Last season one of Ireland's Munster contingent reflected honestly on the anticlimactic end-of-championship defeat at home to Wales. Using the hoary cliche, he said: "We're just not good at being favourites." Well, Munster had better be good at it tomorrow.

By far the most worrying aspect of the Heineken European Cup quarter-final in the Thomond Park bear pit is that it seems no one in Ireland gives Biarritz a chance. Honest though their assessments might have been, confident forecasts of a Munster win by Leinster captain Liam Toland and coach Matt Williams won't have done Munster any favours.

A semblance of balance was offered to the pre-match debate by the Leinster manager, Ken Ging: "These guys (Biarritz) are no mugs. Anybody who thinks this is going to be a cakewalk is mistaken. It'll be a bloody hard match."

Part of the rationale for dismissing Biarritz is based on their lamentable 35-9 defeat by Leinster at Donnybrook. Yet as form-guides go, that one is pretty meaningless. Even at the time, Biarritz players reckoned it was their worst performance in two years.

Most telling, only six of that team were in the starting line-up when they beat Leinster 30-10 a week ago, a selection which has been retained en bloc. There have been a couple of additions to the replacements, which makes impressive reading - both the Lievremont brothers are on the bench.

Any team which has a big lineout, a big maul, a big scrum and a big boot at outhalf, with a serious dash of French elan on the wing in Philippe Bernat-Salles, must have a chance. Biarritz have all of these. Toland reckoned Munster would defend the maul better than Leinster, whose tendency to leave soft centres was admitted by Biarritz afterwards, and you'd like to think so. That said, a good maul is difficult to defend against.

The bottom line, as Munster coach Declan Kidney puts it, is that "Biarritz are bigger than us". Which is a bit of a concern, as these kinds of sides have tro ubled Munster in the last three seasons.

Furthermore, as with Munster's final against Northampton last season, the forecast is not good, which probably isn't good for Munster either. A dry day and a dry pitch would assuredly have been better suited to their high-tempo game. What's more, Biarritz are effective spoilers, who were allowed gross liberties in slowing down Leinster's ruck ball last week. A stop-start mudlark, as was the case in the south of France last week, is far more suited to this rumbling Biarritz outfit.

Admittedly home advantage has to be considered. Not just because Munster's unbeaten five-year record there is more a source of confidence to them than a monkey on their back, but also because French trips to Ireland in the last couple of years have bucked the trend of decades before. You can't help but feel that with their typical away-day travail, Biarritz will be travelling in trepidation.

"There are myths about some of these things," warns Kidney. "You win at Thomond Park because you play well. You don't win for any other reason."

Biarritz came over fully two days in advance, yesterday, which is a notable improvement on the norm of travelling over sometimes even on the day of a match, and perhaps having a glass of wine at lunchtime. These guys mean business, and why wouldn't they?

Though the club have spent heavily in the last two years, only Bernat-Salles and one of Leinster's destroyers-in-chief last week, Serge Betsen, are involved in the French squad for the opening Championship weekend. Their focus is all the clearer for that; like the Ireland squad for next week, Munster's preparations can't have been ideal.

Of course, home wins outnumber away wins two-to-one in this competition, and the ratio intensifies in the knock-out stages. Of the 16 quarter-finals in the last two years, 14 have been home wins, and one of the away wins was a French derby. A key factor is the tendency for an early score by the home side: witness Munster's flying start at the same point in the competition against Stade Francais last year. Another flyer would be decidedly helpful, making their 16th man (the 13,000-plus supporters) an immediate factor. Otherwise though, it could be a bit of a dogfight.

"I don't see us as favourites," argues Kidney in typically pragmatic fashion. "I see us in a quarter-final, which is great. I hope we enjoy it. I don't expect us to win. I expect us to be competitive and the genuine supporters know that's as much as we can do.

"If we can hold our hands up afterwards and say we gave it a good shot, then it's up to others to get excited or upset."

Ultimately, Munster have consistently shown that they are strong mentally, and they must have a burning desire after last season's cruel near-miss. If anyone can divorce themselves from the weight of favouritism and play with the right amount of fear, they can.