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.

However, that’s just about where the good news ends for the favoured six although that is nothing new for Leinster and Munster given the tasks they have been handed in the recent past. But then came 2010/11 and they were handed Clermont Auvergne, another cash-rich French side Racing Metro and Saracens, who were destined to finish the season as champions of the English Premiership.

That Leinster emerged from that pool of death and then went on to dispose of Leicester, Toulouse and Northampton says it all about what they achieved through the season just ended.

After their second Heineken triumph in 2008, Munster also had to contend with two French sides, Clermont and Montauban, along with Sale Sharks, a formidable force in England at the time. And after examining the four tiers for next year, reaching the quarter-finals will almost certainly become more difficult than ever.

It is quite conceivable, for example, that top seeds Leinster could come out of the hat this afternoon along with Clermont from Tier two, Saracens from Tier three and French Championship finalists Montpellier from Tier four. Close examination of the possibilities will have caused coaches to endure a sleepless night or two in recent weeks.

Connacht, of course, have qualified courtesy of Leinster’s victory in the season just ended and so Ireland has four teams in the Heineken Cup for the first time. It will mean a huge step up for Eric Elwood’s side and while they have been able to announce some new signings, they will need several more in key positions and obviously aren’t helped by the departure of Sean Cronin, Jamie Hagan and Fionn Carr to Leinster and Ian Keatley to Munster.

Among those coming to the Sportsground are the excellent former Rockwell and Shannon flanker Eoghan Grace, who has been with Exeter Chiefs for the past couple of years; out-half Niall O’Connor and second-row TJ Anderson (son of Willie) and South African second-row Ethienne Reynecke who has experience with the Stormers and Saracens.

Connacht make their Heineken debut after playing a record 98 Challenge Cup matches in all 15 years of the competition and will be regarded as the “minnows” in the competition along with Aironi. However, they showed signs of progress as the season went by and have announced six new signings including experienced out-half Luciano Orquera from French side Brive. Orquera has earned 22 caps for Italy and played in each of their Six Nations matches last season.