London Irish travel to Brive this weekend having enjoyed a mixed bag of results on their return to Heineken Cup rugby.
The Exiles reached the semi-final stages of the 2007/08 tournament but then missed out completely in 2008/09 having failed to qualify through their domestic league.
They then marked their return to European rugby's top table with a stunning opening round win at defending champions Leinster in October, before falling to a surprise home defeat to the Scarlets a week later.
Now the Guinness Premiership runners up are preparing to face French outfit Brive knowing that their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages hang in the balance.
But despite the seriousness of what's at stake when the two sides meet at the Municipal Stadium on Saturday night, enigmatic scrum-half Paul Hodgson is already looking forward to plenty of banter from one of his England team-mates, plus a touch of French sun.
"I'm big friends with (Brive fly-half) Andy Goode and there's been a bit of banter there already - particularly with England," said Hodgson.
"From what I know about Brive, it's a fantastic place so I definitely won't mind going over and playing over there! Hopefully, we can do the job while we're out there."
