By Cherry Picker
June 7 2011

It would be a waste of space to say that Gloucester have landed in a tough pool in the draw for the preliminary stages of next season's Heineken Cup - ALL the pools are tough. Glaws are in Pool 6 and will find themselves up against France's best, Ireland novices and old foes Harlequins.

Connacht are making their first appearance in the competition after finishing ninth in the Magners League, so perhaps the Irish side will be regarded as the underdogs – ninth place can be translated into fourth bottom. The side, based in Galway and coached by former Ireland fly-half Eric Ellwood, qualified thanks to Leinster’s win in the final, giving the country an extra place in the competition.

At the other end of the experience scale, Glaws will also be up against Toulouse, who have won the competition four times, the last just over a year ago.

The French side raced away with their domestic league in 2010-11, finishing 12 points clear of second top Racing Metro, and beat Montpellier 15-10 in the play-off final last weekend for their 18^th domestic crown.

Their squad includes stars from all over the world and they have already added seven newcomers for next season. They are likely to be amongst the favourites for the new season’s Heineken Cup.

Quins need no introduction, of course. They finished seventh in the Premiership, but gave Glaws an embarrassing hammering when they met in the League in late March.

The Heineken Cup is one of the world’s top club competitions and Glaws considered it an achievement when they qualified for it this season. Now all they have to do is qualify from Pool 6.

Pool details:

Pool 1 - Munster, Northampton, Scarlets, Castres Olympique

Pool 2- Cardiff Blues, London Irish, Edinburgh, Racing Metro

Pool 3 - Leinster, Bath, Glasgow, Montpellier

Pool 4 - Leicester, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Ulster, Aironi

Pool 5 - Biarritz Olympique, Ospreys, Saracens, Treviso

Pool 6 - Toulouse, Harlequins, Gloucester, Connacht

Glaws learn Heineken Cup opponents

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 07/06/2011 14:54

Shedloads
07/06/2011 14:54

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