The Cardiff Blues' 28-21 Amlin Challenge Cup final victory over Toulon in front of a tournament record crowd of 48,990 at Marseille's Stade Velodrome means that the 24th and final place in the 16th season of the Heineken Cup will be filled by the Blues' fellow Welsh region, the Scarlets.
The Cardiff Blues' 28-21 Amlin Challenge Cup final victory over Toulon in front of a tournament record crowd of 48,990 at Marseille's Stade Velodrome means that the 24th and final place in the 16th season of the Heineken Cup will be filled by the Blues' fellow Welsh region, the Scarlets.
The draw for the six Heineken Cup pools of four teams each will take place on Tuesday, June 8and will be streamed live on ercrugby.com, with the six Tier 1 teams - Munster, Toulouse, Leinster, Leicester Tigers, Cardiff Blues and Biarritz Olympique - kept apart.
And while Racing-Metro 92 and Toulon will take their Heineken Cup bows in round 1 in the autumn, Toulouse will start their defence of a record fourth title by playing their 111th match.
ERC 15 award winning coach Guy Noves added the 2010 crown to the titles won by his Toulouse side in 1996, 2003 and 2005 by defeating Biarritz Olympique 21-19 at the Stade de France to bring the landmark 15th campaign to a record-breaking end.
The finals of the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup tournaments were watched by 127,952 fans - beating the previous best combined mark set in the 2003/04 season by over 32,000 - with 1,081,430 fans going through the turnstiles for the 79 Heineken Cup matches.
Next season's Heineken Cup final will take place over the weekend of May 21-22 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
2010/11 HEINEKEN CUP QUALIFIERS - BY NATION:
ENGLAND (6): Leicester Tigers, London Wasps, Northampton Saints, Bath, London Irish, Saracens
FRANCE: (7): Toulouse, Biarritz Olympique, Clermont Auvergne, Perpignan, Castres Olympique, Toulon, Racing-Metro 92
IRELAND (3): Munster, Leinster, Ulster
ITALY (2): Benetton Treviso, Aironi Rugby
SCOTLAND (2): Glasgow Warriors, Edinburgh
WALES (4): Cardiff Blues, Ospreys, Scarlets, Newport Gwent Dragons
Tickets are on sale now for the Heineken Cup final 2011 at the Millennium Stadium from
www.ticketmaster.co.uk or call 0844 847 1530
The draw for this season's Heineken Cup, the 16th season of European club rugby’s elite tournament will be streamed live on ercrugby.com.
The draw in Cardiff, the host city for the 2011 Heineken Cup final, will be conducted by ERC Chairman Jean-Pierre Lux and ERC Chief Executive Derek McGrath.
The draw will take place at 11.00am on Tuesday, 8 June, so log on to ercrugby.com and see how reigning champions Toulouse and the other 23 teams fare as the drama unfolds live.
Heineken Cup Qualifiers in Tier Ranking for 2010/2011
Tier 1 Teams (Points in brackets)
Munster (29)
Toulouse (27)
Leinster (25)
Leicester Tigers (23)
Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (20)
Cardiff Blues (20)
Tier 2
London Wasps (19)
ASM Clermont Auvergne (15)
Ospreys (15)
Northampton Saints (15)
Bath Rugby (14)
Scarlets (12)
Tier 3
Saracens (11)
Perpignan (11)
London Irish (11)
Ulster Rugby (8)
Glasgow Warriors (7)
Edinburgh (6)
Tier 4
Newport Gwent Dragons (6)
Benetton Treviso (4)
Castres Olympique (4)
Toulon (4)
Viadana (2)
Racing Métro 92 (0)