Top sides find danger at close quarters in Heineken Cup draw

(PA)

There will be no "group of death" when next season's Heineken Cup begins in November: nothing as evil as the pool that brought Leicester, Stade Français, Ospreys and Clermont Auvergne to their knees in 2005. There will, however, be some groups that leave the contenders feeling more than a little ill. Six of them, to be precise. By hook or by crook, yesterday's draw at Twickenham produced the most competitive spread of round-robin fixtures in the 16-year history of Europe's box-office tournament.

All six groups contain three teams for whom quarter-final qualification will be the minimum requirement, and as basic arithmetic tells us, 18 into eight doesn't go. At first glance, the newly re-crowned French champions, Toulouse, have the easiest route into the knock-out phase, but their travels will include a first visit to Gloucester. La Vierge Rouge at Kingsholm? Now there's a thought.

At no stage did the formal proceedings, conducted by the European Rugby Cup chairman Jean-Pierre Lux and his chief executive Derek McGrath, register more than 5.5 on the Fifa Scale of Sporting Grandiloquence, yet there was still an air of Parsifal-like solemnity about the operation. Is there a law against people smiling as they remove numbered balls from a tombola box? Perhaps the International Board introduced one without telling the general public.

Happily, there will be no end of fun when things get going three weeks after the World Cup final in Auckland. The heavyweight contests include Munster against Northampton – a serious rivalry has developed between those two – and Leinster, the holders, against Bath, who are determined to flex some financial muscle in an effort to reclaim the trophy they won in dramatic fashion back in 1998. Not that the Dubliners and the West Countrymen can count on dominating their pool. Montpellier, narrowly beaten in the French Championship final at the weekend, will not take this tournament as lightly as they took last season's second-tier Amlin Challenge Cup; certainly, their big-name internationals, François Trinh-Duc and Fulgence Ouedraogo, will be registered rather than rested.

Leicester, who consider themselves overdue for a third title, face difficult trips to Clermont Auvergne, where away victories are extremely rare, and Ulster, where they famously lost 33-0 on their one and only visit in 2003-04. As for Saracens, who beat the Midlanders to the domestic crown 11 days ago... ouch. Biarritz, never less than effective in Europe despite their penchant for playing anti-rugby, and Ospreys, the most ambitious of the Welsh regional sides, will test them sorely. "Our pool will be an arm-wrestle," predicted Scott Johnson, the Ospreys director of coaching. "We have an excellent home record in this competition that we'll want to protect. Then, it will be about going to those places and really performing for the shirt." With James Hook and Mike Phillips, his high-profile half-backs, heading for France following the World Cup, the suspicion is that Johnson's team might struggle. Needless to say, this is not a view shared by the man himself.

Meanwhile, James Haskell is to leave Stade Français after one season in Paris. Bernard Laporte, who coached France at the last World Cup and has joined the club as chief administrator, confirmed the England back-row forward's departure yesterday, adding that the seven-a-side specialist Ollie Phillips was also heading for the door marked "exit" along with the Scotland full-back Hugo Southwell, the Argentine Test forward Juan Leguizamon and Mauro Bergamasco of Italy.

Haskell, certain to make the England squad for the forthcoming global gathering in New Zealand, has expressed an interest in staying in the southern hemisphere for a spell of Super 15 rugby.

Heineken Cup pools

Pool One Munster, Northampton Saints, Scarlets, Castres Olympique.

Pool Two Cardiff Blues, London Irish, Edinburgh, Racing Métro 92.

Pool Three Leinster, Bath, Glasgow Warriors, Montpellier.

Pool Four Leicester, Clermont Auvergne, Ulster, Aironi.

Pool Five Biarritz Olympique, Ospreys, Saracens, Benetton Treviso.

Pool Six Toulouse, Harlequins, Gloucester, Connacht.