LEINSTER, who won two of their four matches in the competition last season, face Toulouse from France, England's Leicester and Italy's Milan in their pool games in this season's Heineken European Cup rugby union tournament, which begins on September 6th.
Munster fans will have the interesting prospect of observing Keith Wood and Jim Staples in action for Harlequins against their side, who must also face French team Bourgoin and as yet unnamed Welsh side. Ulster face Swansea, Wasps and Glasgow in their pool games.
In a restructured competition in which the prize fund has rocketed from £140,000 to £400,000, Leinster's group, Pool A, would seem to be one of toughest of the competition. Leinster's initial two games in Dublin, against Toulouse and Leicester, pose particularly difficult challenges. Each team will play the others in its group twice, on a home and away basis, this season.
Leinster's first home game, against Toulouse, pits them against the 1995-96 European Cup winners and a team who last season collected a remarkable fourth successive French championship. The strength of Toulouse was demonstrated last season when they over ran Munster 60-19 in their final group game of the competition.
The Martin Johnson led Pilkington Cup winners, Leicester, will provide the second of Leinster's tough assignments. With Eric Miller a certainty at number eight for the English visitors, the Irish side should know where they stand after this fixture, one they lost 10-27 last year at Donnybrook.
Leinster's other opponents, Milan, have yet to win a European Cup match in two seasons of competition.
Despite the elevated nature of the opposition, Leinster manager Jim Glennon is positive in his view of his side's chances of making the quarter final stages.
"It's a tough draw in that any match against the French is always tough. This year we have to travel as well and that's a big game. But they say that the French don't travel well and having them at home in the first game, in a sense, puts it up to us.
"Against Leicester last year we were disappointed. We felt it was the one that got away and I think that the lads will look forward to meeting them again. In that respect I believe that the quarter finals are a realistic target. We've been to Milan and we've won and we've played Leicester and felt it got away. In the light of those two results, qualifying is a reasonable target."
The Leinster players competing in Britain will not be available, with the exception of Dara O'Mahony, whose release from Moseley has been negotiated.
Interprovincial champions Munster will know that the Pool D encounter with Harlequins should be very appetising for the Irish public, with Wood and Staples likely to be in the picture. Harlequins travelled to Ravenhill last year and beat Ulster 21-15.
Last season Munster beat Milan 23-5 and went down 48-18 to Cardiff, before earning their celebrated 49-22 victory in Cork over the highly fancied Wasps. Wasps won the Courage League title by an impressive margin of six points this year.
Munster must also face Bourgoin, who were last season's European Conference winners and last year made it to the French championship final before going down 12-6 to Toulouse.
The final team in the group will be Welsh, but Wales, who will certainly be represented by Swansea, have yet to decide on their last two teams in the competition. Cardiff and Llanelli booked their places but are currently in dispute with the Welsh Rugby Union over a "golden share" issue. They have been threatened with eviction from Europe if they do not accept the terms.
Although Munster lost their final European game of last season 60-19 to Toulouse, they also carry hopes of making the last eight.
The side go into this season's campaign with Jerry Holland as manager, Niall O'Donovan and Declan Kidney as coaches and Colm Tucker as assistant to the manager.
Ulster, who came a disappointing third last year in the Irish Interprovincial series, face Glasgow at Ravenhill in their first match of Pool B before travelling to met a Swansea team that missed out on last year's Cup, having made the 1995-96 semifinals.
Wasps, at this stage the pick of the group, will no doubt harbour extreme caution this time around against any Irish side after last year's sting by Munster.
This season there will be added incentive for teams to reach the quarter final stages, with each of the last eight collecting £15,000 each. The four semi finalists will each receive £40,000, double last year's prizemoney. Brive and Leicester, last year's finalists, earned £50,000 for reaching that stage, but this year's finalists will earn more than double that amount, £115,000.
