Cup expectations?

Sandy Park
By ExpatChief
August 15 2013

ExpatChief looks at who's going to do wahat in the Heineken Cup

A look forward to The Heini

 

I remember someone saying that we need to publish articles like the recruitment ones so that we get to keep the site.  With that in mind wrote up a brief pool by pool guide to next year's HC. 

Pool 1 

Leinster AC Win, Rabo Winners Northampton HC group, AP Runner up Osprays HC group, Rabo 5th Castres HC group, Top 14 Winners Whilst group 4 probably gets the title of group of death this is also a very hard group and will be determined at least in part by if Castres take the HC seriously. Leinster with their HC knowhow should come out on top but without Sexton and with a new coach they could be relatively vulnerable. If Castres do take this seriously then Saints should share points with them meaning the runner up ends up in the Amlin.

Pool 2 

Toulon HC Winners, Top 14 Runner up Cardiff Blues HC group, Rabo 9th Glasgow HC group, Rabo 3rd Exeter HC group, AP 6th This is a matter of who comes second to Toulon and can they take all the points to be the 2nd runner up going through? Obviously I’m biased and would say that Exeter will come second but I think it’s going to come down to our trip up to Glasgow as I have already seen plenty of comments from Blues fans saying they are out already.

Pool 3 

Toulouse AC QF, Top 14 SF Saracens HC SF, AP SF Connacht HC group, Rabo 8th Zebre HC group, Rabo 12th Very simple, Toulouse and Saracens through with the only question in which order?  Probably come down to bonus points between the 2 of them.

Pool 4 

Clermont HC Runners up, Top 14 SF Harlequins HC QF, AP SF Scarlets HC group, Rabo 4th Metro HC group, Top 14 6th To me this has Clermont winning the pool of death and Quins only having a chance of coming out of this group if Metro don’t take it seriously, otherwise it’s Metro or Quins into the Amlin.

Pool 5 

Ulster HC QF, Rabo Runner up Leicester HC QF, AP Winners Montpelier HC QF, Top 14 5th Treviso HC group, Rabo 7th With 3 of this year’s HC quarter finalists in the same group it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top but Treviso will come last even if there are easier places to go in the HC and the runner-up will probably end up in Amlin or not get any QF at all. Personally I see Leicester winning the group but it’s a real coin flip.

Pool 6 

Munster HC SF Rabo 6th Perpignan AC SF, Top 14 7th Edinburgh HC group, Rabo 10th Gloucester AC QF, AP 5th Munster with their extra experience at this level should win the group and then it’s between Perpignan and Gloucester for the second place.  Will depend a lot on if Perpignan take this seriously and how well they travel.

So in summary I think the qualifiers are: Pool 1 Leinster Pool 2 Toulon Pool 3 Toulouse or Saracens with the other going through as best loser Pool 4 Clermont Pool 5 Leicester but on a coin flip Pool 6 Munster The second best runner-up I see coming from Pool 2 or Pool 6. With probably Pool 5 missing out on Amlin QF