English clubs have been rewarded for their performance in this year's Heineken Cup with the guarantee of an extra place in next season's tournament.

Six Guinness Premiership clubs qualified for the present cup but, with Leicester having made the semi-finals and no club from France having done so, a seventh English club will be added to the next edition at the expense of a French team.

"English and French representatives are allocated a minimum of six places each," a European Rugby Cup spokesman told the Daily Mail. "The one additional place goes to the country whose club or clubs have gone furthest in the previous season's competition.

"Toulouse getting to the final last year, when the last two English teams went out in the semis, gave France the extra allocation. This season England have turned the tables by virtue of the fact that they have one team in the last four and France have none."

French clubs have traditionally dominated the Heineken Cup; this is the first year without a French presence in the semi-finals. Leicester face Cardiff Blues in the last four on 3 May, one day after the other semi-final between Ireland's Leinster and Munster.

Currently Saracens occupy seventh position in the Guinness Premiership, two points ahead of Northampton and three ahead of Wasps and Newcastle. However, the seventh English team in next season's Heineken Cup may come not via the domestic league but from Europe's secondary tournament, the Challenge Cup. The winner of that competition takes precedence over the seventh-placed Guinness Premiership club. England have three of the four semi-finalists in the Challenge Cup: Saracens, Northampton and Worcester. The French club Bourgoin complete the line-up.