Double Heineken Cup champions Leicester Tigers have set their sights on bagging nine points from their two clashes with cup holders London Wasps - starting with the Round 3 showdown at The Causeway on Sunday.
Leicester Tigers backline coach Pat Howard, who has been credited with a lot of Tigers' early-season success, said: "To be honest, we probably need to win both games to get ourselves through and get at least one bonus point out of the two matches.
"Nine points out of these two next games is probably our goal."
Leicester's last Heineken Cup showing was a disastrous performance against the current French Top 16 pace-setters Biarritz Olympique but Howard is convinced the scars have healed.
"You have got to move on and deal with your problems - you shouldn't get too far ahead or too far behind," he said. "It's gone, we've played badly and we've just got to learn from that experience.
"Wasps are going well, they've won two from two in the Heineken Cup, and we've got to play well to keep ourselves in contention."
Tigers and Wasps are no strangers to each other, having recently clashed in the Zurich Premiership with Leicester snatching a late 17-17 draw at High Wycombe in an enthralling contest.
"I think this week can only become a more impressive game, if you consider that we were without 11 players and Wasps were missing around six or seven guys the last time out," said Howard. "The players coming back are really going to make a big difference to both teams. I'd imagine Sunday's game is really going to be played at what is effectively Test match level and I expect quite an intense match.
"Harry Ellis and Ben Kay, in particular, will be chomping at the bit to play, having sat on the bench for England over the last two and three weeks respectively. I appreciate it will really be hard for guys like Graham Rowntree and Julian White, but it's a great way to come back and if this was a smaller match it would be even tougher, but really, this is going to be a hard game. Harry and Ben should be coming back really fresh and I'm really excited for both matches.
"We know we can win both games - but we also know we can lose both. We have to turn up and play and that comes down to the coaches' preparation beforehand and the players' performances on the day."
"You normally play the chess before the game - you deal with the consequences afterwards. Before the game you've got to go out there and analyse things as best you can. You have got to have a game plan - probably a 'Plan B' and also a 'Plan C' - when you go into games like this. We're now playing a lot of chess against each other, trying to anticipate each other's moves, and I'm really glad that I've got some thinkers out there on the field.
"It makes it really interesting when people like Julian White and Geordan Murphy come back into contention, but you still have to turn up on the day and play to the best of your abilities. "
