Draws rule out all England finals
Leicester were given a home run last night to their second European Heineken Cup final - an all-English Premiership semi-final against outsiders Gloucester.
The RFU will today choose one of several neutral venues for the tie, with Stoke's 28,000-seater Britannia Stadium topping the list subject to the pitch passing muster. Several larger stadia, notably Hillsborough and Villa Park, were unavailable due to fixture clashes. Pride Park would have been Leicester's preference if they had been drawn first out of the hat in Dublin last night. But Derby County decided to save their pitch rather than go for an extra pay day.
The Tigers meet Gloucester at Kingsholm in the Premiership three weeks before their European showdown.
'Some people will say we have got the easiest draw but I think it's the hardest,' said Tigers manager Dean Richards.
The clubs' Heineken pairing ensures that England will extend its record of never failing to provide a finalist during each of the four seasons in which its teams have competed: Northampton, winners over Munster last year, Bath in 1998 when they beat holders Brive and Leicester, beaten by the French club at Cardiff in 1997. Munster drew the shortest straw - away to the No. 1 seeds and favourites, Stade Francais.
The secondary European competition, the Shield, also produced an all-English semi-final. Newcastle and Harlequins, opponents at Twickenham in the Tetley's Bitter Cup final on February 24, will meet at a venue to be arranged for the right to play Narbonne or Agen in the final. The winner qualifies for next season's European Cup.
