London Irish were drawn with Benetton Treviso, Perpignan and Newport Gwent Dragons in Pool 1 for the new season's Heineken Cup when the draw was made at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff earlier this afternoon.
The prospect of playing Treviso - the Italian Champions, Perpignan, who finished fifth in the French league and Newport Gwent Dragons who qualified through a play-off process, is not as intimidating as last year's 'pool of death'.
"It is a much better draw than last season," said Brian Smith, London Irish's Director of Rugby. "We played some good rugby in this tournament last year, if we can improve on that form then we'll be targeting getting out of this pool."
The first round of pool matches will take place on the weekend of the 9th, 10th and 11th November. Details of fixtures will be finalised over coming weeks and a full announcement will be made by the end of July.
ERC, the tournament organisers, announced today that the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff will host the 13th Heineken Cup Final on the weekend of 24/25 May 2008.
Next season's competition consists of 24 teams and will consist of six pools with the winners plus the best two runners-up qualifying for the quarter-finals.