Cardiff Blues lock Bradley Davies says only a win will do for his team when they face-off with the Dragons in their RaboDirect Pro12 derby.
A place in next season's Heineken Cup is on the line should the hosts lose in their own backyard on Wednesday.
The men from Gwent currently occupy 11th place on the Pro12 tournament standings - two places and seven points adrift of the Blues.
However, the visitors have a game in hand which means a victory at Cardiff Arms Park will give their Heineken Cup qualification chances a major boost as they bid to avoid another season in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
"It's a proverbial eight-pointer. It's like we are involved in an old-style relegation battle," said Davies.
"The Heineken Cup is where we most definitely want to be."
Blues have tasted victory on just two occasions from their last 13 outings - the Welsh region's last loss coming at the hands of the Scarlets last Friday.
But Davies is adament his side can bounce back.
"I believe we are not far away from being a good side. We have had a couple of three-point defeats and it's difficult to take," said the Wales lock.
"We have to use this match with the Dragons to kick-start our season. Once we get that big 'W' (win), more will come.
"We are building and it's a massive game, derbies don't come much bigger than Blues versus the Dragons at the Arms Park.
"It will be the first time I have faced the Dragons there and they're going to be coming wanting a bit of revenge for us beating them in Newport earlier in the season.
"It was a big result for us at the start of the season, but we didn't kick-on. We're expecting another tough game."
Comments
Sincero says...
Never seen a worse team show up in the RDS than the Blues this year... there for the taking, should the Dragons be bothered.
Posted 11:01 26th December 2012