Biarritz v Bath; San Sebastian, Today, 3pm (Irish-time), On TV: Sky Sports 2: Olly Barkley admits he is ready and in the mood to inspire Bath's latest European glory bid by causing fresh Heineken European Cup heartache for Biarritz.

The Guinness Premiership formbook suggests Bath should be nowhere near a European Cup semi-final, after winning just eight of their 20 league games this season. But victory over the French champions at the 32,000-capacity Estadio Anoeta home of Real Sociedad would secure a place in next month's Millennium Stadium final.

Bath have already defied the odds by winning away to Leinster, Bourgoin and Leicester - despite having props David Flatman and Taufa'ao Filise sinbinned during the frantic closing stages at Walkers Stadium - so Biarritz on Basque territory will not unduly worry them.

Biarritz are also one defeat away from losing three successive European Cup semi-finals - Toulouse and Stade Français were their previous conquerors - which suggests Bath have more than a fighting chance of reaching Cardiff.

Centre Barkley was a 16-year-old when Andy Nicol lifted the Cup following Bath's dramatic 1998 victory against Brive in Bordeaux, but he is crucial to their hopes of securing a second final appearance. And he has the added incentive of confirming his readiness for England's summer tour to Australia after missing the entire Six Nations campaign through injury.

Barkley, assessing an inevitable seething San Sebastian cauldron that could see Bath fans outnumbered by 10 to one, said, "It can inspire people or it can freeze people. And as one of the drivers of the team, I will be trying to push people and trying to make calls and really trying to inspire people.

"The last thing they need is me freezing, and I am well aware of that. I like the idea of being able to make key judgments at key times in games.

"That is what I've said to the boys, to have confidence in me to make the key decisions at the right times.

"I am keen to play, having not played for so long, and I am hungry at the moment. I feel that the confidence is there."

Barkley has benefited from Brian Ashton's return to Bath as head coach, and the Premiership strugglers know they cannot abandon the Ashton philosophy of being bold under pressure in their biggest game for eight years.

He continued: "One thing I've learnt over the past couple of months is that it requires an enormous amount of strength and courage to go out and play the way we want to play big games.

"I think it is important we can go out there and just play our way. To my mind, that means doing the right thing at the right time, it doesn't mean running the ball whenever we can.

"But if the right thing to do is kick the ball into the corners on their 22, or run the ball from our own line, then that is what we do.

"The boys have been encouraged to attack the ball and take our opportunities."

A Bath victory would mean seven places for English clubs in next season's European Cup, Bath securing one of those spots, yet if Biarritz click, everything could quickly go pear-shaped, and the worry for Bath supporters is that players such as Dimitri Yachvili, Damien Traille, Sereli Bobo, Philippe Bidabe and Serge Betsen will inspire a vintage French performance, although skipper Thomas Lievremont's groin injury looks set to rule him out.

Scrumhalf Yachvili admitted, "We have always put everything into this competition, but getting to the semi-finals two years in a row and then missing out has been really painful for us.

"We know how important the tournament is to our supporters as well as the players and we couldn't be more motivated.

"We are looking to bring the trophy home with us this year."