Treviso v Perpignan: Teams

French champions Perpignan will be looking for five points when they travel to Treviso on the opening weekend of the Heineken Cup.

The French giants will aim to equal their record of reaching the latter stages in two of the last four years from a competitive Pool 1 containing both Munster and Northampton Saints.

Perpignan travel to Italy on Saturday aiming to improve their away form which has yielded just one victory in four matches on the road in the Top 14 this season.

And they should emerge victors at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo as Treviso have lost their last 12 home matches, stretching back to 2005.

When Perpignan visited Treviso in January in last season's competition the Catalans won 48-16.

Jacques Brunel's sdie welcome back star centre Maxime Mermoz and loose forward Gerrie Britz but will be without injured half-backs Nicolas Durand (knee) and David Mélé (thigh).

Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, Philip Burger, Olivier Olibeau, Adrien Plante, Gavin Hume and Ovidiu Tonita are also on the injury list.

Jean-Pierre Perez and Perry Freshwater have been rested.

Treviso's side features a number of Italian internationals in the backs, directed by the evergreen Marius Goosen from fly-half.

There is less firepower up front, although the strengths of Ignacio Rouyet will be clear to see, as will the running of Alessandro Zanni.

Treviso: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Emiliano Mulieri, 13 Alberto Sgarbi, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Andrew Vilk, 10 Marius Goosen, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Dion Kingi, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Benjamin Vermaak , 5 Cornelius van Zyl, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 3 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Michele Rizzo
Replacements: 16 Diego Vidal, 17 Augusto Allori, 18 Pedro di Santo, 19 Enrico Pavanello, 20 Robert Barbieri, 21 Marco Filippucci, 22 Tobias Botes, 23 Brendan Williams.

Perpignan: 15 Jerome Porical, 14 Farid Sid, 13 David Marty, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Julien Candelon, 10 Nicolas Laharrague, 9 Florian Cazenave, 8 Henry Tuilagi, 7 Gerrie Britz, 6 Damien Chouly, 5 Robins Tchale Watchou, 4 Guillaume Vilaceca, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Sebastien Chobet.
Replacements: 16 Marius Tincu, 17 Kisi Pulu, 18 Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, 19 Bertrand Guiry, 20 Steve Meyer, 21 Joffrey Michel, 22 Christophe Manas, 23 Jerome Schuster.