London Irish have beaten a fourth-rate Italian team, a third-rate Welsh one and a second-rate French club to reach the semi-finals of this season’s Heineken Cup. On Saturday they face the favourites, Toulouse, at Twickenham. It is akin to taking a stroll round the Wrekin as preparation for an assault on one of the more substantial Himalayan peaks.

They may be in the last four of the Heineken Cup, but that is not the same as being among the top four in the tournament. The draw was kind on the Irish. A truer reflection of their merits is to be found in their modest position in the Guinness Premiership. On their day they can be a good team, but that day is a fairly infrequent event.

In contrast, Toulouse, on their day, are the best team in Europe with a squad capable of producing those dazzling days nearly as often as not. In the quarter- final, a decent Cardiff team, who had escaped from an infinitely more ferocious pool than London Irish, travelled to Toulouse with nothing to lose and duly returned to Wales battered.

Even before that match, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, the France scrum-half who is now the Toulouse No 10, had expressed his preferred opponents for the semi-final. Toulouse, he said, had played London Irish twice in recent years and were comfortable with the prospects of a trip to England, whereas an all-French clash with Perpignan made them slightly queasy.

Against the Blues, Toulouse ground the Welsh near to pulp before running them into submission. Munster may call upon the darker gods of the rugby underworld for their inspiration but Toulouse look high for celestial workings. This is a team capable of reaching for something extra special. Before the last round, the Blues planned to target Elissalde; the fly-half duly dropped deeper, which ensured the backs were less of a threat from orthodox ball for a while, and waited for the rush to lose patience and control. Eventually it did as Martyn Williams and half of the principality was lured too far towards him. With a bullfighter’s display, the hapless Welsh gored thin air as he swished his hips in different directions, with Cédric Heymans gliding into the space. Seconds later the ball was touched down for one of the most beautifully constructed tries of the tournament. Toulouse had used the perception of weakness and made it into their strength.

It gets worse for London Irish. The three-time Heineken Cup winners went into that game in the worst form of their season: two games without a try and a loss of rhythm which normally upsets them throughout the Six Nations and its aftermath. Toulouse were nervous then, they are not now. London Irish will have to rise to heights they have yet to reach if they are to defy their lowly English ranking and down Toulouse. It is a tall order but in Nick Kennedy the English team possesses its own version of Victor Matfield, the man of the match in the World Cup final.

Now that Martin Johnson is in charge of the England set-up, Kennedy might feel his time has come for full-scale international recognition. He would have made the perfect partner for Johnson in his prime – the hard graft of the front jumper and the soaring lineout skills of the ganglier middle-of-the-line man. At club level, he and Bob Casey enjoy such a partnership. They must cut the supply line of the Toulouse lineout if London Irish are to have half a chance.

Lineout, more than scrum ball, is where Toulouse thrive, either unleashing the power of their hurtling pack or speeding across the gain line to set targets for the next phase and create quick ball for the lethal combinations out wide. Patricio Albacete is a worthy test for Kennedy’s credentials; the Argentina lock forward was magnificent in the set-piece and loose against Cardiff. Dominate him and you never know, because Toulouse’s other principal lineout target, Fabien Pelous, has reached that venerable status where most players have retired from the highest levels. In Toulouse, heroes play beyond their rational retirement age.

Casey is not exactly a chicken hatched in April but, along with Kennedy, he must mix the brain and brawn and break Toulouse at the lineout. If the two second-rows are marked out of the set-piece and William Servat is forced to throw longer to Shaun Sowerby, expect Kennedy to pick off more possession as Servat, in common with most of his French hooking contemporaries, occasionally loses sight of the barn door.

If Guy Noves is smart he will start with Yannick Nyanga, whose relative lightness of frame, combined with athleticism, makes him Toulouse’s portable lineout option in a crisis; Irish have to force that crisis.

The lineout is the obvious area of opportunity; the Toulouse midfield is an altogether more celebrated part of the field where their other Yannick — Jauzion — roams. As with most great players, he is being granted a couple of years in which his form gently fades before critics dare take note. Injuries have taken their toll on the great man. His glorious offloading has been hampered by a loss of speed which makes him an easier opponent to handle on the gain line. He always used to glide and ghost into half-gaps, this season he has plodded. The loss of pace has defensive implications. If London Irish can give Shane Geraghty quick ball, Irish could complete an unlikely set of Heineken conquests.