“We are going to have a massive capacity crowd at Stradey on Friday night and it is vital we give them something to cheer about early on,” said Davies.
“We didn’t manage to do that in last season’s quarter-final against Perpignan. We didn’t give the fans anything to hold onto in the early minutes and Stradey was a pretty quiet place – we cannot afford that to happen again.
“I went to watch Biarritz play against Grenoble over the weekend and it was certainly well worth going over to France, it was very interesting.
“Biarritz are a very competent side and it is a huge challenge for us, even if we have home advantage. They have an extremely physical pack who retain possession well, have a most effective line-out and like to turn rucks into mauls. They get a lot of penalties through that and it is an area that is a major threat.
“Centre John Isaac is a potent and key player for them, so much stuff comes from him, and scrum half Dimitri Yachvili and full back Nicolas Brusque are exceptional players.
“The French clubs have proved in the Heineken Cup that they each have different styles – gone is the myth that they all play the same way – and Biarritz pose different problems to Agen, who we played in the Pool stages.
“It was a great result and, ultimately, a very good performance, for us against The Borders last weekend. We did lose a bit of shape and pattern after scoring two early tries but we got our composure back and finished strongly.
“However, we still have a lot of areas to work on this week, especially with our internationals returning to the squad.
