Harlequins look to have an easy draw for the upcoming Heineken Cup in the group stages. They have been lucky and look sure to qualify as their group is not so tough. The English Champions will have to face Biarritz as their toughest opponents in Pool number Three but then they also have weaker teams such as Connacht of Ireland and Zebre of Italy. Hence they should be able to qualify quite easily unless they mess up against one of the weaker teams, which then will be their fault completely.
Leicester on the other hand has been put in Pool number two alongside the French giants Toulouse. This will be a mouth watering encounter. Leicester lost to Harlequins in the Aviva Premiership final last month and hence Harlequins have an advantage over them if they do meet in the following rounds.
On the other Exeter, who will be debuting their Heineken Cup have got a tough group to compete with. Alongside them are the reigning champions of the Heineken Cup Leinster, Scarlets and Clermont Auvergne.
There has been some ambiguity regarding the future of the English Clubs in the Heineken Cup as Premier Rugby has given a two year’s notice of their hard thought intention to withdraw from Amlin Cup and Heineken Cup as they are concerned by the qualification process and by the over all format of the tournaments.
Harlequins on the other hand started off their pres season campaign badly after they lost 31-15 to Castres Olympique. They did put up a great fight but were bettered by their French counterpart. Nine of Harlequins’ EPS players did not play the game and hence this weakened the team greatly. Hence a lot of young players got a chance to showcase their talent and prove their worth against a good side. Hence all in all it was an encouraging performance for Harlequins as they learnt a lot and also gained from this match. Playing against a full strength team like Castres was never going to be an easy task but they have time to learn form their mistakes and work on them before the season kicks off.