Borders no.2 wrote: Its not going to be easy no matter who we get. We can only get one of four English teams who are all strong. Really hope we don't get Harlequins. Don't really want Exeter as 4th seed either:

I'd be happy with something like:
Cardiff
Leicester
Connacht
Castres

on paper racing metro would be better, team and coach's leaving/gone but paris not the best place to go.

cardiff- boat over from rosslare as girlfriends from wexford
leicester- fly knock to east midlands airport and 30mins on m1. flights 73€ (weekend 12 oct)
castre- dublin to toulouse. 1hour 14 to castre. 107€ (weekend 19 oct)

Borders no.2 wrote: Its not going to be easy no matter who we get. We can only get one of four English teams who are all strong. Really hope we don't get Harlequins. Don't really want Exeter as 4th seed either:

I'd be happy with something like:
Cardiff
Leicester
Connacht
Castres

Could live with that draw as well, Good away trips and serious chance of a few wins. The dates for the 6 round's are:

HC Round
1 12/13/14 October 2012
2 19/20/21 October 2012

3 7/8/9 December 2012
4 14/15/16 December 2012

5 11/12/13 January 2013
6 18/19/20 January 2013

Its not going to be easy no matter who we get. We can only get one of four English teams who are all strong. Really hope we don't get Harlequins. Don't really want Exeter as 4th seed either:

I'd be happy with something like:
Cardiff
Leicester
Connacht
Castres

For an easy pool, we would be looking to be drawn in Cardiff's Pool (easiest of Tier 1).

2nd and 4th team's in the pool would then have to be English and French

Tier 2: English - Leicester or Quinn's. Tier 2 French - Clermont or Toulon

Tier 4: If it is an English team in Tier 2 then the option for Tier 4 are Racing, Montpellier or Castres

If it is a French team in Tier 2 then only English team in Tier 4 is Exeter.

My head is exploding trying to work this out. Leave it to the God's

completely forgot that. was eating dinner at the time.
i was try to work out the easiest group.

id pick an 'easy' group anyday over big guns.

there would be more talk done over connacht making the QF than there would be if we played toulouse or clermont etc in the group stages

Swift4prez

Would be easy for the away trips but can not happen.

We have to have at least 1 French and 1 English team in the Pool.

Would love it to be Clermont and Leicester. The Sportsground would be electric.

With 3 French teams in Tier 4 so we could even get 2nd French team

fingers crossed for
cardiff
edinburgh
connacht
italian team

2012/13 Heineken Cup clubs and tiers

Tier 1 - Leinster Rugby, Toulouse, Biarritz Olympique, Munster Rugby, Cardiff Blues, Northampton Saints
Tier 2 - ASM Clermont Auvergne, Ulster Rugby, Leicester Tigers, Harlequins, Toulon, Edinburgh Rugby
Tier 3 - Ospreys, Scarlets, Glasgow Warriors, Saracens, Connacht Rugby, Sale Sharks
Tier 4 - Castres Olympique, Benetton Treviso, Racing Metro 92, Montpellier, Exeter Chiefs, Italian club (to be confirmed)

• The draw for the 2012/13 Heineken Cup pools will take place at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin on Tuesday, 12 June at 11.00am

Don't care who we get really it's just great to be in the competition.

We are safe in 3rd Tier.

If my count is correct we have 6 ERC points, (5 as of June 2011 and got another 1 from this year)which puts us in the 3rd seeds at 17th place.

Sale are below us in 18th. They had 7 points in June 2011 but loose 2 as the count back is only 4 years and they were not in the HC last years.

I would agree with the 4th Tier as shown by Borders no.2.

We are guarenteed to get 1 French, 1 English and the 3rd team in our pool is anyones guess.

We can not get, Scarlets, Glasgow, Saracens or Sale as they are in Tier 3 as well.

I might be wrong but I still think we are ok for 3rd seed, albeit as the bottom ranked side in the third seeds. 6 teams still below us, of course contingent on another Italian team being cobbled together for next season. Best to wait until things sort themselves out with the top seedings & new Italian team before looking much further.

Connacht 5

4th Seeds
Treviso 4
Castres 4
Montpellier 3
Racing Métro 2
Exeter 2
? Italian team (If they keep Aironi's points 2 but imagine they'll start from 0)

21-18 Biarritz, looks like we're going to have to win it the hard way next year!

Horrible game to watch. Less than 10,000 fans @ the stoop, fair enough it was an all French final in London but that is a really disappointing crowd for a European final.

The IMF wrote: Mr Thornley has a bit more detail on the ranking calculations for next year in the IT today.

"Looking further down the rankings, there is a very good chance that Connacht will be third seeds. As things stand Exeter, the two Italians sides and up to three possible French qualifiers – Montpellier, Castres and Racing – would all be ranked below Connacht, as indeed might Sale be if they could yet squeeze through from the Premiership.

The only way that Connacht could drop down to a fourth seed, by this column’s calculations, is if Biarritz claimed the seventh French place by winning the Challenge Cup final, and if Stade Francais muscled into the top six in France at the expense of one of the aforementioned trio. (Stade, in seventh, play Racing, two points ahead of them in sixth, next Saturday at Stade de France)."

Come on Racing!!!

So lads if Toulon beat Biarritz I THINK that makes us 3rd seeds. Makes the game a lot more interesting from our perspective now.

Come on Toulon!!!

Happy Days!

woo hoo !!

Racing Metro 19 - stade Français 13, just finished!

We are very very likely to be in pot 3 next year