Plenty pitfalls in Heineken Cup draw

SUPPORTERS of Leinster and Munster who think their teams will have a comfortable draw in next year’s Heineken Cup just because they are among the top seeds should think again.

The draw for the eight pools will be made at Twickenham today (streamed on www.ercrgby.com at noon) and given the undoubted strength of the vast majority of the 24 qualified sides, could leave some more favoured clubs with an extremely hazardous route to the knockout stages.

The six teams in the top tier are Leinster, Toulouse, Munster, Leicester, Cardiff Blues and Biarritz Olympic. They can’t be drawn in the same pool and none will face teams from the same country except for England because they have seven sides in contention.