Urios hopes that their experiences in last season’s Challenge Cup – which culminated in a semi-final appearance – will hold them in good stead for Friday, when they travel to Northampton Saints, Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finalists last term.

“It’ll probably be a much-anticipated match and a high-intensity, fast-paced one,” he said. “We experienced that last year in Bristol and even at home against Edinburgh too, so we’re really going to need to go into this competition in a different frame of mind.

“We know very well that matches in the Champions Cup, especially compared with the TOP 14, are much more sought-after. They’re matches with a little more intensity. They’re matches in which rucks are refereed differently.”

The 2020/21 competition will be Bordeaux-Bègles’ third appearance in the European top-flight. Their previous two campaigns both ended at the pool stage in 2015/16 and 2016/17.

“They’re matches you have to prepare well for,” said Urios. “For us, although we’ve of course been preparing for our TOP 14 matches, we’ve been training for these matches for two weeks now so that we are physically up to the task.

“We already started a fortnight ago and this’ll be our third week, plus the week when we play Northampton.

“These will be weeks that are a little different with regard to our preparation, with more momentum, with a little more rhythm to them and more intensity than you can drum up in regular weeks, just so we’re capable of being up to the task.”

With an amended pool stage format this season involving just four fixtures compared to the six of previous years, Urios believes it is imperative his side get off to a fast start.

“The Champions Cup is quite a short competition in terms of its format, even more so this year, so every point will count and it’ll be important to have a good start to the competition,” he said.

Bordeaux-Bègles director of rugby Christophe Urios insists he has prepared his side for what he describes as the “high intensity” of the Heineken Champions Cup as the French club return to Europe’s premier club competition after a four-season absence.