Dan Carter has made a huge impression at Perpignan ahead of his scheduled December arrival in time for Rounds 3 and 4 of the tournament.
Dan Carter has still not put boot to ball in anger for the Catalan cause but he has already made a huge impression at Perpignan ahead of his scheduled December arrival in time for Rounds 3 and 4 of the tournament.
While all the hype has been about the signing of the ace All Blacks No 10, the club have to try and build on their opening round 27-16 Pool 3 win over Benetton Treviso when they travel to Ospreylia to meet Ryan Jones' team in their Pool 3 showdown at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.
It means there will be no need for the Ospreys to have a "Get Carter" mission although Jacques Brunel, Perpignan's Director of Rugby, admits "of course everyone is still talking about Dan Carter.
"And, given his reception by both the club and the supporters when he visited us back in September, we know that he is going to have an important impact on the team, particularly in terms of their ambitions and confidence.
"He will, we hope, provide that little extra which can often make the difference between winning and losing - particularly at this level of rugby - where it is often the small details which are the most important."
Even without Carter, the club have won four out of six in the Top 14 to go with that Round 1 win over Treviso.
"The team has been playing and performing well since the start of the season," said Brunel. "The Ospreys game will be crucial for our qualification hopes and, so much as we are looking forward to Dan's arrival, we will have to play it without him so we really can't afford to think about how he will impact on the team until he is here."
Perpignan, beaten by Toulouse in the 2003 final in Dublin, made it through to the knock-out stages for the fourth time in eight tournaments last season before going down 20-9 to London Irish.
"We were obviously bitterly disappointed with the loss last year in the quarter-final," said Brunel. "Although the level of the Premiership is very high - and London Irish are as good as any team in the Division - we had played very well against them in the Pool stages and perhaps we ourselves lost the game through our errors.
"There was a great deal of frustration and that galvanised us in our preparation for this year's campaign.
"That said, I don't know the Ospreys very well. I have been watching them since the start of the Magners League and, seeing their performances against the likes of Ulster, it is easy to see how dangerous they can be.
"Everyone knows that in order to be sure of qualification you must win at least two of your three away matches so we will have to get a victory either at the Liberty Stadium or at Welford Road which is a formidable ambition.
"A quarter-final in Barcelona is always the objective of the club. We are very proud of our Catalan heritage and we have strong relations with Barcelona and the south of Catalonia and it would be fantastic for us to be able to take our match over the border.
"But it is a tough ask and I'm focussing on qualifying for the quarter-finals, be it as Pool winners or a best runner-up. With the quality of this Pool, that's all I can look for."
