The draw to decide the pools for next season's Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup tournaments will take place at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin on Wednesday, 5 June at 2.30pm.
The Heineken Cup draw will follow the draw for the 2013/14 Amlin Challenge Cup pools. The draws will be conducted by ERC Chairman, Jean-Pierre Lux, and ERC Chief Executive, Derek McGrath and will be streamed live on www.ercrugby.com
For the purposes of the Heineken Cup draw, the 24 qualified clubs will be divided into four tiers of six clubs, based on their European performances over the past four seasons. The clubs from each tier will be kept apart in the draw for the pools.
For the ERC European Rankings, please click on the following link:
http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/ranking.php
Please see details below of the pool draw format and a list of the confirmed clubs.
2013/14 Heineken Cup clubs and tiers
TIER 1
Leinster Rugby
Toulon
Toulouse
ASM Clermont Auvergne
Munster Rugby
Ulster Rugby
TIER 2
Northampton Saints
Harlequins
Cardiff Blues
Saracens
Leicester Tigers
Perpignan
TIER 3
Edinburgh Rugby
Ospreys
Scarlets
Glasgow Warriors
Montpellier
Connacht Rugby
TIER 4
Gloucester Rugby
Castres Olympique
Racing Metro 92
Exeter Chiefs
Benetton Treviso
Zebre
2013/14 Heineken Cup Pool Draw
Key principles
- For the purpose of the draw, the 24 qualified clubs are ranked based on their ERC European rankings and are divided into four tiers. Rankings are based on European performance over the past four seasons in the Heineken Cup and knockout stages of the Amlin Challenge Cup.
- Each pool will have one club from each of the four tier levels.
- No two clubs from the same country will be drawn in the same pool except for France. As there are seven French clubs in the tournament, a French club will be drawn into a pool with another French club.
- The winners of the 2013 Heineken Cup, Toulon, are in Tier 1 and will be drawn into a pool first.
Draw format
- The draw will have four stages starting with the allocation of six clubs from Tier 1 and then moving to the next tier.
- Allocation of Tier 1: Toulon, Heineken Cup champions, will be drawn first into one of the six pools. The remaining five top tier clubs will then be drawn into the five pool spots left available.
- For the allocation of Tiers 2, 3 and 4, the clubs will be drawn starting with the clubs from the country with the highest number participating in the tournament, which is France. Therefore, the order of allocation will be clubs from France, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy until all clubs in the tier have been drawn.
Note:As Scotland and Italy both have two clubs competing, the Scottish clubs will be drawn first as they are ranked higher than either Italian club.
- During each tier allocation, a club will be drawn and then a pool number for that club from the available pool options.
- To avoid having two clubs from the same country in the same pool, some clubs may be allocated to available pool spots automatically during the course of the draw.
- Racing Metro 92, as the lowest-ranked of the seven French clubs, will be drawn last into a pool with another French club.