McCarthy desperate to repeat trick in Biarritz

Connacht lock Mike McCarthy believes his side can back up their superb victory over Biarritz by storming the Basque club again this weekend.

Their 22-14 win keeps alive their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, although they may have to settle for a quarter-final spot in the Amlin Challenge Cup as Harlequins are poised to top Pool 3.

But to nail that spot down in the secondary competition, where they have played more games than any other side, Connacht need to finish above Biarritz.

That means getting a result in the south of France but McCarthy, who followed up his superb autumn international form with a man-of-the-match display on Friday night, is relishing the return bout.

“It is going to be massive next week. We really want to back it up and not just talk about the first game. We want to back it up but it is going to be double the task over there.

“It is a massive challenge. We’ll go over there with full belief that we can get the victory after beating Zebre away and coming close to beating Quins and Gloucester away last year. There is definitely the belief there,” he said.

McCarthy, who is being targeted by Leinster, turned 31 two weeks ago but was full of praise for the younger brigade who stepped up to the mark in the absence of the likes of John Muldoon, Michael Swift, George Naoupu and skipper Gavin Duffy.

“They were fantastic, and last week as well we were missing a lot of guys, but the young lads stepped up.

“I really felt we should have beaten Edinburgh as well.”

He said the key now was to put two big wins back to back and believes it is within their range.

“We want to stay in it for as long as we can. But we are under no illusions how tough it is going to be playing away to Biarritz,” he added.