French Champions Biarritz Olympique will go into the tournament determined not to make another false start to their Heineken Cup campaign.

Nicolas Brusque, the French full back, said: "We don't want to fall into the same trap as last year when we got off to a nightmare start by losing at home to Bath. We carried that defeat throughout our Heineken Cup campaign so our priority is not to do the same this time around.

"We will go all out to get a result in Cardiff so that we can host Northampton Saints the following week under a little less pressure. It will be a mighty task as Cardiff is always an extremely difficult place to go. They have a lot of internationals in their ranks and we won't be taking them lightly - but we want to take our chances.

"We don't want to have any regrets this season. We are determined not to disappoint ourselves, our club and our supporters, though there is more pressure on us to do well this year.

"We are French champions so we have a duty to carry the French flag but more than that we want to make up for our poor show last season. Also, having won the French championship, we want to go for the next step which is to measure ourselves against the best teams in Europe.

"As for Northampton, they have had a very good start to their English Premiership campaign.

"We are embarking on the unknown in many ways but all our opposition merit a huge amount of respect and we will be looking at them more closely over the coming weeks.

"It really is a heavy-weight Pool, with two former European champions in Ulster and Northampton Saints, and it is going to be a huge challenge. But it is a challenge we aim to meet."