In this weeks edition of Carnegie Call, Director of Rugby Stuart Lancaster looks ahead to Leeds Carnegie's crunch game at Castres Olympique on Thursday night, kick off 7.45pm GMT.

HOW HAVE YOUR PREPARATIONS GONE THIS WEEK?

This week sees another trip into Europe, with it some new challenges. We have had a short turnaround this week particularly with us having to begin our journey on Tuesday evening in preparation for the rather different kick off time of 8.45pm on Thursday. European travel brings with it it's own logistical problems and I am very fortunate in the experience we have gained over the previous years excursions into Europe and with John Carey at the helm our travel experience to date has been excellent, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for another successful off the field trip!
Obviously, we want on the field success as well and recognise that we are in for a big challenge this Thursday. These are the type of games that all players should want to play in and I have no doubt that their players will have plenty of motivation going into this game. It will be important for us to match their intensity from the first whistle, match fire with fire so to speak!

HOW DO YOU REFLECT ON LAST WEEK'S GAME?

We were slightly disappointed with the performance against Dax however we got the win we needed but recognise that we will have to up our performance this week. On the face of it, our injury news looks rather mixed and it is times like these that the depth of the squad is needed.
We have players such as Stuart Hooper, Adam Balding, Jon Dunbar and Colin Noon out injured in the forwards in addition to the long term injuries of Hendrie Fourie, Mark Lock, Kearnan Myall and Rob Rawlinson. However, I am more than happy with the pack we have out, there are also plenty of options in the back line and with impact players from the bench available, we are looking forward to a tough challenge on Thursday. The injury situation looks set to ease before our next Guinness Premiership game against London Irish but the depth of our squad will be tested this weekend.

WILL YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES THIS WEEK?

Jon Dunbar and Colin Noon have been ruled out of the trip to Castres with slight muscle strains but both are expected to be fit to train next week, which should also see the return to training of Adam Balding and Stuart Hooper from the injuries they picked up against Wasps. In the back line James Brooks is still unavailable with a leg injury picked up in the Wasps game and Andy Tuilagi has been suffering with illness in the start of the week and he takes up his place on the bench with Apo Satala. Fosi Pala'amo has now recovered from his cartilage operation and will be looking forward to a run out on Thursday.