LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuter) - French champions Toulouse are under pressure to reverse an unhappy run of results against English opposition when they visit Leicester in a crunch European Cup encounter on Saturday.
Victory for either side will almost certainly be enough to secure a quarter-final place, with the losers destined for the newly-introduced play-off round next month. The problem for Toulouse, champions of Europe two seasons ago, is that beating Leicester has already proved beyond them twice this year.
When the sides met in last season's semifinal in January, the French were swept aside 37-11 and they failed to take revenge at home last month when a battling Leicester rearguard action engineered a 22-17 win.
Including their disastrous 77-17 defeat to Wasps in last season's pool stages, Toulouse have never beaten an English club in the tournament's short history and are still missing Emile Ntamack and Christophe Deylaud.
``The semifinal we lost at Leicester last year is a really bad memory. They dominated us in every aspect of the game,'' admitted Toulouse coach Guy Noves.
But French prop Christian Califano is promising Leicester a tougher encounter this time. ``We have to come home with a positive result. We know it's going to be a very tough and physical match, but that's just the way we like them.''
Former Wallaby coach Bob Dwyer, Leicester's director of rugby, has been forced to delay naming his team because of several injury doubts, including South African Joel Stransky who suffered a dead leg last weekend.
``About two-thirds of the team have been unable to train this week, but it's given us more time to talk about the game so we're looking at it as a positive rather than a negative,'' said Dwyer.
``It's a huge match. Everyone remembers the semifinal last year.''
Brive and Bath meet in another Anglo-French re-match on Sunday, the French side having lost 27-25 two weeks ago. Bath captain Andy Nicol, yet to play this season, is finally back in contention after a hamstring injury.
Other crucial matches include Cardiff's visit to unbeaten Harlequins, who are determined to make sure of home advantage in the quarter-finals by heading pool D. There will be an added edge to proceedings as Cardiff are still unhappy about the 90-day ban handed out to lock Tony Rees after he was cited for kicking by Quins last month.
The Welsh side includes two Canadian internationals in John Tait, who makes his debut, and Bobby Ross.
In Italy, Treviso must face Llanelli without South African kicker Lance Sherrell, who damaged ribs in the 52-6 romp over Caledonia.
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