Montferrand and Toulouse follow on Saturday and Sunday in the Parker Pen Challenge Cup and finally the Heineken Cup finals respectively, but Montpellier have the lead leg in that treble challenge.

"It's great for the club to be in the Parker Pen Shield final - it is out first year in the top flight of French rugby and, so far, so good," said Alessandro Stoica, Montpellier's Italian international centre.

"It's important to be in the final of a European competition and it's a good objective for us to win that game.

"And it will be great for me in particular to play the final in Italy. I will see some of my friends from the Italian team and play in front of an Italian crowd.

"Parma is not very far from Viadana so the opposition will almost have a home crowd but that's not a problem for us - the ground will be full which will make for a super occasion.

"Viadana are a very good team who have had a good run in this competition. I'd say we were 50/50 for the match.

"We have played only Italian sides in the Parker Pen tournament so we know the Italian Championship pretty well by now - Roma, then Petrarca, Leonessa and now Viadana.

"Along with my team-mate Laurent Arbo, I played in last year's Parker Pen Shield final for Castres Olympique against Caerphilly so I will try to pass on a bit of that experience to the rest of the team.

"There is a real desire amongst the players to lift this title - there is a target to aim for and a European final to be won."