The European Challenge Cup heads for the knock-out stages with Bourgoin's goal-kicking international scrum half Morgan Parra sure to have been identified as the potential dangerman by London Irish...
... when they clash in front of the television cameras at the Madejski Stadium on Thursday night in the first of the Euro quarter-finals.
With four of the five English club qualifiers having earned home advantage, Bourgoin along with Brive, Connacht Rugby and Newcastle Falcons are required to produce winning performances on the road to make the last four.
"It'll be hard to play away but, who knows, we would very much like to create a surprise by clinching a victory which would be awesome," said the 20-year-old after a stunning 43-6 Top 14 demolition of Dax.
"After all, we have nothing to lose in this tournament. We have never played against London Irish so we will have to analyse them this week but we do know they are a great team with a big reputation so we are up for a tough challenge.
"This is my last season with Bourgoin so I would like to finish it on a high with them. I want to make the most of it and spend as much time with the friends I play with at the club. Playing for Clermont will allow me to progress and improve technically because I still have a lot to learn and once the season is over I am up for the new challenge ahead of me."
While the Exiles - last season's Heineken Cup semi-finalists - stormed through the Pool stages to claim the No 1 seeding, Bourgoin's battle to preserve their Top 14 status has led to the odd hic-cup along the way with them making the last eight as the third best Pool runner-up.
"Our objective this season was to end up first in our Pool," said Parra, who is already well established on the international stage. However, we only qualified for the quarter-finals by being one of best-runners up, so it was not quite what we
hoped for but it was a good surprise anyway. We failed twice against Petrarca Rugby and that was a shame. In the end we got through thanks to results achieved by other teams that went in our favour. "
"There has been a long break since the end of Round 6 through to these quarter-finals and, like all of my French team-mates, we have had to switch back to the Top 14 following the Six Nations campaign so it has been eventful to say the least. However, there was nothing quite as good as winning against first Montpellier and then Dax last weekend to put all of us at Bourgoin back in good heart - and also proving that we are back in our old routine and capable of producing solid team performances with a sense of cohesion and healthy interaction within the group."
