Heineken Cup preview: Pool One

The Heineken Cup begins on Friday, with the clubs now battle-hard and ready after six weeks of domestic battery. Here are a few pointers on the forthcoming action in Pool One.

The Heineken Cup begins on Friday, with the clubs now battle-hard and ready after six weeks of domestic battery. Here are a few pointers on the forthcoming action in Pool One.

Teams:

Munster
Sale Sharks
Clermont Auvergne
Montauban

Forecast: Defending champions Munster find themselves in one of the toughest groups this year, but with two wins in the last three competitions, it's difficult not to back them to top Pool One. Clermont have all the firepower to make a step up from last year and could make or break the fortunes of Munster and Sale. Irresistible at home, if les jaunards develop a taste for travelling they are capable of beating anyone. Their Top 14 season has gotten off to a shaky start, but two solid wins recently should have been enough to add that catalyst to the Clermont powder keg: confidence. Sale's trip to Clermont on the opening day could well set the trend for both teams' European seasons – especially if the strain of the extra competition influences their domestic form. At first glance Montauban, who are struggling in the Top 14 and are making their first appearance in the HEC, would appear to be the group's whipping boys. But underestimate the club from south-west France at your peril, especially at home where they have not lost two consecutive games since their return to top flight rugby two seasons ago.

Players to watch:

Munster: The Irishmen have host of stars such as lock Donncha O'Callaghan and wing Doug Howlett, who can be counted on to make an impact. But the flavour of the month seems to be 21-year-old full-back Keith Earls, whose name has been used in the same sentence as a certain Christian Cullen on occasion. Earls has bags of pace and was one of Ireland's Grand Slam-winning U20s last year. He also scored in all of his Ireland 'A' appearances at the Churchill Cup.

Sale: Sébastien Chabal and Mathew Tait both have a point to prove to their respective national selectors, but Pumas' number eight Juan Fernandez Lobbe could steal the show. His appointment as Sale captain for this season was just reward for probably their most consistent player. He leads by example and has a cool head under pressure.

Clermont: Despite the absence of injured captain Aurélien Rougerie, Clermont will have a potent strike force out wide in the form of last year's number one try-scorer in the Top 14, Fijian Napolioni Nalaga and French internationals Anthony Floch and Julien Malzieu. Flank Julien Bonnaire is among the world's best, but Clermont's fortunes could boil down to the form of fly-half Brock James. Potent when he is on song, unimaginative when he isn't, the Clermont back-line will rely heavily on the Aussie for inspiration.

Montauban: So flush with talented wings were Clermont that Fijian flyer Vilimoni Delasau had to go elsewhere to get some game time. Since moving to Montauban he has become France's leading try-scorer, having touched down five times in seven games.

Squads:

Munster: Tony Buckley, Brian Carney, James Coughlan, Ian Dowling, Keith Earls, Jerry Flannery, Denis Fogarty, Tom Gleeson, John Hayes, John Holland, Marcus Horan, Marcus Horgan, Doug Howlett, Darragh Hurley, Denis Hurley, Denis Leamy, Kieran Lewis, Lifeimi Mafi, JeremyManning, Justin Melck, Barry Murphy, Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell, Mick O'Driscoll, Ronan O'Gara, Tomas O'Leary, John O'Sullivan, Mike Prendergast, Fredericio Pucciariello, Alan Quinlan, Niall Ronan, Donnacha Ryan, Tim Ryan, Frankie Sheahan, Peter Stringer, Rua Tipoki, David Wallace, Paul Warwick.

Sale Sharks: Luke Abraham, Chris Bell, Neil Briggs, Sébastien Bruno, Sébastien Chabal, Will Cliff, Brent Cockbain, Sean Cox, Mark Cueto, Ross Davies, David Doherty, Lionel Faure, Carl Fearns, Juan Fernandez Lobbe, Martin Halsall, Mike Hills, Charlie Hodgson, Chris Jones, Marc Jones, Rudi Keil, Selorm Kuadey, Rory Lamont, Nick MacLeod, Luke McAlister, Rob O'Donnell, Kristian Ormsby, Dwayne Peel, Oriol Ripol, Eifion Roberts, Dean Schofield, Andrew Sheridan, David Tait, Mathew Tait, Lee Thomas, Andy Tuilagi, Stuart Turner, Jason White, Richard Wigglesworth.

Clermont: Alexandre Fabien, Alexandre Audebert, Benoît Baby, Seremaïa Bai, Julien Bonnaire, Benoit Cabello, Gonzalo Canale, Thomas Combezou, Jamie Cudmore, Simms Davison, Vincent Debaty, Thomas Domingo, Laurent Emmanuelli, Grant Esterhuizen, Emmanuel Etien, Anthony Floch, Wesley Fofana, Pierre-Manuel Garcia, Loic Jacquet, Brock James, Marius Joubert, Alexandre Lapandry, Mario Ledesma, Mirko Lozupone, Julien Malzieu, Arnaud Mignardi, Pierre Mignoni, Julien Pierre, Thibaut Privat, Ludovic Radoslavjevic, Clément Ric, Aurélien Rougerie, Christophe Samson, Martin Scelzo, John Senio, Elvis Vermeulen, Napolioni Vonowale Nalaga, Davit Zirakashvili.

Montauban: Nick Adams, Grégory Arganese, Yoan Audrin, Julien Audy, Miguel Avramovic, Bogdan Balan, Antoine Battut, Abdellatif Boutaty, Yannick Caballero, Jean Emmanuel Cassin, Matthew Clarkin, Fabrice Culinat, Johan Dalla Riva, Vilimoni Delasau, Laurent DelBoulbes, Ibrahim Diarra, Adrien Figueiredo, Silviu FLorea, Fabien Fortassin, Rowan Frost, Karim Ghezal, Rida Jahouer, Sylvain Jonnet, Julien Laharrague, Régis Lespinas, Brice Mach, Petre Mitu, Scott Murray, Shannon Paku, Grégory Parriel, Marc Raynaud, Matthias Rolland, Cédric Rosalen, Benjamin Sa, Romain Sazy, Goderzi Shvelidze, Camille Traversa,Jean-Philippe Viard .