The draw for the Pools for the 14th Heineken Cup tournament will be streamed live on ercrugby.com on Tuesday, 17 June from 11.15am (local time).
The draw will be hosted by Ieuan Evans and will decide the composition of the six Pools of four teams each for the 2008 / 09 Heineken Cup.
ERC Chairman Jean-Pierre Lux will conduct the draw which will, for the first time, use the new ERC European Ranking system. The 24 teams that qualify for the tournament will be divided into four Tiers of six teams each, based on their European performances over the past four seasons. The teams from each Tier level will then be kept apart in the draw for the Pools.
Cardiff Blues are in Tier 3, ranked 17th overall, the 14th best qualifiers, in the same tier as the Ospreys, Dragons, previous winners Ulster and French teams Castres and Clermont.
Heineken Cup Qualifiers in Tier Ranking for 2008/2009
Tier 1 | Points |
Munster | 31 |
Toulouse | 28 |
Leicester Tigers | 23 |
Stade Francais Paris | 20 |
London Wasps | 18 |
Tier 2 | |
Leinster | 18 |
Bath Rugby | 18 |
Gloucester Rugby | 15 |
Perpignan | 15 |
Sale Sharks | 13 |
Llanelli Scarlets | 12 |
Tier 3 Ospreys | 11
|
Cardiff Blues | 10 |
ASM Clermont Auvergne | 10 |
Dragons | 8 |
Ulster | 7 |
Castres Olympique | 7 |
Tier 4 Glasgow Warriors | 5 |
Benetton Treviso | 5 |
Edinburgh Rugby | 4 |
Calvisano | 3 |
Harlequins | 2 |
Montauban or Montpellier (tbc on June 14th) | |