By Mike Hill
October 10 2002

Tigers start their second defence of the European Cup tomorrow with a difficult away fixture to an in form Neath side. The experiences of the last two seasons underline how hard it is to win in Wales, when we lost away to both Pontypridd and Llanelli before going on to win the competition. A Friday night game in front of a packed, vociferous home crowd with the rain lashing down (the forecast isn’t good) sounds like a recipe for a hiding. The visit of any English team always spurs the Welsh club sides on but the English and European Champions coming to town will make the home side supercharged. Tigers will have to be absolutely spot on to win this game which given our current away form is a tall order.

After their stuttering start to the league campaign Tigers will welcome the change of competition but this smacks of out of the frying pan into the fire. The lack of England training this week will help though since it must affect the team’s performance having a large part of the squad missing training sessions. These sacrifices we are making had better be worth it Clive, two out of the three Autumn internationals and a Six Nations Grand Slam would be a fair return.

The selection for Friday will be interesting with few positions secure particularly behind the scrum. Since Saturday rumours of Josh’s impending move to Wasps there has been no official confirmation so it is assumed he is staying for now. Lynn Jones the Neath coach has been quoted as saying that his side are going to beat us because we will be over confident - he obviously hasn't seen us play this season!

Neath are currently fourth on points difference in Pool A of the Celtic League not far behind leaders Edinburgh and have been impressive lately. A few weeks ago they turned over Llanelli in some style who like Tigers are struggling slightly this season. We won't know the true strength of Neath until the game starts but don't expect it to be easy.

The lads enjoyed a celebration dinner last night to mark their phenomenal achievements last term. All that must now be forgotten if we are to progress to the knockout stage. On paper we should cruise through with both Beziers and Calvisano surely too weak for us but nothing can be taken for granted and both will raise their game when we play them. One things for sure Stimmo's going to need his magic long range kicking boots again this season.