For the last eleven weeks we supporters have thought about little else but planning our trips to Paris and how incredible it will be when we walk off the field triumphant and looking forward to a home semi-final. Our team’s form since January 16th has however been dreadful. From six matches, we have won only once, 29-28 v Wasps at home at the beginning of February, and drawn another, 27-27 with Gloucester. Amongst the four defeats was a record 83-10 loss at Leicester and a tight home defeat to Bath this past Sunday.

Injuries are again at the forefront of our minds, just as in January. Three of our four senior props, Ian Peel, Micky Ward and Galo Alvarez Quinones were injured against Bath, but we are hopeful that all will be fit for Saturday. However, Colin Charvis and Jonny Wilkinson look like they will not make the game. The boys who take the field will need to find “it” on Saturday, find the form we showed we are capable of in the pool matches.

Stade are having a good season, currently fourth in the Top 16, behind Bourgoin, Biarritz and Toulouse. They have won 15 of their 23 league games so far. Their latest result was a 41-3 hammering by Biarritz in the Basque country. However, they have been in much better form than us since mid-January, winning away to Agen and Pau, defeating Perpignan and Montpellier at home (the latter 82-12!) and losing only to Biarritz and Bourgoin. They’ve won 11 of their 12 matches at home in the championship, and all three of their Heineken home games, coming through a pool six containing Ulster, Cardiff, and Gloucester, whose hopes they extinguished with a stunning 27-0 victory at Kingsholm right after we beat the Dragons

Stade’s squad is packed with quality, their internationals including Italians Mauro and Mirco Bergamasco, Argentinian and former Bristol scrum-half Agustin Pichot, and Frenchmen Brian Liebenberg, Christophe Dominici (sadly ruled out after being knocked unconscious against Italy two weeks ago), Stéphane Glas, and 72 times capped second row Olivier Brouzet, Ollie Le Bruise being late of Northampton.

The Falcons have a modest record in France, having lost both previous Heineken Cup matches across the channel. Those were at Perpignan 33-12 earlier this season and in Toulouse in October 2001 by the remarkably similar score 33-13. We have a little faired better in the Parker Pen Cup, winning four from nine trips, with the following results:

1997/98 v Perpignan W27-13

1997/98 v Biarritz L28-32

1997/98 v Agen L9-12

1999/00 v Narbonne W20-19

1999/00 v Stade Aurillacois L10-17

1999/00 v Pau L20-36

2000/01 v Begles-Bordeaux W26-18

2002/03 v Grenoble W19-12

2003/04 v Montferrand L13-25

This will be our first trip to Paris and we will be taking on one of Europe’s top teams (currently fourth in the Westand-sponsored Eurotable). Stade are hot favourites, whilst we are rank outsiders in the whole tournament, being the only one of the remaining eight sides never to have been this far before.

However, that doesn’t mean we will turn up and get hammered without a fight. Once referee Alain Rolland blows his whistle to start the game with a 0-0 scoreline, it is 15 v 15 on a level playing field.

In the stands we will also have a battle on our hands, trying to out-shout 40,000 French fans. But we can make ourselves heard, and I’ve no doubt we will. (Mark H’s note - we’re next to the press box and the camera positions - crank that volume up even more!) We can’t win the game ourselves, but we can give our boys the best possible chance if we let them know they are not alone in the huge cauldron of the Parc des Princes. And if it doesn’t come off, we at least must let Stade know they’ve been in a game!

Now is the time for talking to stop, and the action to begin at 4pm French time on Saturday.

See you at the Eiffel Tower!

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