London Irish travel to fortress Ravenhill for the return leg of their all-Irish double-header against Ulster Rugby with Director of Rugby Brian Smith insisting they can still take plenty out of the 12th season of European club rugby's leading competition...
A 29-13 victory over Ulster at the Madejski Stadium meant both teams have one win from their three starts to allow Llanelli Scarlets to pull away at the top of Pool 5.
"We worked desperately hard to get into the Heineken Cup and we are certainly going to make the most of our time in the tournament," said Smith.
"We got a win last Saturday and we are happy about that. We were also happy with our performance in Toulouse - despite going down 37-17 - but we let the cat out of the bag against Llanelli Scarlets.
"It means two out of three performances have been terrific and, if we can maintain that form on Friday night in Belfast, then that is all I can ask for from the players. We do need to become more consistent but that was certainly the gutsiest display of the season.
"However, we know they will not be giving anything up at Ravenhill. It was pretty lively between the two teams on the field at the Madejski and it was a bit lively at half time in the tunnel between the two management teams.
"And I would put that performance in our top three for the season and in the top five in my time here. Seilala Mapusua was massive for us during the time we were down to 13 men and he put in some real big hits. I think it was the best performance he has given for us.
"And Shane Geraghty was very significant for us, he is a tidy kicker, a wonderful distributor and his try at the posts showed what he can do."
The England-born 20-year-old, who scored one try and created another for Mike Catt, has dual qualifications through his father from County Mayo and added: "We hope this win will give us something to build on and it has certainly been a step up from the European Challenge Cup.
"It was a strange game for awhile because of those two yellow cards, which meant we did not have a full back or blindside wing and we had a No 8 playing at centre, and team spirit came through on this occasion.
"And having Mike (Catt) outside me takes all the pressure off me and when he scored his try he proved there is still a bit of life left in those old legs.
"The key thing now is doing it all again on Friday - and I am sure it is going to be a lot harder at Ravenhill than it was at the Madejski."
Ulster are left propping up the Pool and the defeat leaves them still looking for their first win on the road in England after nine attempts.
"We knew that if we didn't win at the Madejski we were effectively out of the competition," said coach Mark McCall. "But we are a proud bunch and we want to win all three remaining games.
"People will be saying our season is over but we have still got the Magners League title to defend and three big European games to win.
"We have to focus on Friday night because at the Madejski I do not know why we took so long to get going. We rode the early storm and then got ourselves back into the game but we had started very poorly and in the end it was hugely disappointing for everyone."
