Biarritz Confident

Biarritz scrum-half, Dimitri Yachvili compares Munster with the Ireland side France defeated recently and talks of going into Sunday’s game with confidence

Dimitri Yachvili and Peter Stringer go head-to-head again when Biarritz Olympique and Munster meet at Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastian just three weeks after facing each other in their national causes.

Yachvili was the 26-19 winner at Lansdowne Road in the Six Nations, kicking eight points for France, but accepts that Munster s wealth of experience in the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup could be a powerful and major influence.

We are expecting a big game and a huge challenge from Munster, said the Biarritz scrum half. The Munster team boasts a great deal of talent with so many players in the Irish national squad.

What is more, having been involved in six quarter-finals in the last six seasons they have certainly shown that they have the quality of a top European team.

And the strengths of the Munster team are that of the Irish team, with a very strong pack and set pieces which allows them to make good progress up the pitch and, despite the loss of Ronan O Gara with a knee injury, they still have many talented players behind their strong pack.

However, we are going into this match with confidence in our team which has a very good start to 2005 after our defeat of Toulouse.

It s a source of great pride to host a team like Munster in a stadium like Anoeta. It s an unfamiliar ground to us and a big first to play there, but we also know the fierce pride of our supporters and that they will turn out in droves to support us. It s up to us to put everything into this match and give them a fantastic moment.