Guy Noves has won more Heineken Cup crowns than any other coach but even after four titles the Toulouse mastermind is wary of the threats a highly motivated Edinburgh Rugby will present in Saturday's quarter-final at Murrayfield.
Noves guided Toulouse to European club rugby's most prestigious silverware in 1996, 2003, 2005 and 2010 and now they hope to take a big step closer to a seventh final, the winner in the Scottish capital facing either Munster Rugby or Ulster Rugby in the last four three weeks later.
"I am afraid of Edinburgh's will power, their determination to stay in the tournament after their impressive performances in the Pool stage when they only suffered one defeat," said Noves, who has been in charge of all 124 of the club's Heineken Cup matches so far.
"To win a Heineken Cup game away from home is tremendously difficult and they did that at Racing Metro 92 and London Irish which proves the quality of the team.
"On top of that they are very good technically and at ball retention and going through many phases.
"They are playing with a lot of movement and we know that we will not exhaust them by playing that kind of rugby.
"So while I am certainly afraid of their enthusiasm and their technical qualities I am also afraid of the talents of some of those Scottish players we saw in the Six Nations and we will need to be at our best in all aspects of the game - preparation, discipline, concentration and the set moves.
"It is a knock-out game and we must be totally focused on the job in hand and not be distracted by anything else.
"It certainly has the distinction flavour of a Heineken Cup quarter-final but is it any special than another quarter-final?
"I do not know about that but at least this year we will play in two quarter-finals, in both the Heineken Cup and in the Top14, because we are already qualified for that in the Top 14.
"It is already a good job and we are very happy to be involved in both knock-out stages. We want to succeed and qualify for the semi-final but we know that will be difficult like all quarter-finals, be they home or away."
No club has played - or won - more Heineken Cup matches than Toulouse and Noves is banking on that experience working to their advantage.
"We know the traps we must avoid at Murrayfield," he said. "For Edinburgh it is their most important game of the season so we will face highly motivated players and we must stay calm and be patient.
"Maybe it is in the preparation for the game, the atmosphere that you need to create for the game and the necessity to keep focus even if there are a lot of distractions."
Toulouse know what it takes to win at Murrayfield - although they needed extra time beat Stade Français Paris 18-12 in the 2005 final - and Noves can even see the funny side of his "arrest" at the final whistle when he attempted to get another member of the coach staff onto the pitch for the celebrations.
"There must have been 17 of them, because two would not be enough," he quipped. "However, if I could leave the stadium the same way as last time, with two safety agents and a victory, then I would take that right now.
"I had invited one of the Toulouse managers who was in the stand to join us on the pitch at the end of the game but the safety agents disagreed and, while I tried to explain to them, apparently we had a misunderstanding and we all know how that ended."
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