London Irish prop Neil Hatley is one of the more seasoned travellers in Europe. Now into his seventh season of European action he celebrated his 200th appearance for the Exiles in Pau last weekend.
It was yet another win on French soil in the European Challenge Cup for the English Premiership outfit and provided the highly popular prop with the near perfect way to celebrate his double century.
"A try wouldn't have gone amiss to round off proceedings, but other than that it was another good performance and a result for us on French soil," said Hatley, who has figured in 29 of the 37 European games the Irish have played since he made his debut against Brive in the European Challenge Cup in 1999.
"Having two French teams in our Pool this season is a real challenge, but we've got two home matches in the next two rounds and by the time we get to December we should know exactly how the Pool stands."
"The Heineken Cup is the tournament in which everyone wants to play and it's great that the Challenge Cup provides a gateway to the top tier. We'd obviously like to qualify by right from the Guinness Premiership, but we'd certainly take a ticket from winning the European Challenge Cup," he added.
"This tournament is very important to us and we'll be going flat out to win it. We've made a good start and now we've got to follow it up with a victory over Rugby Parma this weekend.
"The good thing about the win in Pau is that we did it without a number of our top line players - Mike Catt, Olivier Magne and Kieron Dawson. We have a lot of good youngsters pushing hard for regular spots in the team and that can only be a good thing."
Next up for the Irish are Rugby Parma, who were beaten 50-23 at home by Agen last weekend. The Irish will start as firm favourites to pick up maximum points, although Hatley knows better than to take any team from granted in Europe these days.
"When I first started playing in the European Challenge Cup the standard wasn't that great. There were a few tough games, and then some very easy ones," said the 36-year-old prop.
"But the competition has definitely got stronger over the years. The Italian teams have made big advances and the French are taking it far more seriously than they used to do
.
"Overall, playing in Europe, whether it be in the Heineken Cup or European Challenge Cup, has been a great experience for the players. One of the best trips we had was to Spain four seasons ago to play Valladolid in the European Challenge Cup.
"We won the game quite easily, 71-5, and then had a great night with their players. We played a bit of a joke on our New Zealand prop Simon Halford by making him sit on a table where they could only speak Spanish.
"Unfazed, he spent the night singing, dancing and waving his shirt around his head with the rest of the players and having a great time. When we asked him afterwards about what everyone was talking about he just shrugged his shoulders and said 'I couldn't understand a word they were saying'."
