The Albany Gazette - Dupont's Toulouse face must-win Sale meeting with Champions Cup hopes on the line

Dupont's side have lost two of their opening three pool games in the tournament so far, including a worrying 20-14 loss at Saracens last Sunday.

The French club and their galaxy of stars sit fourth in Pool 1 and need at least a win to reach the next stage of the competition with South African side the Sharks, who host Clermont, threatening their hopes.

"We know we don't have the choice if we want to qualify," scrum-half Dupont told reporters after the defeat to Saracens.

"We have to claim the five points.

"We will concentrate, try and win that game and see where it takes us," the 29-year-old added.

Toulouse's drab group stage results have also hampered their hopes of a record-extending seventh crown.

They are now set to play all their knockout games away from home, if they squeeze through.

During their past six title successes, they have only played two knockout matches on the road.

"We have the experience to know we will have to travel to the better ranked team who will be favorites," Dupont said.

"We will have to go to the big fish if we manage to qualify.

"We know with four games you can't really slip up and unfortunately, we've slipped up twice.

"It will be up to us to hold our heads up high and if we qualify to show a different side of ourselves, we know we can do better," the 2021 World Rugby player of the year added.

- Ambitious Bath -

In Pool 2, all six teams have a chance of sealing one of the four knockout spots including English champions Bath who host Edinburgh and three-time winners Toulon, who head to Gloucester.

Bath, who won the title in 1998, collected a treble last season of the Premiership, the Premiership Cup and the second-tier Challenge Cup but have looked rusty in recent weeks, leaking a home league loss to Northampton.

"Ideally we can get the home play-offs and then go on from there," Bath's Scotland fly-half Finn Russell said

"But if we're going to go and really compete in this tournament we have to probably be better than we have been this year already.

"We're probably not satisfied with how we are playing this year, which is a good place to be in given that we're in good positions in both competitions (Prem and Champions Cup), but we know there's a lot more life in us," he added.

The Stormers, La Rochelle and Leicester are all battling for two berths from Pool 3, with the English side heading to Cape Town and Ronan O'Gara's two-time winners travelling to Harlequins.

Holders Bordeaux-Begles are guaranteed a spot in the last 16 before heading to exciting Bristol, who have also secured their place in the next round from Pool 4, as have Northampton.

Pau, the Scarlets and the Bulls are battling it out for the final berth with the French club hosting the South Africans and the Welsh side heading to Saints, runners-up to Bordeaux-Begles last May.

Fixtures (times GMT)

Friday

Pool 2: Pau (FRA) v Bulls (RSA)

Pool 4: Bath (ENG) v Edinburgh (SCO) (both 2000)

Saturday

Pool 1: Sharks (RSA) v Clermont (FRA) (1300), Toulouse (FRA) v Sale (ENG) (1730)

Pool 2: Munster (IRL) v Castres (FRA) (1730), Gloucester (FRA) v Toulon (ENG) (2000)

Pool 3: Bayonne (FRA) v Leinster (IRL), Stormers (RSA) v Leicester (ENG) (both 1515)

Sunday

Pool 1: Glasgow (SCO) v Saracens (FRA) (1730)

Pool 4: Bristol (ENG) v Bordeaux-Begles (FRA) (1300), Northampton (ENG) v Scarlets (WAL), La Rochelle (FRA) v Harlequins (ENG) (both 1515)

(D.Lewis--TAG)