Leinster face old European royalty as Munster pitted against France’s finest

Rugby’s Champions Cup draw has always had a tendency to slip under the radar and the absence of anything that could be confidently construed as the definitive ‘pool of death’ won’t have done anything to bump the latest edition up the list of sports news headlines.

With the World Cup in full swing, the GAA championship season firmly entrenched, and Ireland braced for a shot at a first series win in the southern hemisphere since 1979, yesterday’s shindig in Lausanne’s Olympic Museum was always struggling for air.

The resultant draw, as is the usual case, gave life to a plethora of opinions on the balance of the five pools in question but it was hard to find fault with the take of former England winger Austin Healey who partnered Dimitri Yachvili to pull the balls from the proverbial hat.