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Heineken Cup seeding system revamped

Thursday 27th March 2008

the Heineken Cup: A fairer draw promised for next season

Next year's Heineken Cup will have a new seeding system designed to iron out the flaws in the current system that sees Pools of vastly differing strengths.

Up to this season, ERC has based the seeding system for the Pool draw on the winners of the respective leagues, meaning that Glasgow has been seeded as the highest-ranked Scottish team despite finishing fourth from bottom.

Under the new system - which will be counted back retrospectively - clubs/regions earn four points for winnig their Pool, three for finishing runners-up, two for finishing third, and one for fourth.

Quarter-finalists also get a point, semi-finalists three extra points, losing finalists five, and the winners seven.

That means the current Heineken ranking is: 1 Munster 25pts; 2 Toulouse 24pts; 3 Biarritz 24pts; 4 Leicester 23pts; 5 Stade Francais 20pts; 6 Wasps 18pts; 7 Leinster 18pts; 8 Gloucester 15pts; 9 Perpignan 15pts; 10 Bath 14pts; 11 Llanelli 12pts; 12 Sale 12pts; 13 Saracens 11pts; 14 Ospreys 11pts

Those positions will change after the quarter-finals next weekend however.