ERC chief McGrath defends Heineken Cup seeding system

WHEN asked for his one-word response to learning this season’s Heineken Cup draw, Munster coach Tony McGahan couldn’t resist a smile: “Well, it started with ‘f’ anyway...”

Despite being seeded numbers one and three in the tournament, Munster and Leinster received arguably the two toughest draws.

This is principally due to the qualification of moneyed French outfits Toulon and Racing Metro, who are among the lowest seeds due to a lack of tournament experience but have assembled superstar squads.