Drahm Drinking in Last Chance Saloon

Well, that is the situation facing Shane Drahm and his Northampton Saints teammates as they endeavour to repeat their Heineken Cup-winning performance of 2000. The semi-final draw, held this week in Edinburgh - the location of the 10th Heineken Cup final on May 22 - has presented them with what many believe is the trickiest route to the showpiece event.

"The semi final lineup isn't ideal for us," said Drahm. "But we always knew we would have to do it the hard way if we were to do anything in the Heineken Cup this season. Our first goal was to reach the quarter-finals and that was no easy task.

"Now we've got to go to Toulouse, who are everyone's favourites to win the tournament and then we could face everyone's second favourites Leinster in Dublin in the semi-final.

"If it's not Leinster then we could find ourselves playing in arguably the biggest derby match in Heineken Cup history against Leicester Tigers, now wouldn't that be something!

Despite all this Drahm knows the Heineken Cup represents his sides best chance of winning a trophy this season.

"The Heineken Cup is our last chance of silverware this season and we don't want to waste the opportunity."