Gold lays it on the line for Irish

London Irish face a testing Parker Pen Challenge Cup trip to Narbonne tomorrow, with coach Gary Gold admitting: “We have made life a bit difficult for ourselves.”

Irish take a 20-13 first-leg lead into action, but it might not be enough to secure a quarter-final place.

“We will certainly find out soon enough if seven points is enough,” said Gold. “We were a bit off the pace in the first leg, and we will have to lift our game and put in a much better performance, otherwise we will be beaten.

“Narbonne are very strong up front, with a good scrum that provides the platform for them to unleash their dangerous backs.

“They also targeted the driving maul against us, and were pretty successful with that on a few occasions.

“Accepting that French sides are always a lot tougher to crack on their home ground, we are under no illusions about the size of the task we face over there.”

Newcastle, 10-3 ahead from the first leg, also face a hazardous French mission against Montferrand.

The Falcons are again without injured England star Jonny Wilkinson – Dave Walder continues to deputise – and they might have left themselves too much to do in pursuit of a potential quarter-final appointment with Zurich Premiership rivals Saracens.

Bath and Harlequins though, should progress tomorrow at the hands of French opposition.

Rugby director John Connolly has made two changes to his line-up for the Recreation Ground clash against Colomiers, with Bath 32-25 ahead after the first leg.

Prop Duncan Bell returns to the side after recovering from a back strain, while Rob Fidler starts instead of lock Steve Borthwick, who misses the game after sustaining a split nostril in France six days ago.

“The doctor advised us that Steve should not play,” said Connolly. “He suffered a split nostril last weekend, and there was the risk that if we played him and the wound reopened, then he might require plastic surgery.”

Prolonged injury problems in the back division – Bath are again without the likes of Iain Balshaw, Mike Tindall, Mike Catt and Matt Perry – mean that Scotland World Cup wing Simon Danielli retains the number 15 jersey and scrum-half Ross Blake continues on the wing.

Quins, 43-8 up on Montauban, rest several players for tomorrow’s return meeting at The Stoop. Will Greenwood, Jason Leonard and Andre Vos are among those who sit out what should be a routine encounter.

Brive, the 1997 Heineken Cup winners, are Quins’ likely quarter-final opponents, with Bath set to meet Beziers.