Townsend and Bradley optimistic

"It's a great draw for us," said the former Scotland out-half. "We are playing against some of the best teams in Europe and we can't wait to pit ourselves against them. We hope to be a match for all the other teams in our pool.

"Northampton are former winners, Ulster reached the final against Leinster last season while Castres are also a strong team in France. They will all be really exciting matches.

"But our target is to qualify from the pool and become the first Glasgow side to get into the quarter-finals and then try to go beyond that."

Edinburgh Rugby created history last season when they became the first Scottish club to win a pool, the first Scottish club to play a home quarter-final and the first Scottish club to qualify for the semi-finals.

Now Head Coach, Michael Bradley, is setting his sights on more of the same despite believing that the draw has thrown up "potentially a harder pool to get out than last year.

"Reaching the semi-final for the first time was fantastic for the confidence of the players and a wonderful occasion for the club. We know understand the motivation of teams like Munster, Leinster and Leicester to get back on an annual basis. But everyone has ambitions to go further.

"Munster have a fine pedigree in this competition and their primary focus is always doing well in the Heineken Cup. With their great rivals Leinster having won three titles recently, Munster will be eager to claw one back. We are standing in their way but that's fine with us.

"Saracens are on their way up and are investing heavily in the club. They expect to be involved in big games and were English champions two years ago. But they weren't involved in any finals last year so will be looking to come back even stronger this year.

"We had two fantastic games against Racing-Metro last year and look forward to renewing that rivalry."