Irish sides hoping to make big moves

Rugby/ European Cup: It's rugby's equivalent to "moving day", a golfing term that refers to tournament Saturdays, when players look to glide into serious contention. The next two weekends in the Heineken European Cup offer a parallel in terms of ambition; teams know they can reinforce their new-year resolutions with something more tangible than hope.

The fact the next 10 days of rugby offer home-and-away confrontations between teams in all six pools merely serves to increase the stakes. Amarillo Slim would relish the connotations: heads-up rugby, poker style.

And that's exactly what it is, not least because the French teams tend to indulge in a little bit of bluffing, manifest in selections for away legs; they rarely correspond to the sides that take the field for home ties. And so predictions must be tempered accordingly.

Bourgoin offer probably the most glaring example of the aforementioned tendency. In 2004 they shipped 92 points at Lansdowne Road but the following week came within a whisker of turning over the same Leinster side at Stade Pierre Rajon, Brian O'Driscoll's late "wonder try" giving the visitors a narrow victory.

Leinster hit the half-century against the same opposition in Dublin last season only to lose narrowly in the away leg.

Ensconced in Pool Four alongside Munster, Cardiff and Leicester Tigers, Bourgoin prepare to face the English side twice over the next couple of weekends. The opening salvo will be at Stade Pierre Rajon tonight. The French include a few players who will be familiar to Irish fans: captain and French international Julien Bonnaire, Olivier Milloud, Kiwi secondrow Bryce Williams, who played with Leinster last season, and former Munster scrumhalf Mike Prendergast, named on the bench.

Tigers coach Pat Howard has made 15 changes from last weekend - when the Irish pair Frank Murphy and Ian Humphreys formed the halfback pairing and Gavin Hickie was hooker - and this sees the return, in an Irish context, of Geordan Murphy, Leo Cullen and Shane Jennings. Johnny Murphy is named among the replacements.

The fact Leicester have all their international players available makes them strong favourites, even away from home. Bourgoin try to bully teams at home, and that's not a realistic option against this Tigers eight.

Pursuing Irish links, there is, incidentally, a late change of referee, Donal Courtney replacing the injured Welsh policeman Nigel Whitehouse.

The other match this weekend in Pool Four is the clash of Cardiff and Munster on Sunday. Few teams can say they have played and never lost to Munster in European competition - but the Welsh club can make that proud boast.

This game really is a defining moment in this season's campaign for the reigning champions: if they can exorcise the ghosts of Cardiff past, they will assume the whip hand ahead of the return fixture, at Fortress Thomond, six days later. It's arguably the game of the weekend.

In Pool One, two French sides, Perpignan and Castres, may have to share the spoils this weekend and next, allowing Wasps to steal a march ahead of the new year.

Wasps face Benetton Treviso in successive fixtures, and though the Italians are formidable at home, the Londoners should take at least nine points from the two matches.

Agen travel to Lansdowne Road, perched on top of Pool Two and with a superb away victory in Kingsholm to boot.

Despite that win over Gloucester, their away form is otherwise pretty rank; they have lost nine of their last 10 games on the road. Leinster should have too much for them in Dublin but the destiny of Michael Cheika's team could really be shaped tomorrow week. Leinster simply have to win that rematch.

Gloucester and Edinburgh will probably share the points over the next fortnight but will both still have a large say in the outcome of the pool.

Sale's chances in Pool Three have been wrecked by injuries to Charlie Hodgson, Andrew Sheridan and Jason White, three key performers. They travel to take on the pool toppers, mighty Stade Français, this weekend, but again it is the rematch, at Edgeley Park, where the English side are expected to win, that will be crucial. Their forces trimmed, Sale could well find themselves overtaken by the Ospreys.

Ulster have to beat London Irish in successive matches, while Llanelli will feel a victory over Toulouse this weekend and a bonus point in France could be enough to speed them on their way in Pool Five.

Finally, Pool Six is about who finishes second to last season's European runners-up, Biarritz.

Victory at Netherdale and again a week later would allow the French side to coast into the quarter-finals.