Cardiff Blues boss Dai Young expects all four teams in Pool 1 of next season’s Heineken Cup to be pushing hard for a quarter-final spot come early next year.
Having been one of the six Tier 1 sides for Tuesday’s draw, the Blues were named alongside last season’s beaten quarter-finalists Northampton Saints, fellow Magners League side Edinburgh and French outfit Castres Olympique when the groups were announced in their home city.
Pools 2 and 3 have been singled out as particularly tough groups for the four sides involved but, while Young admits the draw could have been crueller to his men, he insists there will be no easy games in Europe’s premier club competition.
“There’s probably four teams in our group who all feel they can win it, and that’s exciting,” said Young.
“We could have had a worse draw but, as we all know, there’s no easy games in this competition.
“We know Edinburgh very well – we play them every season and we know the qualities they’ve got within their ranks.
“Northampton are a team we’ve played quite a bit over the last two seasons so we know how strong they are as well.
“We’ve done pretty well against most English opposition and we beat them in the semi-final of the EDF the season before last but, in fairness they turned up for a friendly last season and really put us to the sword.
“They’re a quality outfit and they’ve got a pack of forwards that can grind results out as well. We know how difficult that’s going to be.
“There’s a little bit of an unknown quantity in Castres for us but I’m sure it will be very difficult out there.
“We were very proud to be seeded this year. We’ve worked very hard over the last three or four years to make progress. We’ve got a chance and that’s all you can ask. ”
The Blues will go into next season’s competition in high spirits after claiming Amlin Challenge Cup glory last month.
Young saw his side follow up impressive wins at Newcastle Falcons and London Wasps with a famous victory over Toulon in Marseilles as they became the first Welsh side to win a European trophy.
The former Wales and Lions prop admits that winning the continent’s second-tier tournament was a huge boost for the region but there will be no danger of the Blues looking ahead to the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup before all the hard work in the pool is taken care of.
“There was a fantastic atmosphere against Toulon and it was great to finish the season on a real high,” added Young.
“The Amlin Challenge Cup has shown that we can go to very difficult places and get results. That’s important when it comes to the Heineken Cup.
“As I said, you’re never going to get any easy games in the Heineken Cup by the very nature that’s it’s only the top teams who qualify.
“You’ve got to get through your group and that’s what we’ll aim for. You can’t talk about quarter-finals and semi-finals and any onward involvement – you’ve got to focus on every game as it comes along.
“We hope we’ll have a little more luck than we did in the early stages last year when we had a lot of injuries.
“If we can keep our best team on the field, I’m confident that we can be more than a match for anybody and it’s going to tak a good team to beat us.”
