Toulouse facing Scottish opener

Toulouse will begin the defence of their Heineken Cup title against Edinburgh on the first weekend of December.

The Scottish side were beaten home and away last season as Guy Noves's team swept towards a final victory over Perpignan in Dublin.

Leicester must travel to the reigning French champions Stade Français in their opening match and the Tigers' director of rugby, Dean Richards, said: "There is a bit of a déjà vu feeling because of the 2001 Heineken Cup final in Paris and we know Stade have so much to offer and just how difficult they are to beat. We will have to be at our very best if we hope to get the right result."

Leinster and Biarritz, who met in last season's quarter-finals, play each other again in Dublin, last season's beaten finalists Perpignan travel to meet Wasps and Llanelli face Northampton at Stradey Park.

The six pool winners and two best runners-up will qualify for the knock-out stages, but this season some extra spice will be added to the pool stages with the introduction of a bonus point system. Teams scoring four tries or more in a match will be awarded an extra point, as will teams who lose by seven or fewer points.

Meanwhile, Rotherham will face the 2001 European Shield finalists Narbonne in the first round of the European Challenge Cup, while Bath and Brive are both up against Italian opposition in the form of L'Aquila and Viadana respectively. Glasgow, appearing in the competition for the first time, face Montpellier in round one while Connacht visit Beziers.

The tournament, which was won by Wasps last May, has been reduced from 32 to 28 teams this year due to the reorganisation of the Welsh professional game. This means there will be 14 matches in the first round, producing 14 winners to move into the second round. Two other will join the 14 winners in round two as "lucky losers", providing eight games in that round.

Bristol have appointed Martin Haag as coach for the new season. Haag joins after two championship-winning seasons with the Cornish side Penzance & Newlyn.