This weekend the 15th season of the Heineken Cup kicks off.

The blue touch paper is sure to be lit on a rugby season that until now has rather struggled to capture the imagination and heights post the epic Lions’ test matches in the summer.

Not to say there haven’t been moments of magic and quality, but one thing you can be assured of with the Heineken Cup is that things are likely to go a notch or two better, especially with the autumn internationals just around the corner.

As the Heineken Cup reaches this landmark season, it is astonishing to think back to where it all began, in an unheralded sea-side town of Constanta in 1995.

Since then, it has grown to the point where it is now almost international standard and showcases the very best talent in world rugby in front of passionate crowds.

Claiming the Heineken Cup in the spring remains the ultimate prize for all 24 of the teams involved in the competition and we can be assured of quality, dynamism, plenty of twists and turns and many more memories before the champions are crowned at the Stade de France in May.

Quins’ season got up and running last weekend with a victory over Bath that said an awful lot about the courage and commitment they had in spades to take a game that they really shouldn’t have won.

Their resolve will surely be tested even further this weekend as they travel to Cardiff for their first game in the competition since the summer’s shameful events that for a period engulfed the whole game of rugby.

Whether or not they should be participating in this tournament this season is now largely irrelevant, but you can rest assured that everywhere they go they will be faced by an element of school boy jokers dressed as Dracula.

Their focus and mental strength will need to be rock solid on every occasion, and their first hurdle will be this Saturday lunchtime in South Wales.

For all the Londoners’ rhetoric that they are digging deep, I would be truly staggered if they come through this year and win anything.

It would be almost unbelievable if they can put their troubles to one side and challenge for any of the trophies.

Fortunately for Quins, they face a Blues side first up that cannot buy a win at the moment, following a terrible start to the season that continued with a defeat against Glasgow last weekend.

They have been missing four world class players whose absence would almost certainly cripple any side and without Gethin Jenkins, Jamie Roberts, Xavier Rush and Martyn Williams the Cardiff team becomes human, as opposed to the super-human outfit that we saw progress to the semi finals last season.

The good news for Cardiff fans is that one of the quartet, centre Jamie Roberts, has been passed fit and his battle with the Quins Number 10, the class act of Nick Evans, promises to be epic.

The New Zealand fly half will look to mastermind a victory in the vein of the two over Stade Francais during Quins’ glorious pool stage performances last season, and with his vision and control, anything is possible. Roberts, meanwhile, will be aiming to pick up where he left off from his spirited performances for the Lions in South Africa, and ensure that the All Black is required to deal with his attacking threat time and time again for the 80 minutes.

Supporting Evans in midfield will be the Argentine Gonzalo Tiesi who, in the absence of Jordan Turner Hall, has become the lynchpin around which so much of Quins’ best work originates.

The Puma provides the power, attacking threat and, most importantly, more structure to the backline that will run out at Cardiff City’s stadium on Saturday.

Whilst waiting in the wings ready to pounce on any opportunity will be England stars Ugo Monye and the seemingly perennially injured David Strettle, who is firing again just in time for a shot at selection for Martin Johnson’s autumn international squad.

With their varying problems, both clubs would settle for any kind of win at this stage of the competition, especially as all roads seem to lead to Toulouse in this group.

The other clubs in the pool will need to string together a series of wins that starts to apply the pressure on the three-time winners if they are to pip the French aristocrats to the quarter final spot come January, If Quins were to hold aloft the Heineken Cup trophy come May you would have to question the sporting gods’ sense of humour, but for now they would settle for a straightforward, controversy-free victory over the Blues to kick-start their European campaign.

Will Greenwood is a Heineken ambassador. Heineken are proud to be celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Heineken Cup, the best club rugby competition in the world. www.heinekenrugby.co.uk