The side from the capital have been handed an exacting pool alongside two former winners in Bath and Ulster as well as French giants Stade Francais.

Edinburgh, currently without a coach after Andy Robinson left to take the Scotland job following Frank Hadden’s departure, made a slow start to last season’s competition.

They were beaten in their first home game by Wasps and although they responded with a fine away win in Castres the Black and Reds were always up against it in their group.

Now Webster hopes they can start with bang - even if it is at the expense of former colleague Hugo Southwell, who joined Stade Francias this summer.

The Hartlepool-born winger said: “In the European Cup, if you lose one game then suddenly you’re in trouble. We know from winning at Ravenhill and the Rec, albeit in a pre-season game, over the past two years what we need to do.

“The games seem so far away at the moment, but when we get back to pre-season we will start concentrating on tackling each game. We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves; we’ve got to take each game as it comes.

“Hugo was at Edinburgh for a long time and he did really well for us and I’m sure he’ll do well at Stade Francais.

“But when we pull on the Edinburgh shirt; we will be putting friendships to one side and it is all about winning that game.”