Jonny Wilkinson: 'European Rugby Champions Cup winner too tough to call'

Former England international Jonny Wilkinson has admitted that he is 'excited' to see the inaugural European Rugby Champions Cup get underway this weekend.

Twenty teams from six different countries will take part in the competition, which was designed to replace the Heineken Cup.

Wilkinson, who retired from rugby earlier this year, believes that it is too tough to pick a winner in what he expects to be a tightly-contested affair.

"It's really difficult," he told Sky Sports News. "I was looking across the pools, teams and the make-up of those and there is no group in there you'd say that is where we'd want to be if we had the choice. That's, for me, is really, really exciting.

"You look at Leinster, Munster and Ulster, who are going pretty well and are the big boys in that respect and look at where they feature, as well as those coming over from France. Toulon will obviously want to show that they deserve to be back up there and are not resting on their laurels after two good years and the likes of Racing Metro, who have paid out a lot of money and recruited heavily. They'll see it as their time to shine.

"England as well - you can't go wrong. There's Saracens, twice they've been at the end of the tournament - they'll be wanting to make it third time lucky, and then you go over to the Welsh sides and Scottish borders and you just know that away victories are going to be so key."

The final of the European Champions Cup will be held at Twickenham.