2009 Churchill Cup
Date	June 6 to June 21
Teams	6
Countries
Matches played	9
Attendance
Final
Venue	Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colorado Commerce City, Colorado The city of Commerce City is a Home Rule Municipality located in Adams County, Colorado, United States. Commerce City is a northern suburb of Denver and now the 18th most populous municipality in the state of Colorado...
Attendance
Champions	Ireland A
Runner-up	England Saxons England Saxons England Saxons is the current name of England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England A...

The 2009 Churchill Cup

Churchill Cup

The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams from a wide array of countries....

took place between June 6 and June 21, 2009, in the seventh year of the tournament.

For the first time in the tournament's history, all rounds were held in the United States in an effort to reduce the cost of the tournament after the discontinued sponsorship by Barclays and to keep the tournament from being suspended for a year. Six rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 teams took part: , England Saxons

England Saxons

England Saxons is the current name of England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England A...

, Ireland A, the , Argentina Jaguars, and for the first time in the tournament, the Georgia

Georgia national rugby union team

The Georgia national rugby union team represents Georgia in rugby union. The team's nickname, The Lelos, comes from lelo burti, a traditional Georgian sport with strong similarities to rugby. Lelo has been adopted as the Georgian word for "try"...

 national team. Tickets for the event went on sale to USA Rugby members on April 2, 2009, and general sales tickets went on sale on April 24, 2009. The matches were broadcast live on Sky Sports

Sky Sports

Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...

 in the UK and Setanta Sports North America

Setanta Sports North America

Setanta Sports USA was a premium television channel launched in 2005 by the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta Sports to offer live and tape-delayed mainstream sports events in the United States and Caribbean....

 in the US.

Winners

The Main Cup was won by Ireland A (who beat the England Saxons

England Saxons

England Saxons is the current name of England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England A...

 in the Cup Final), the Plate Competition was won by the Argentina Jaguars (who defeated in the Final), and the Bowl Competition was won by the (who beat Georgia

Georgia national rugby union team

The Georgia national rugby union team represents Georgia in rugby union. The team's nickname, The Lelos, comes from lelo burti, a traditional Georgian sport with strong similarities to rugby. Lelo has been adopted as the Georgian word for "try"...

)

Format

The teams played in a round-robin format between two pools to decide the elimination matches which took place on June 20, 2009. All six teams participated on the finals day: the two pool winners competed in the Cup Final, the two runners-up played in a Plate Final, and the two bottom-placed teams met in the Bowl Final.

Venues

After the 2008 tournament, which was played both in Canada and the United States, in 2009 all rounds of the tournament as well as the Finals Day were played around the Denver, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

 area which is the future home for the tournament for the next three years. The first three days of round-robin play were at the modern, purpose-built rugby stadium Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado

Glendale, Colorado

The city of Glendale is a Home Rule Municipality located in an exclave of Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The population was 4,547 at the 2000 census. The entire city is surrounded on all sides by the City and County of Denver. Therefore, as a municipal entity, it is also an enclave...

 on the south side of Denver. The finals were held at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City

Commerce City, Colorado

The city of Commerce City is a Home Rule Municipality located in Adams County, Colorado, United States. Commerce City is a northern suburb of Denver and now the 18th most populous municipality in the state of Colorado...

, which is home to Denver's MLS

Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...

 team, the Colorado Rapids

Colorado Rapids

The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, Colorado which competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league...

.

Pool A

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Bonus points	Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
|align=left|	2	2	0	0	70	24	+46	2	10
|align=left|	2	1	0	1	61	40	+21	1	5
|align=left|	2	0	0	2	15	82	-67	0	0

Pool B

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Bonus points	Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
|align=left|	2	2	0	0	84	37	+47	1	9
|align=left|	2	1	0	1	55	42	+13	0	4
|align=left|	2	0	0	2	31	91	-60	0	0

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Bowl Final

Plate Final

Cup Final

External links

• Churchill Cup Official Site
• 2009 Tournament Details