HEINEKEN CUP REACHES NEW HEIGHTS
ERC ambassadors Ieuan Evans and Miss Wales, Claire Evans, escorted European rugby’s most coveted cup to the top of Mount Snowdon on Day two of the Heineken Cup Trophy Tour. Rather than take the four-hour walking route to the 1065 metre high summit, the two Evans’ jumped aboard the Snowdon Mountain Railway and headed for the top in a railway carriage. Ieuan was delighted to renew his acquaintance with the trophy that he won with Bath when they beat the reigning champions Brive in the 1998 epic final in Bordeaux.
“It’s a rather different setting to get my hands back on the Heineken Cup, but it’s just great news that the Heineken Cup final is coming back to Wales for the fourth time this season. It’s the tournament that everyone wants to win and Cardiff and the Millennium Stadium are guaranteed a fantastic occasion on Saturday 20 May,” he said. “The challenge to the four Welsh regions is to try to reach the Millennium Stadium. It’s a tough ask for any team, especially as there will be seven French sides in this season’s tournament.
“You have to have a bit of luck along the way to win the Heineken Cup and I’m sure the Scarlets, Ospreys and Dragons will all be hoping for a bit of that when they open against French opposition this weekend.
“If I were a betting man then I guess my money would be on Toulouse again this season. But they are in one of the two potential Pools of death and nothing can be predicted at this stage.
“It promises to be a really exciting opening weekend and I’m sure that Dai Young’s Blues side will be looking to make the most of their home advantage over Leeds Tykes on Saturday. They really do have the best opportunity of all the Welsh regions of progressing into the last eight. Their Pool is probably the most open, perhaps easiest of them all, with only an away trip to Perpignan to fear.”
The last time Miss Wales was on Snowdon she was taking part in the Welsh Fell Running Championships. An international athlete, she is hoping to be the best of British at the forthcoming Miss World contest in China in three weeks time.
