Gloucester team manager Pete Glanville expects Perpignan to challenge them all the way on the European stage this weekend.

"Perpignan will be very physical up front and we expect the game to be a big forward orientated battle," he said. "If we can put in a big performance at Kingsholm on Sunday then we could strike a psychological blow for the trip to France the following weekend.

"So far we have achieved our objectives on the domestic front - we are still top of the Zurich Premiership - and we are looking eagerly forward to getting back into Heineken Cup mode.

"Trevor Woodman's neck injury is a blow and we will have to see how James Simpson-Daniel has recovered from glandular fever before making any decision on his fitness."

Perpignan coach Olivier Saisset said, "They don't come any bigger than Gloucester at the moment. We will certainly be the underdogs. We are going to have to fight hard over there but we are not afraid of that. We were not shown up in Munster, we fought it out well over there too.

"Despite our disappointing results in the Championship, I think it's a good thing we have to face up to the number one club in England at this point - it is the challenge we need to put us on the right road and perform."

* French champions Biarritz Olympique are riding high at the top of Pool 6 but their international No 8 Thomas Lièvremont has warned his team-mates that 1999 European champions Ulster promise to provide formidable opposition at Ravenhill on Friday night.

"It's going to be very tough," he said. "We expect Ulster to be a very tight, physical team, with a huge amount of determination - the qualities of all Irish teams.

"If anything I would say we are at a slight disadvantage by playing away in the first of the two legs as neither team knows what to expect so to have home advantage at that stage, would be a bonus.

"We are going to have to give everything to win. The Heineken Cup is one of our objectives for the season so in order to be sure of qualification we mustn't hold back at all.

"We won at Cardiff but Ulster are a much better team so it's going to be a much bigger task to get a result there than at Cardiff in the first round.

We've heard that Ravenhill can be an intimidating place to play but we are going to try to concentrate on our game and not worry about outside circumstances...such as the home crowd or climatic conditions."