by kicks at goal attempted by players who would not ordinarily kick the ball during a rugby match. One journalist commented that was a "ludicrous" way of deciding a game, while another believed it had turned the semi-final into a "pantomime" and was an "unnecessarily demeaning way" of deciding a winner. A review was promised by tournament organisers, and changes were made to the format ahead of the following season's tournament, though no other Heineken Cup match ever needed to be decided by a penalty shoot-out.
Background
Cardiff Blues had been the only team to finish the pool stage of the Heineken Cup unbeaten during the 2008–09 season, which saw them given top seeding for the quarter-finals. This meant that they would have a home quarter-final against the second-best runners-up from the pool stage, Toulouse. Cardiff won the quarter-final 9–6.
Leicester lost two games during the pool stage, but amassed sufficient points to finish as the top side in the pool and to be seeded fourth, which meant they were given the last of the home draws against the fifth-seeded side, Bath. Leicester beat Bath 20–15 to reach the semi-final.
In a draw made prior to the quarter-finals, it was determined that the winner of the match between Cardiff and Toulouse would have home country advantage, meaning that they could choose any venue in their own country for the semi-finals, provided it was not their designated home ground. The winner of the match between Leicester and Bath was drawn against them as the away team. Cardiff elected to stage the game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which is located adjacent to their usual Cardiff Arms Park ground and has a much larger capacity of 74,500, compared to the 12,500 capacity of the Arms Park. Cardiff had already moved their quarter-final game against Toulouse to the Millennium Stadium, despite being able to use their own ground at that stage of the competition, to take advantage of the increased capacity.
Match
Summary
Regular time
Cardiff suffered an early setback when their captain, Paul Tito, was injured after nine minutes and had to be replaced. Ben Blair gave Cardiff the lead with a penalty kick before the 15-minute mark, but Leicester were then awarded three penalties in quick succession due to infringements by Cardiff. For each, Julien Dupuy elected to attempt a kick at goal, but was unsuccessful with all three attempts. Leicester's first score came in the form of a try from Scott Hamilton after 21 minutes, following a line break by Toby Flood, who then drew two defenders towards him before passing the ball to Hamilton. The try was converted by Dupuy, and a successful Dupuy penalty kick on 24 minutes made the score 10–3 to Leicester. Cardiff hit back with three successful penalty kicks of their own, one from Blair and two from Leigh Halfpenny, before Dupuy successfully kicked another penalty just before half-time to give Leicester a 13–12 lead at the break.