Montpellier and Connacht Rugby lock horns again in Round 5 of the Amlin Challenge Cup on Friday night with lock Michel Macurdy adamant the French club can win on the road and keep their quarter-final hopes alive.
Connacht won the Round 2 contest at Stade Yves du Manoir 22-19 and the unbeaten Irish region are two points clear at the top of Pool 2 as they prepare for the eighth tournament meeting between the sides.
"We expect a very tough game at Connacht - especially after losing to them at home in a tight game," said Macurdy. "Now we want to produce a good performance in Ireland with quarter-final qualification the goal. We know that we have to win both our next Amlin Challenge Cup fixtures to achieve that so it won't be easy.
"We stand two points behind Connacht so it will be a decisive game and we must win to keep our hopes alive - and picking up a bonus point on the way would be even better.
"The new rules of qualification for the knock-out stages make things more difficult for the teams as there is no room for error and you have to finish first in your group.
"Losing at home to Connacht put us in a tricky position but thanks to our other results we still have a chance to make things right. On a good day we can pull it off so let's hope we will do well in Connacht, it's definitely an important game for us. They are a good team and they made us struggle in the Round 2 match.
"And I have played against Connacht so many times now - it seems that whichever club I was playing for, be it Racing, Toulon, Bordeaux-Bègles and now Montpellier, Connacht are always in the group and it seems I can't escape from them.
"And all those games have been very difficult, it is rather a hostile ground to play at and the conditions were pretty awful and not the climate we are used to in the south of France.
"I've been playing at Montpellier for seven years now and we've always taken the Challenge Cup seriously so naturally we would now like to have a taste of the Heineken Cup and measure up against big teams like Munster or Cardiff Blues.
"We don't get the chance to face many Irish and Welsh clubs - apart from Connacht, that is - so we know the English clubs better because in the Challenge Cup there is a majority of French and English clubs involved and it would be a real pleasure to be part of the Heineken Cup next season.
"At Montpellier we have now reached the stage where we have a lot of talented players, both young and mature, that allows us to rotate players and we can produce quality groups for both the domestic and European competitions.
"I've been given the opportunity to captain the team in the Amlin Challenge Cup and to win away against Worcester with a lot of young players in our group made me really proud.
"The biggest asset of our team in the Amlin Challenge Cup is the general enthusiasm shown by all to compete in this European tournament. All the games are taken seriously and the pressure comes more in the quality of the performance we want to achieve as a group, producing good games of rugby.
"The Amlin Challenge Cup is the perfect opportunity to do that and to play great games."
