John Mulvihill believes Sunday’s Challenge Cup clash has the ingredients to be an entertaining European affair at Rodney Parade.
Two-times Challenge Cup winners Cardiff Blues kicked off their campaign with an opening day victory over Newcastle Falcons last week, while Stade Francais head into the clash on the back of a 44-20 defeat to Benetton Rugby.
Mulvihill revealed that his squad are hungry for further European success but insists his side will remain focus on the task ahead as they look to build momentum ahead of the festive derbies.
“Newcastle weren’t at their strongest, but they’ve started the Premiership really well. That meant that they rested a few players but certainly came to play,” said the head coach.
“We made a few adjustments because we were quite lateral in the first half and tightened up after the break.
“The 20-3 scoreboard in the second half put paid to that result and I was really happy to start with a win.
“They were pretty well beaten last week, but you look at their last three games and see that they’re a big, physical team who contest a lot of high kicks, counter ruck and bring that physical presence.
“They like to move the ball side-to-side and if the weather holds up, which I think it will do, it could be a really good contest.
“Obviously the club has a really good history in this competition and we’re now looking for a couple of home wins, and hopefully that will be enough to go through to the next stage.
“We can then reassess where we’re at when we’re at that stage.
“Of the 14 teams currently in the Challenge Cup, eight of those will go through to the next level with clubs also dropping down from Champions Cup.
“The top four sides will earn home games so we’re looking forward to hopefully getting back to a fantastic new-look Arms Park as soon as possible.
“We have our eye on this competition, but we also have three big derbies coming up. If we get decent results in those we’ll be there or thereabouts in our conference in the PRO14, which is what we’re all about.
“If we get this home win, we might only need to win one of our next two games in this competition to get through to the next stage.
“So we’re looking forward to it. More than 40 points were scored against them last week, but they scored 20 themselves, so they’re a team that we’ve seen putting good teams away in the Top 14 recently.
“They’re fourth in that competition so they have some firepower there, and it’s about whether they’ll bring that or not. No doubt they’ll bring good calibre of players, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Cardiff Blues welcomed some of their international contingent back for last week’s Challenge Cup opener.
Mulvihill was pleased with the impact they made upon their return and was glad to see them gain some much needed game-time.
“We have a few hungry players returning from the Welsh camp after not playing a lot of games,” added the Australian.
“Dillon had a bit of an injury, but you also have Cory Hill and Seb Davies coming back and are desperate to play.
“They’re putting themselves around at training, and all three of them were probably among our top five performers up in Newcastle last week, so it’s great to see them back.”