European Champions Cup: Sale Sharks vs La Rochelle and Bath vs Harlequins talking points

The penultimate round of this season's European Champions Cup pool stage matches gets underway on Friday evening with two games.

Sale Sharks aim to make it home and away wins over La Rochelle when they head to Stade Marcel-Deflandre, while Gallagher Premiership rivals Bath and Harlequins go head-to-head as well.

Here, we take a look at the main talking points ahead of those matches…

James on the hunt for Sharks

Barring a highly unlikely sequence of results, Sale's adventure in this season's Champions Cup will come to an end when the pool stages conclude in just over one week's time.

Do not think that will mean the Sharks easing back in their final matches in Pool 2 though, which start with a trip to France to face bottom side La Rochelle.

While the reverse fixture at home to the Top 14 outfit in November is their only win of four games in the Champions Cup so far this season, Steve Diamond's men have been performing well on the domestic front.

Last Friday saw them put on an impressive display to overcome Harlequins 48-10 and move into the top four of the Premiership, with man of the match Sam James determined to ensure the Sharks keep that form up for their return to league action away to Exeter Chiefs on January 25.

"We want to be playing on the biggest stage and this is still the biggest stage, whether there is nothing in it for them or whether we can't numerically progress," James said ahead of the clash with La Rochelle.

"We still want to get that whole squad performance, we've now clicked and we don't want that to slip and, in a couple of weeks' time, go back into the Premiership thinking we've not played that well."

James and brother Luke retain their places from the win over Quins, with director of rugby Diamond making nine changes to his starting XV for Friday's match. One of those sees former Worcester Warriors academy player James Williams making his first start for the club in midfield.

All change for Bath and Quins

There is little to play for other than pride in Friday's all-English clash in Pool 3 at The Rec, with Bath and Harlequins having long since been eliminated from contention for the knock-out stages.

With that in mind, it is perhaps little surprise Stuart Hooper and Paul Gustard have chosen to rotate their respective squads - the former making no less than 14 changes to the Bath starting line-up which lost the West Country derby away to Gloucester in the Premiership last Saturday.

Among those coming into the side is Matt Garvey, who made his comeback from a long-term injury in the previous Champions Cup meeting at The Stoop, and the second row insists there are no thoughts in the squad of this match being a dead rubber.

"It's a European competition against an English rival," Garvey said. "We want to go out there on our home ground and rectify the mistakes we've made, and also start attacking well, defending well and putting teams under pressure.

"There are different opportunities for different people this week as well, which is good. There is going to be a lot of eagerness, and hopefully people will see that in the way we play and the attacking style we'll try to present."

Quins travel to Somerset with a changed line-up from the aforementioned defeat at Sale last week as well, with former Cardiff Metropolitan University student Luke Northmore making his first start for the club at outside centre.

It will be a special night for one of Quins' most familiar faces too as prop Joe Marler makes his 200th appearance for the Londoners.