Quality to prevail over quantity

It may be stop-start, it may only incorporate nine weeks of the season and ultimately the Heineken European Cup ends with a May 25th final, fully eight months after this weekend's start. However, in this top-heavy season the emphasis in this competition once again is on quality rather than quantity.

It's still not without its flaws, and until the organisers find a tenth week in the season to incorporate an additional play-off round for all the six pool runners-up in a reversion to the formula of four seasons ago, that will remain the case.

Once again only the two best runners-up will accompany the six pool winners into the quarter-finals. Last season anyone could have forecast that the teams from the groups containing the two Italian sides, Roma and especially the whipping boys from L'Aquila, had an unfair advantage in obtaining one of the two best runners-up places.

Sure enough, Swansea scored 21 of their 28 pool tries in their two routs of L'Aquila to make the quarter-finals on tries scored, and Llanelli, second in Roma's pool, only missed out by one try. But Llanelli could be the main beneficiaries this time after being paired with Calvisano in Pool One.

ERC Ltd have tended to be a little more reactive as opposed to proactive in sorting out the tournament's teething problems (this is, after all its seventh year), though in most respects improvements have again been made. To guard against some teams having an unfair advantage on the final round of pool games, it is ERC's intention that all sixth round matches start simultaneously.

John O'Neill will note with irony that video referees will be used in the semi-finals and final, while the organisers have limited the management personnel on the sidelines to just four (manager, doctor, physio and designated tee carrier). Whereas previously the venue for the decider has been given to the country of one of the finalists, this season it has already been decreed that the May 25th final will be in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. Hence, as has been noted by Welsh sceptics (and there are quite a few of them in light of the Celtic League formguide) this probably ensures the final will be in a neutral country for the first time ever.

England have both their best and poorest looking hands to date. For whereas the English and European champions Leicester are the shortest priced favourites yet to retain their crown, the back-up from the over-rated Zurich Premiership looks flimsier than ever.

The French may again be slow into their stride. The big two, Toulouse and Stade Francais, are wounded - the former following the recent tragedy at a factory in Toulouse, as well as a host of injuries, and the latter from last season's final defeat to Leicester. But both could come good again while Biarritz and Montferrand are dark horses.

The Scots are gradually improving, and Glasgow may be their best entrants yet, while Treviso (with Simon Mason renewing old acquaintances with Ulster today) should reduce Italian embarrassment.

Of the Irish, Leinster look primed, their odds having tumbled from 25/1 to 10/1 with Paddy Powers, though Munster still look better value at an equally parsimonious 8/1.