London Wasps, who became champions of Europe less than five weeks ago, were served notice yesterday of how hard it will be to defend the Heineken Cup. Not only will they be stripped by the World Cup of their most experienced players during the opening two months of the 2007-08 season, they must qualify from a pool full of sharks.

The draw at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, where the final will be played on the weekend of May 24-25 next year, placed Wasps alongside Munster, the 2005 champions, Clermont Auvergne, the European Challenge Cup winners and French finalists, and Llanelli Scarlets, perennially Wales’s leading team in Europe.

It is an unforgiving group and when the tournament begins in November, they will have had little more than a fortnight to review their resources after the World Cup has ended.

“You’ll always have two or three unbalanced groups if you are seeding on a political basis rather than playing strengths,” Ian McGeechan, the Wasps director of rugby, said. “It will be all about getting through. The games will be tight, you’re less likely to pick up bonus points.”

McGeechan is looking at the possibility of losing 14 players to the World Cup, but he will not know until mid-August, leaving it next to impossible to guess which positions he most needs to cover. James Buckland, the former Leicester hooker, could be added to the strength in the knowledge that Raphaël Ibañez is required by France, but England could strip Wasps of back-row forwards.

Leicester, the beaten finalists but still domestic champions, have almost as difficult a group, alongside Leinster, Toulouse and Edinburgh. However, Bristol, in only their second season of Heineken Cup rugby, form an intriguing pool three with Stade Français, the favourites, Harlequins and Cardiff Blues.

After the threat to the competition’s future posed by the potential withdrawal of the English and French clubs, safeguards are being built in to the agreement being worked out by European Rugby Cup Ltd. Details of a minimum five-year accord are being finalised, but it is hoped completion will be reached next month.