Warm welcome awaits Stade

The two sides go head-to-head in Belfast on Saturday afternoon with qualification from Pool 4 still very much in the balance after the opening two rounds of action.

Stade top the group after an unbeaten start to their campaign, while Ulster crushed Bath Rugby on the first weekend of this year's Heineken Cup before slipping to defeat at Edinburgh a week later.

And with the Irish province aware that victory here is crucial prior to the following week's visit to Brussels to face the same opposition, assistant coach Jeremy Davidson has a clear idea as to how his side must approach the game.

"I think it will be very important for us to give Stade a warm welcome up-front, in the early exchanges, so that we can set our stall out, against what is essentially a very strong international team," Davidson told the official Ulster website.

"If Stade get it right on the day, not only are they one of the best sides in France, they are one of the best in Europe.

"They are an exceptionally good team with world-class players in every position. There is no room for errors in play or set pieces come Saturday."

The two sides have a long history in Europe's top competition, having been drawn together in the pool stages on no fewer than four occasions.

Ominously for Stade, the home side has come out on top in all bar one of their eight encounters.

Ulster have shown their capabilities with 19-16, 22-10 and 18-10 victories at Ravenhill in 2002/03, '03/04 and '04/05, although when Stade travelled to Northern Ireland last season the French side were comfortable 26-10 victors on the opening weekend of the competition.

Having himself played and coached in France with current Top14 leaders Castres, Davidson knows the French mentality better than most. And although he admits that the stats suggest French sides in general don't perform to their best away from home, he insists that his Ulster players won't be taking a complacent attitude come Saturday afternoon.

"I think one of the down sides of French rugby has become a sort of tradition, they don't travel well, especially overseas," added the former Ireland and Lions lock who joined the Ulster coaching staff this summer.

"Although, with the higher level of professionalism today, this is having much less of an impact as you can see with the Bath game when Stade just piped them in the last few moments.

"The French are very, very passionate about rugby, and French rugby teams historically have based their game around a big pack of forwards dominating and winning the ball, then out in the backs they have the French flair for throwing the ball around.

"Stade Français exemplify this ethos to a tee; they play a real French style of rugby even though they have been coached by some foreign coaches over the past few years.

"They have also managed to keep a nucleus of French national players in their squad together with a number of top foreign internationals added for good measure.

"Their set piece is very dominant, their scrum, lineout, the maul and then out in the backs they are lucky to have a vast amount of talent to call upon, such as Lionel Beauxis at out-half, Julien Dupuy at scrum-half and Mathieu Bastareaud the French centre. It is not surprising they have a tremendous running game.

"So really it is a complete package you come up against whenever you are playing a team of this calibre from the French league."