EUROPEAN CUP NEWS ROUND-UPLONDON IRISH had good reason for feeling sweet yesterday on a summer afternoon in Sunbury. When the team first got together under coach Brian Smith two and a half years ago, the side they held in high esteem, the team they envied for the way they played, the club on whose style they decided to base themselves was Toulouse, Saturday's opposition in the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup.

It has taken some time but as London Irish step into, what for them are unexplored areas of the competition, what now stands between them and a place in the final is the very team that generated their inspiration at the beginning of their journey.

"When we first got together, we'd have said that Toulouse are the pin-up team for us," said Smith. "London Irish have always had a very good defence but when we sat down together in the early days and showed a few clips, it was funny because a lot of those clips were of Toulouse. In a funny way we've modelled ourselves on the way they play."

While Toulouse will not allow such grandiose flattery as much as a disdainful shrug before they meet on Saturday, yesterday's airing of the Exiles' hopes and challenges marked out a team that were meeting this French side with a new-found zest for the big stage.

And after beating Perpignan in the quarter-final, what they have seen so far, they like.

The Exiles also go in to the fray as the team with the best lineout statistics in the Premiership, with a staggering 91 per cent success rate. Much of that work is due to the dominance of the secondrows, captain Bob Casey and Nick Kennedy, both of whom not only gratefully take their own darts but have been able to successfully disrupt those of the opposition too.

In that area much of the praise also lands at the door of Toby Booth, their highly regarded lineout specialist. He too knows Toulouse are also a strong set-piece team.

"It's like everything, you put time into something and you get better at it," says Booth . "If we can cut you off at source, we cut down on the amount of tackles we have to make and probably get about 25 per cent more ball ourselves.

"You look at Toulouse and they have class everywhere on the pitch. They can play in a way that is very, very hard to stop. That's why we have to stop them at primary sources to stop them getting front foot ball because we know if they do that they can cut anyone apart."

This early in the week Smith has not yet revealed what the make-up of his team might be. With play-maker Mike Catt recovering from injury, the outhalf and inside centre pairing is still in the air.

If Catt is fit he could very well partner Shane Geraghty in that duo, while Eoghan Hickey may also come into the equation if Catt is unavailable.

Hickey has played 15 matches this season and has a strike record with his kicking of 75 per cent. Geraghty has made 14 appearances this season out of a possible 30 but has not been kicking. His statistics of 100 per cent come from just one conversion.

Currently sitting seventh in the Premiership, it was announced yesterday that if London Irish win at the weekend, it will mean there will be seven English teams in next year's competition.

The Sunbury club are also currently ranked at fifth in Europe and have announced they are to leave their historical grounds for a new Rugby Centre of Excellence located somewhere in the same part of London. Everything appears to be moving in the right direction.

"This is a big game for everyone," said Smith. "There is a lot of experience in our changing-room. The last time we played them it was four tries apiece.

"I've said it before but we have matured a hell of a lot as a team and there is a lot of belief here.

"If you wind the clock back three years we have been taking steps along the way. There isn't a team we haven't beaten in England.

"The only scalp we haven't got is Leicester away and we should have beaten them at the beginning of the season."

London Irish readily acknowledge that they go in as the underdogs against the most successful side in the competition and they fully accept that a Toulouse without injured stars like Vincent Clerc, will simply dip back into their squad of international jewels.

London Irish will be looking to do what they did against Perpignan, play in the right part of the pitch, cut down on errors and stop the French side from playing the devastating game that neutrals hope they might see.

As Smith said, more in anticipation than fear: "The eyes of the European rugby world are on us this week."