LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Are we about to witness two of the greatest Champions Cup quarter-finals?'

Are we about to witness two of the greatest quarter-finals in the history of the European Cup? Never mind the switchover of titles from the days of Heineken through to the latest Investec Champions Cup iteration, the name of the game hasn’t changed – this stage of the tournament is about chasing glory, targeting trophies, raising the stakes and setting down markers.

With spring in the air, it’s an apt time for a renewal of faith and some long-awaited proof this supposed elite competition really can deliver. It hasn’t always done so and there were some turkeys in the round of 16 but that is behind us.

The quarter-final curtain rises with a blockbuster at the Rec where Bath face Northampton before it comes down with another top-billing show in Bordeaux on Sunday when the aristocrats of Toulouse arrive in town.

It’s a reflection of the format changes that have happened in recent years that the status of the tournament has been called into question. There is every chance those misgivings will be blown away this weekend. It’s not to relegate the significance of the two other quarter-final ties – Glasgow Warriors against Toulon followed by Leinster versus Sale Sharks – but the quality of the opening and closing games has historic value. You might argue we ought to be seeing this calibre of fixture at an even later stage but that is the consequence of hiccups on the playing side of things along the way.

Those of us who have watched the competition since its very first days in the mid-nineties have been trawling through the memory banks to recall games of comparable quality in prospect. There have been pool games which have lodged in the mind, the Miracle Match at Thomond when Munster had to beat Gloucester by four tries and 27 points to go through and managed it with Ronan O’Gara’s last-minute conversion. There were fierce, unremitting encounters at Brive when Pontypridd came breathing fire and similar combustibles at Perpignan’s Stade Aime Giral. The first seedings of the Munster myth were sown in Bordeaux at the turn of the Millennium, Wasps’ semi-final glory against the self-same team at Lansdowne Road in 2004 with the 37-32 scoreline accurately reflecting the thrills and drama of a sun-kissed extravaganza.

Northampton and Bath tasted it long ago while Bordeaux are the arrivistes, so wonderfully easy on the eye, acclaimed throughout the land for the majesty of their rugby yet without the tangible recognition that has accompanied Stade Toulousain as multiple winners.

We have every reason to expect more of the same this weekend. These are the leading teams – or as near as makes little difference – of their respective Prem and Top 14 manors. There are other storylines mixed in there with three of the teams looking for the affirmation that comes with European success. Northampton and Bath tasted it long ago while Bordeaux are the arrivistes, so wonderfully easy on the eye, acclaimed throughout the land for the majesty of their rugby yet without the tangible recognition that has accompanied Stade Toulousain as multiple winners. Their rise back to prominence following relegation and the subsequent merger of the two Bordeaux entities has been captivating to watch, culminating in last season’s 28-20 victory over Northampton Saints in the final in Cardiff.

Either of these two highlighted quarter-final ties would grace this year’s final in Bilbao, even if the purists would prefer a cross-border encounter. It has been a long time since either Northampton or Bath experienced the ultimate thrill of lifting the trophy. The Saints have come close, of course, the disappointment of missing out last year as nothing compared to the agonies experienced when seeing a 22-6 half-time lead over Leinster in 2011 blown away by a Johnny Sexton-inspired revival that saw the Irish province roll back the stone from the seeming dead to claim the honours.

For all their fine efforts of the last 12-18 months, they will be well aware they travel to Bath on Friday as marginal underdogs. It will take a performance to rank with their 37-34 semi-final victory over Leinster in Dublin if they are to topple Bath on home soil. There is little in it and Saints have risen to that challenge already this season. The clubs have never met at the knockout stage in this competition and it’s something to savour that two teams rooted in their communities should be going head-to-head. There is plenty to admire wherever you look, be it the slick backline play of the Saints or the hammer-hard interventions of Bath’s tighthead colossus, Thomas du Toit.

Much of the critical pile-on that has pursued Henry Pollock and his showboating ways, allied to his headline-grabbing alliance with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom stable, has centred around the fact rugby is an interdependent team sport with each part reliant on others to make it work. Well, Du Toit has gone a long way to disproving that theory. The man makes a monumental difference, whether he starts or arrives from the bench as the entire cavalry, and if Saints are to upset the odds then they are going to have to find a way to neuter the influence of the South African.

There is plenty of star talent on either side that might also grab the headlines, be it the likes of Bath’s Finn Russell or Northampton’s George Furbank who has shown the sort of form that ought to have Steve Borthwick reaching for the ink to establish him as England’s full-back from hereon in. There are many permutations in play right across the field but if there was one element from last weekend’s matches that ensures we are in for an unforgettable night at the Rec it is the fact both teams had to fight like hell to win their respective matches over Castres and Saracens. For all the glitz and glamour on offer, trophies cannot be won unless a team has character, identity, dog, attitude, togetherness – classify it how you will but champions are made of such stuff.

Across the Channel on Sunday the same traits will be on offer. The sweep and splendour of the play is in equal measure to the unrelenting pounding of the work up front, whether the lineout prowess of a Thibaud Flament or the voracious breakdown work of a Jack Willis.

And then, of course, there is Louis Bielle-Biarrey, the most potent wing since the days of Jonah Lomu. The New Zealander did it in his own unique way, a powerhouse talent with the pick-up pace of an Olympic sprinter. Bielle-Biarrey is mesmerising, Houdini-like in his ability to find space and to escape the clutches of any would-be tacklers. The 22-year-old is worth any entrance price on his own.

Sit back and relish the occasion. It will be a box office weekend in the Champions Cup.