O'Driscoll is keen to avoid a French boycott

Ireland captain O'Driscoll says the tournament would be devalued if the French clubs withdrew over a dispute with the Rugby Football Union.

"It would take away from the winner if the French teams didn't play," he said.

"I know they take massive pride in their domestic league, but they have to realise pitting themselves against the best teams in Europe is where it's at."

The dispute is over how much control the clubs have in the overall running of the event, rather than the unions.

Serge Blanco, the president of France's Ligue Nationale de Rugby, says the RFU has gone back on an agreement with Premier Rugby, their equivalent organisation in England, prompting the threatened pull-out.

And O'Driscoll says the tournament would not be the same without the French teams taking part.

I will speak to them to make sure we understand exactly what they are and aren't saying as sometimes things get lost in translation Premier Rugby's Mark McCafferty

"It would have a huge effect without them, it would be like when the English teams didn't take part and Ulster won - you look back and it's not quite the same thing," he said.

"It would be a worry from my point of view, but hopefully it's just talk and rumours."

Mark McCafferty, the chief executive of Premier Rugby and a board member of tournament organisers European Rugby Cup Limited, told Five Live Sport he could not rule out a similar boycott by English clubs.

"We have some contractual obligations which we need to look at to see if they are affected by the French pull out," he said.

"Under our current agreement with the union we are obliged to play until 2009, but those obligations are possibly affected by this situation because it changes the whole nature of what we contracted to do.

"We need to absorb what the French have said and what their position is.

"I will speak to them to make sure we understand exactly what they are and aren't saying as sometimes things get lost in translation.

"Then we can put that in front of our clubs so they can decide what to do."

RFU chairman Martyn Thomas said: 'We pay 100% of the revenue we receive from the European Rugby Cup to our clubs.