Alex Dombrandt says that Harlequins are relishing “the biggest week in the club’s history” as they prepare for an Investec Champions Cup showdown with French giants Toulouse.
While it is Quins’ first semi-final appearance in the flagship club competition, record five-time winners Toulouse are one victory away from reaching an eighth final.
Dombrandt and company have already posted significant Champions Cup victories in France this season, beating Racing 92 and then stunning quarter-final opponents Bordeaux-Begles 42-41.
But the low point was a 47-19 home loss to Toulouse during the pool phase, underlining what a huge task Quins face in south-west France on Sunday.
“I haven’t seen any fear this week,” Quins number eight Dombrandt said.
“I have just seen excitement and smiles on faces. It is the biggest week in the club’s history. We wanted to go deep in both competitions (Champions Cup and Premiership), and we are doing that.
“The belief is strong among the group. We have won in France a couple of times – we went to Racing and beat a very good team, and we beat a very good Bordeaux team that was on fire.
“They (Toulouse) are a team of superstars across the board, and we also know we are going to have to go there and score tries, so we are going to go there and attack.
“A European semi-final, you have got to come out of the blocks, start fast, be physical and up for the fight.
“We know the challenge that is coming, but we know we have shown this season when we are there physically, when we start fast, we score early, we do really build and grow into the game.”
Toulouse have cruised into the semi-finals, totalling 273 points in just six matches, including half-centuries against Exeter and Cardiff.
Quarter-final opponents Exeter went toe-to-toe with them, trailing just 17-16 at the interval. But then it was exhibition rugby as a Toulouse team inspired by genial half-backs Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack racked up 47 more points.
Quins head coach Danny Wilson added: “This club has never been in a Champions Cup semi-final, and we are fully aware that we will go there as pretty decent underdogs, but what an opportunity that we have.
“This is the business end of the season. These are the games you want to be involved in.
“We are into May, and we are in the semi-final of the Champions Cup and fighting to be in the league play-offs. There is one other English team (Northampton) in that same position, no-one else.
“We are excited about it, we are not seeing it as something you have got to endure. You have got to throw the kitchen sink at it.
“We need to be aware of what they bring and how we deal with it, but we have also got to put our identity on this game because we are going to have to score tries to win.
“We are not going to go there and go three points, six points, nine points – that’s not going to happen.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here