The draw was made this morning for the Pool Stages of the Heineken Cup 2009. This was the first draw to be made using the new ERC ranking system. Having won the Heineken Cup twice in the last 3 years, Munster were ranked number 1. The Pools are:
Pool 1
Munster, Sale, Clermont, Montauban.
Pool 2
Wasps, Leinster, Castres, Edinburgh.
Pool 3
Leicester, Perpignon, Ospreys, Benneton Treviso.
Pool 4
Stade Francis, Llanelli, Ulster, Harlequins.
Pool 5
Toulouse, Bath, Newport, Glasgow.
Pool 6
Biarritz, Gloucester, Cardiff, Calvisano.
The first round of games kick off on the weekend of the 10th October 2008.
Munster have a tough group. There’s no doubt that the away matches to Sale and Clermont will be prove to be both very difficult and very important to our qualification hopes, but the away match to Montauban could be a bit of a banana skin.
Playing any French side in France is tough, but so is playing against a team that you know so very little about. Montauban finished 7th in their first year in the Top 14. That’s not bad. What’s even more remarkable is that they were the first team to beat Stade Francais that season.
Tags: heineken cup, munster
Away games will tough but I wouldn’t expect Clermont or Sale to come to Limerick just to make up the numbers.
Sale came to Thomond Pk in 2006 with designs on the Cup and Munster’s home record but were utterly crushed by Munster – such was their confidence that day that early in the first half with a forward in the sin bin they opted for a lineout inside the Munster 22 instead of a fairly easy penalty kick.
Clermont came with RSA world cup captain Jon Smit and a second string team thinking they were strong enough to get a bonus oint but they too got their arses handed to them.
So both of these teams will feel that they have something to prove against the “top team in Europe.”
Hang on to your hat and roll on october.
I can’t wait either. I won’t say that we were lucky against Clermont at home last season, but they certainly won’t make that mistake again.
As for Sale, they have a “history” playing at Thomond Park, and that’s going make them push very hard for the win when they visit Limerick.
With no Axel, Declan or Seamus this year, there’s no doubt that it’s going to be a tough slog this year, but the Heineken Cup was made for Munster and I’ve every confidence that the lads won’t let us down!