Eurosport expert Neil Back looks ahead to the Heineken Cup semi-finals, discusses Marcelo Loffreda's future as coach of Leicester and bemoans Jonny Wilkinson's absence from England's tour of New Zealand.

It is the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup this weekend and I will be cheering on the two Guinness Premiership teams and hoping that at least one of them can cause an upset.

Both Saracens and London Irish have been made underdogs, but they will absolutely love that tag going into their matches.

Saracens [who take on Munster in Coventry] showed how to do it against the Ospreys in the quarter-finals when they produced an outstanding performance just a week after having been heavily beaten by the same team.

And that is what it is all about at the highest level: having the concentration and belief that is needed to win the big games.

I thought my old England team-mate Richard Hill was particularly outstanding in the Ospreys match and fully deserved his man-of-the-match award.

He has gone through an awful lot with his knee and a lesser man would have retired, but the way he has fought back has been magnificent and he played as well as he possibly could against the Ospreys.

Saracens will take great confidence from that win in the quarters, and as I said, they will love having the underdog tag against Munster.

It is a similar situation with Irish [who face Toulouse at Twickenham]. Again they are being led by a veteran, with my old friend Mike Catt seeming to be at the forefront of everything good in their side.

I really like the balance of the Irish team too. They have a strong line-out, they give themselves options in attack by producing good width, and they have a stable scrum.

I think that both teams have a good chance and I really hope that at least one of them makes it to the final as I feel it will add something to the occasion.

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If London Irish beat Toulouse it will mean an extra Heineken Cup spot for an English team next season and obviously that could benefit my team Leicester.

However, we are just concentrating on our situation and we know we must win our final two games and hopefully we will get into the top four and extend our season.

We have no game this weekend so we are fully focused on our clash with Newcastle in two weeks' time.

There has been a lot of speculation in the media about Marcelo Loffreda's future, but he has the full support of all the players and the coaching staff at the club.

Obviously we have been reading and seeing all the speculation, but to be honest it has only galvanised everybody to do better.

In Leicester's history we have always expected success and this season has been difficult, but you have to remember that the only time Leicester have not been to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals or better is when there has been a boycott from English clubs or because it was a World Cup year.

We have had a number of players missing throughout the season, and I think Marcelo deserves a lot of respect for the way he has dealt with the problems with such dignity despite being under so much pressure.

He has never made any excuses, he has confidence in the players and has always had the opinion that if you are in the squad, and if you pull on the first-team shirt at Leicester, then you must be a good player.

He has always passionately backed and supported the players, and he has their support too.

His English has also improved dramatically since he arrived here, and it amazes me how well he can now articulate his ideas in a second language. His English is certainly better than my Spanish!

I think he has found it tough at times, perhaps more so than he expected when he was looking at the job from the outside, but I think he has done a good job under very difficult circumstances.

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It has been confirmed that Jonny Wilkinson will miss the tour of New Zealand so that he can have surgery on his shoulder. I wish he could be part of the squad.

Some may see it as a chance for Danny Cipriani to stake his claim for the starting place at fly-half without any distractions, but I think you need your best players there to encourage everyone to concentrate fully on their jobs.

Hopefully Jonny's absence won't mean that Danny will lessen his effort.

If there is no pressure there from the competition then you may not be as fully focused as you would be if you knew there was somebody there who could take your place.

I also think Jonny could have been very useful from a mentoring point of view, and I mean that in all aspects of the game: from things like nutrition and fitness all the way down to how you handle yourself on the pitch.

Sometimes in sport it can be the little things that make all the difference.

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