News | ERC | Official Website : 'Very difficult to qualify for knockout stages'

Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon) has been named ERC European Player of the Year 2013. The prestigious award crowns an outstanding season for the out-half who led the French club to a dramatic Heineken Cup final victory over ASM Clermont Auvergne at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

It's down to the wire now for the five contenders who have been shortlisted for the ultimate individual accolade in northern hemisphere rugby, ERC European Player of the Year 2013.

With the build-up to the Dublin 2013 European club rugby finals intensifying by the day, the four elite clubs of ASM Clermont Auvergne, Toulon, Leinster Rugby and Stade Francais Paris, who are focused on their quest for Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup silverware respectively, won't be the only clubs with Europe on their mind over the weekend of 17 and 18 May.

This time, Toulouse find themselves in one of the toughest pools of the competition, along with English powerhouses Leicester Tigers, the brilliant Ospreys and the rising threat from Italy in the form of Benetton Treviso.

"This is a particularly demanding pool, and it is going to be very, very difficult to qualify," said Guy Novès, the evergreen Toulouse Director of Rugby. "There are no weak teams in this pool. Historically, Leicester has always been one of the major players in this competition, and they always seem to be able to rise to the occasion, while the Opsreys play exactly the same type of rugby as the Welsh national team, who won the Grand Slam this year."

Clermont Auvergne, who lost to Leinster in the tensely-fought semi-final in Bordeaux, as well as the equally dramatic quarter final (29-28) in 2010, will once again came up against their nemesis in Pool 5 which also features the Scarlets and newcomers to the competition, Exeter Chiefs.

Toulon, losing finalists in both the Amlin Challenge Cup and the French Top14 mark their return to the Heineken Cup in an evenly balanced pool, along with the Cardiff Blues, Sale Sharks and Montpellier.

In Pool 1, Racing Métro will once again come up against Edinburgh, while for the third year running the men from Castres Olympique are also in the same pool as Northampton.

Finally Biarritz, who qualified thanks to their victory in the final of the Amlin Challenge Cup are in with English champions, Harlequins, Connacht and the new Italian franchise, Zebre.

Agen	Bath Rugby	Bayonne	Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque	Bizkaia Gernika RT	Bordeaux-Begles
Bucharest Wolves	Cammi Rugby Calvisano	Femi-CZ VEA Rovigo	Gloucester Rugby	Grenoble	I Cavalieri Prato
Leinster Rugby	London Irish	London Wasps	London Welsh	Mont de Marsan	Newport Gwent Dragons
Perpignan	Rugby Mogliano	Stade Francais Paris	Toulouse	Worcester Warriors

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'Very difficult to qualify for knockout stages' - Noves

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