The three remaining unbeaten sides in the Heineken Cup, Harlequins, ASM Clermont Auvergne and Toulon, all won at the weekend to keep alive their hopes of pulling off a league and European Cup double.
The Quins beat London Irish 26-15 in front of a full house of 80,000 fans at Twickenham Stadium to remain a point clear of Saracens at the top of the Aviva Premiership. Toulon, meanwhile, were 46-13 victors over Perpignan at home and Clermont smashed Bayonne 48-3.
Quins currently have a 10 points cushion at the top of Pool 3 in the Heineken Cup and need only to beat Connacht in Galway in Round 5 to be guaranteed a quarter-final ticket. They complete their programme with a home game against Biarritz Olympique.
The English champions scored two tries in their win over London Irish and had 16 points from the boot of outside half Nick Evans. It was another outside half, Jonny Wilkinson, who was at the heart of Toulon's big win at Syade Felix Mayol.
Wilkinson steered his side to a 12th win of their league campaign with five first half penalties and a match haul of 24 points to further press his claims for a place on the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia.
David Smith crossed for two tries in four minutes and replacement Pierrick Gunther also added two tries scores in the final 10 minutes for Toulon. They host Cardiff Blues in a repeat of the 2010 Amlin Challenge Cup final in Round 5 before ending their Pool 6 campaign with a trip to second placed Montpellier.
Clermont's 48-3 home win over Bayonne included a brace of tries from French international centre Wesley Fofana as they extended their unbeaten home run to 52 games. They scored six tries in total.
