The Heineken Cup is back and prestigious quarter-final places - not to mention priceless home advantage in the last eight - are all there to be won and lost.
Only a handful of the 24 teams are out of the running but even they can still have a major influence on who finally does qualify for the knock-out stages.
Leinster are five points clear at the top of the Magners League following their 26-15 weekend victory over the Ospreys but in the Heineken Cup they are a team whose destiny lies with the others in Pool 6 - Toulouse, Leicester Tigers and Edinburgh.
Table toppers and treble champions Toulouse travel to the RDS on Saturday and Leinster full back Girvan Dempsey, who has already played in 57 Heineken Cup matches, insists "we are not out of it yet.
"There are still 10 points available to us from the last two matches and, if others do not take full advantage and we can keep the pressure on them, then you never know
what can happen.
"But realistically we slipped up in the away game against Edinburgh - a game we had targeted as a must win game to keep things in our own hands.
"Defeat there means things are a lot more difficult for us now and, although Toulouse are certainly favourites to win the Pool, we can still be hugely influential and we will be doing everything possible on Saturday to stay in contention.
"And, whereas in the early years of the Heineken Cup we were perhaps a bit fearful of playing French clubs - we may have had something of a mental block - since then we have learnt a lot in our games against them and broken down that barrier.
"Now we are confident that, on our day and if we perform to our full capabilities, we can beat anyone.
"That experience is vital in a tournament like the Heineken Cup, where every single game is a huge pressure occasion, and, although we know we are not in a great position, we will be giving it everything we have got in the last two rounds.
"We are going into the match on the back of a good win against the Ospreys, a win that will give us considerable confidence as we started really well and went on to play some exciting stuff.
"It put us clear at the top of the Magners League but now we are totally focused on the Heineken Cup challenge ahead against Toulouse."
