The Heineken Cup draw for the 2011/12 season was made today at Twickenham.
Defending champions Leinster will face Bath, Glasgow and Montpellier in a relatively kind draw, whilst Pool 1 and Pool 4 look pretty tough. I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s a ‘Group of Death’ though this year though.
What are your thoughts? What are your predictions for who will win each pool?
Pool 1: Munster, Northampton Saints, Scarlets, Castres
Pool 2: Cardiff Blues, London Irish, Edinburgh, Racing Metro 92
Pool 3: Leinster, Bath Rugby, Glasgow Warriors, Montpellier
Pool 4: Leicester Tigers, Clermont Auvergne, Ulster, Aironi
Pool 5: Biarritz Olympic, Ospreys, Saracens, Benetton Treviso
Pool 6: Toulouse, Harlequins, Gloucester, Connacht
Heineken Cup 2011/12 Dates
ROUND 1 11/12/13 November 2011
ROUND 2 18/19/20 November 2011
ROUND 3 9/10/11 December 2011
ROUND 4 16/17/18 December 2011
ROUND 5 13/14/15 January 2012
ROUND 6 20/21/22 January 2012
QUARTER-FINAL 6/7/8 April 2012
SEMI-FINALS 27/28/29 April 2012
The 17th Heineken Cup Final, Twickenham Stadium 19/20 May 2012
So which one would you guys say is the pool of death??? I’m gonna go for Pool 1 (Munster, Northampton, Scarlets and Castres)
Just set up a Facebook poll to find out: http://on.fb.me/jV5C2Q
I’ve voted for Pool 4, as even with Aironi, any of the other three could win it. 6 is quite tough as well as pool 1, but I think there have been worse draws in previous years (particularly before the seeding system!).
No doubt about it, Leinster will emerge as the clear winners in pool 3.
I think pool 5 is the pool of death. Treviso are more than capable of taking points off of the other three teams at home while you would expect the Biarritz, Ospreys and Saracens to win there home games so whoever can pull off a surprise away from home will be the pool winner. There will be no runner up from this pool going through.
I think the best runner ups will be from pool 4 and pool 6.
I think Munster London Irish, Leinster, Leicester, Saracens and Toulouse will top there pools with Gloucester and Clermont Auverge as runners up.
Northampton saints, Racing, Leinster, Clermont, Saracens, Toulouse will top their pools and be between Munster, Tigers, Montpellier and quins for the second best 2. group 5 is the hardest to call because all medium teams no definite winner! so think it might be the hardest pool to get outta because no dominant team!
I don’t know about a pool of death but the Pool 2 should be a mere formality for the Blues.
Yeah right!
london irish and racing will give cardiff a really tough time!! think racing will top that pool
I can see Racing Metro topping that group too. Cardiff will be tough to beat though and I reckon that they will finish second.