Johnson buoyed by NFL research

Scott Johnson hopes the tough nature of the Ospreys' qualification from Pool 3 will stand them in good stead for the remainder of the Heineken Cup.

Wales' solitary quarter-final qualifier made the progression as one of the two best runners-up thanks to a nail-biting 17-12 win over old rivals Leicester at Liberty Stadium on Saturday.

As well as a Round 1 trip to Welford Road, the Ospreys had to face Clermont in what was seen by many as the Heineken Cup's 'Group of Death'.

But Director of Coaching Johnson believes such a demanding fixture list could work in his side's favour come the knockout stages.

"I said that I thought there were three genuine contenders in this pool that could possibly go on and win the tournament," he said.

"It's been a tournament from hell in terms of playing in this group but I always felt that the sides that got out of it would be in a good frame of mind.

"When I saw the pool, I went and did a bit of research myself. I looked at NFL and a lot of other sports and there's a great history of sides being successful after coming out of tough pools.

"We're not being disparaging to other pools but we just feel that when you look at the tables of all the competitions, you've got the leaders of the English Championship, the leaders of the French Championship, and we're not far off in our championship. It was a pretty tough old pool."

Their weekend victory over the double European winners was another vastly entertaining clash, featuring two sides used to producing classics.

A 32-32 draw at Welford Road saw the two sides begin the campaign with a bang as far as far as both sets of supporters and legions of TV followers were concerned, and Johnson has no doubt that the Heineken Cup remains the home of truly memorable rugby.

"We went up to Leicester at the start of the group and had an epic, and I think today was an epic, and last week was an epic!" added Johnson.

"I don't know if I'm as healthy as I was before the start of the game, but we're glad we got out of it. We'll glad we're in a pretty good mindset. The lads will get a fair bit of confidence from that.

"I don't want to be an old cliché, one-game-at-a-time kind of person, but the reality is that what makes this competition so enjoyable and so nerve wracking is that, on any given day, we can beat somebody and somebody can beat us.

"It's going to go down to the wire."

With thanks to the ERC