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| | Wednesday, 12 June, 2002, 08:38 GMT 09:38 UK Ulster to tackle Biarritz Ulster will renew acquaintances with Cardiff Ulster will meet up with some old, and new, adversaries in next season's Heineken Cup campaign. Alan Solomons' side will come up against Cardiff, Northampton and new French champions Biarritz. Working on last season's matrix and domestic competitions, Ulster appear to have been included in that well-known phrase of ''the group of death.'' Ulster faced Cardiff the season before last, winning at home, but losing heavily away, while they also went down 46-6 at the Arms Park in the inaugural competition back in 1995. Ulster have never played Northampton, who defeated Munster in the 2000 final, nor Biarritz.
The French side defeated Agen in the French Championship final at the weekend with Wallaby Joe Roff collecting 17 points in a 25-22 extra-time victory. Once again pool matches are split into three lots of two games with the opening fixtures on the weekend of 11-13 October. Ulster coach Solomons admitted that his team had been placed in "a real tough group". "Biarritz in particular will be very difficult. "Following their victory in the French Championship last weekend, you can be sure they will have the money available to buy in some big names. "Cardiff are the perennial glamour club of Wales and they will always be very difficult particularly at the Arms Park.
"Then you have Northampton, who are former winners, and came good at the tail-end of last season under Kiwi coach Wayne Smith. "It's a big challenge for us, and a bigger one from last season when we had Treviso in our group. "But we just have to rise to that particular challenge," said Solomons, who starts the new season next week. "The players are being fitness-tested by IRFU top man Liam Hennessy on Thursday, then the training starts in earnest on Monday. "We head to our training camp in Peebles in early August. "We will then play a controlled game against the Scottish Borders side. "We then face Bedford at Ravenhill on 16 August and hopefully will play French side Castres, but that fixture has still to be confirmed." Last season's beaten finallists Munster will be up against Gloucester, Perpignan and Italian outfit Viadana in their Pool while Leinster's opposition are Montferrand, Bristol and Swansea. Autumn internationals Meanwhile, Ulster could also find themselves up against Cardiff in the Celtic League. The new campaign will feature 16 teams this season with the new Scottish Borders outfit making up two groups of eight. Details are expected to be announced later this week. The competition, won last season by Leinster, will start at the end of August, and run through September. The play-offs will take place at the end of busy autumn international season. Heineken Cup fixtures: | | See also:  11 Jun 02 | International 11 Jun 02 | International 11 Jun 02 | International Top N Ireland stories now: Links to more N Ireland stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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