Tana Umaga will take his Toulon side to the Memorial Ground to tackle Bristol Rugby in Round 2 banking on his players showing a sharper attacking cutting edge in the wake of their 56-3 home defeat by Northampton Saints.
The former All Blacks captain admits he was taken aback by Northampton's aggressive play in the contact area and expects more of the same from Bristol.
"The English sides have a great intensity around the contact areas and, certainly against Northampton last week, it took us a while to adapt to the more intense physical game," said Umaga.
"We knew the match against Northampton was going to be a difficult one for us and we could have put out a more experienced side but, with the short turnaround between the games, we wanted to give the chance to some of the guys who haven't had much game time.
"When we prepare for a game we prepare to the best of our abilities. I don't like to lose and we don't prepare games in order to lose.
"Survival in the Top 14 is always going to be important but we enjoy playing in Europe and I like to win stuff. I was disappointed with the result last week and we want to take the positives into the match against Bristol.
"We will be working on our attacking game this week, which has been a focal point for us for a while.
"We need to be more clinical as in crowded, attacking play we tend to get a bit over excited and the final piece of the jigsaw tends to fall away. Our finishing has to be better although when we get the space we are strong.
"The aggressiveness of the play around the ruck and the intensity of the close play is something we are not used to in the Top 14.
"We see a different type of rugby in Europe and the way the English sides work the tackle area is different to what we are used to and we need to make sure that we adapt to this more quickly and improve our clearing-out before this weekend's match.
"We didn't really adapt to Northampton's style of play until the second half and we know that we can't afford to do the same with Bristol. In terms of our squad, we won't have the short week in the run-up to this game but I'm keeping the matchday squad under wraps.
"What we are doing is marrying up some very seasoned professionals with some very young guys at the club. We want to build on the foundation of young players we have here.
"The average age of the team in the game against Northampton was about 22 and, although they were beaten, they showed some real promise for the future.
"We are not only having to re-build our side but also re-capture the hearts and minds of the local people. We have been out of the top flight for four years and it is taking time to get the club back to the level of importance within the town it used to have.
"We want local kids to have the ambition of one day playing for Toulon and it is going to take time but the team has a strong foundation and the future's bright."
