The draw for next year’s pools will take place next Tuesday. The teams are seeded as follows:
Tier 1: Munster, Leicester, Leinster, Toulouse, Bath, Biarritz.
Tier 2: Cardiff, Stade Français, Gloucester, Perpignan, Ospreys, London Irish.
Tier 3: Northampton, Sale, Clermont, Scarlets, Ulster, Newport.
Tier 4: Harlequins, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Treviso, Brive, Viadana.
In addition there can only be one team from each country in each pool except where a country has more than 6 teams (obviously as there are only 6 pools!)
There are a small number of changes from last year. This year there are 7 English clubs compared to 6 last year – France had 7 clubs last year and has only 6 clubs this year. Montaban and Castres are gone and are replaced by Brive and Northampton Saints. In Italy, Rugby Calvisano has been replaced by Viadana.
The final is in Stade de France in Paris next May. I am so confident about the Irish performances next year that I have already purchased tickets. Of course the attractions of a weekend in Paris in May were also a factor. As well as the fact that past experience has shown that the tickets are pretty easy to get rid of through the official fan websites. The normal danger is the fear there would be 2 French teams in the final and that French fans mightn’t travel. But when the final is in Paris even that danger is eliminated! Lastly I’ve never been to Stade de France. It’s supposed to be at least as good as the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which in my experience is the best stadium for watching rugby.
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