Rome tomorrow, Bayonne just before Christmas and Paris at the end of January, when the weather is starting to warm towards spring. Sound good? Well …

A lot of effort has gone into improving the European Challenge Cup, rejigging the format to make it a more difficult route into Europe's premier competition and finding a proper sponsor in Amlin.

Even a cursory glance around France suggests some big names have come out to play. Last week Wasps encountered François Steyn, the Springbok whose big boot changed things around in the second Lions Test and, I would argue, the whole series. He's playing for Racing Métro alongside the France captain, Lionel Nallet, and Sébastien Chabal. The talented Fulgence Ouedraogo captains Montpellier, Castres have two French international scrum-halves and, of course, there is the British posse led by Jonny Wilkinson at Toulon.

However, I still feel a little like the bloke who wasn't invited to the party and is left on the sidelines. No disrespect to Paris, Bayonne, Rome or any other of the fine sides like the table-topping Saracens who tussled with Toulon last night, but after six years of Heineken Cup rugby, winning the competition twice, I'm missing it like hell, especially as once again it's proved to be a competition that constantly surprises.

Those with even short memories will recollect me predicting success for at least two of the Irish regions. The argument went along the lines of the Heineken Cup being made for sides who could rest important players and then get them to peak condition for a limited programme.

Leinster, I remember, had done particularly well in recruiting the likes of the international scrum-half Eoin Reddan from Wasps, the prop Mike Ross from Harlequins and the Lions second-row Nathan Hines. The feeling was that with an Irish back line that included Brian O'Driscoll and other Lions in Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney, the beefed-up pack would go even better than it did last season when Leinster pipped Leicester in the final in Edinburgh.

Now their competition hangs in the balance and should they go down at Brive there will be more than a few red faces returning to Dublin on Saturday night. Following London Irish's gutsy performance at the Showground anything other than an Irish victory in the south of France will leave the champions scrabbling and possibly falling prey to a particular theory I have about winning the cup.

As they say, winning it is one thing, defending it something entirely different and both of my experiences of lifting the trophy saw our group somehow, almost magically, appear to get much stronger the following season. That, of course, was before the ERC started seeding the competition, but it's still odd the way the holders were paired with one of the "form teams" in London Irish.

Under Toby Booth, the Irish have been playing the best football in the Guinness Premiership, but also impressive has been the way in which Northampton have continued to be upwardly mobile with Jim Mallinder in charge. In three seasons he has spent the money available to him wisely and there are very few packs that can do to Munster what happened at Franklin's Gardens at the weekend.

Here, though, my crystal ball wasn't entirely wrong. Much as they did last season, when they were under the cosh at Clermont Auvergne, the Munster men got themselves back in the game and went home with a losing bonus point. Last year that point saw them get out of the pool stage and on to a famous semi-final in front of half of Ireland at Croke Park.

What Northampton have to do now, apart from beat Perpignan tonight, is to take their winning ways to Limerick at the end of January. A few sides – Gloucester twice, Sale and Wasps – have gone to Thomond Park with a home win in their pocket and hopes of going further, but only Leicester have come away with the result that mattered. It is one of those rugby "places" like Ravenhill, Kingsholm and Stade Aimé Giral, where Northampton play tonight against a side who suffered the biggest shock of all on the opening weekend.

Before Saturday Treviso had lost their previous 12 home Heineken matches but apart from having a fine player on their books like Fraser Waters, formerly of Wasps, they have included few household names since Michael Lynagh retired. Five seasons ago they beat Bath, but Saturday's surprise against Perpignan will surely add a few more Italian members to the Heineken fan club.