Leinster were the only quarter-final qualifiers to come through the Pool stages with a 100 per cent record - but as the No 1 seeds they could easily feel they drew something of a short straw in facing Leicester Tigers at Lansdowne Road on Saturday.
The Tigers, the back-to-back Heineken Cup champions in 2001 and 2002, only qualified as the second best runner-up and claimed the No 8 seeding.
"Leicester are one of toughest teams in Europe and by getting the No 1 slot you would have thought we might have got someone slightly easier," said Leinster captain Reggie Corrigan.
"They are a real super power and fantastic team who are well and truly on the way back up. They have been rebuilding for the last couple of seasons after winning those two finals but now they are right back up there at the top.
"It is going to be a very difficult match for us, even playing at Lansdowne Road, but we do have plenty of video analysis on them, we have met them on many occasions and nowadays virtually no-one comes as a surprise any more.
"Leicester do have fabulous quality players but we are back training as a squad after the Six Nations and feeling pretty confident about the match.
"And this time Geordan (Murphy) will be against us rather than for us as he was in the Six Nations.
"He is another one who is a massive threat and, strictly with tongue in cheek, perhaps one of us should have taken him out in the final minutes of the international against Wales!
"Everyone knows he is a fantastic player and Leicester have those sort of players right across their team. They also have vast experience in players like Martin Johnson and Neil Back and they won't feel intimidated playing in Dublin.
"It is a very big challenge for us and I am hoping that home advantage might give us just the lift we need to make it through to the semi-finals.
"The main thing is that we have to believe in ourselves otherwise there is simply no point in even turning up."
Leinster have reached the semi-finals twice before, going down to Cardiff 23-14 in 1995 / 1996 and then, by their own admission, having a truly bad day at the office when beaten 21-14 by Perpignan at Lansdowne Road two years ago in front of a 37,000-strong crowd.
"We were desperately disappointed to go out in the semi-final stage two years ago to Perpignan," said Corrigan.
"A lot of those involved in that match are still in the squad and we want to make up for that disappointment.
"When we set out what we hoped to achieve this season our first goal was to get to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. We have done that and, if we could win the match on Saturday we could draw a lot of confidence for a home semi-final.
"We want to stay in the tournament for as long as possible and, naturally, the ultimate aim is to win the Heineken Cup."
