Will Greenwood's Tie of Round 6

Two sides may have already qualified for the knock out stages in the form of French giants Toulouse and Biarritz, but there is still much to play for across the groups. One or two mouth watering ties to savour include Northampton's clash with Munster in Limerick on Friday night and Leicester's journey to tackle the Ospreys in South Wales on Saturday, as well as the Twickenham battle between champions Leinster and London Irish.

Year on year we reach this stage with the qualification permutations for a number of teams in the balance and that makes it a real spectacle of rugby. Results across the groups can affect the hopes of numerous clubs - for example, if Northampton struggle, the door opens a little wider for London Irish, and that's before you throw in the incentive of making it into the Challenge Cup as one of the best placed second seeds in the pool once the dust has settled on this weekend's action. It makes the competition very special indeed, and will certainly ensure that players are keeping their eyes on results across Europe over the course of the weekend, as well as wanting to end their campaigns with a win, whatever the scenario that is facing them.

Leicester's visit to the Liberty Stadium to tackle the Ospreys is the tie of the round for me. It's a straight forward winner takes all clash between two teams with more than a little history in the competition. They've faced each other in the pool stages in three of the last five seasons, with only one of their previous five meetings being decided by more than a converted try, including the dramatic 32 all draw at Welford Road in the opening round of this season's Heineken Cup.

They say familiarity breeds contempt and there is certainly a fair amount of bad blood between these teams, both from the pre match verbal jousting that seems to accompany each game, to tempers boiling over on the field. The corresponding fixture last season saw Osprey's claim a narrow 15 - 9 victory, although both teams subsequently made it into the quarter finals. It's not a luxury that either side have this time.

For me, Ospreys approach this game knowing that if they falter again on the big stage, more accusations will fly about their ability to turn up for the ones that matter. Over the recent years, despite the undoubted stars running through their line up, they've been found wanting when it really counts. The worst example was the quarter final versus Saracens in 2008 and it's now become a serious monkey on their backs. It makes it exceptionally difficult to believe in them.

The Tigers will need to make the most of any nerves in the Welsh team's ranks, and you can expect them to play exactly the way we expect from great Leicester teams, utilising the immense assets they have up front. The basis for victory is likely to come from an immense forward effort, led by Lewis Moody, Dan Cole and the inform Geoff Parling, arguably the outstanding performer in the second row in the Premiership. This will be a real test for youngsters such as Parling and Cole, and it will be intriguing to see how they fare opposite an Ospreys scrum packed with talent from Adam Jones, Marty Holah and captain Ryan Jones.

Behind the scrum, Ben Youngs, who for me was unfortunate not to make the England squad ahead of the man he's replaced in the Leicester team, Harry Ellis, is sure to provide momentum. He tackles bravely, has good vision, a wonderful pass, an eye for a break, attacking box kicks - all the attributes to be a top class scrum half. His half back pairing with Toby Flood must operate well, and Flood must also demonstrate that he has eliminated his tendency to switch off for 20 minutes of games.

It's sure to be 80 minutes of full blooded Heineken Cup action, and you can't pick a winner - for me, the recent form and experience of Leicester makes them slight favourites, but then you can't under-estimate the talent in this Ospreys team and home advantage could be crucial. Which way will the cards fall? I can't wait for Saturday to find out.