All Blacks great Dan Carter is relishing the chance to play in a game with the highest stakes since he joined French club Racing 92.
Carter's team host defending champions Toulon in Paris in Sunday's European Champions Cup quarter-final, pitting the two glamour teams of the French game against each other.
Toulon themselves boast a host of international stars, including Wallabies playmakers Matt Giteau and Quade Cooper and wingers Drew Mitchell and James O'Connor.
Veteran kiwi five-eighth Carter has made a successful transition since beginning his lucrative three-year contract in the wake of New Zealand's successful World Cup title defence last October.
Racing 92 are third in the French Top 14, one place ahead of Toulon, but Carter knows a step to a bigger prize lies ahead this weekend.
"When I was in New Zealand I saw the European Cup matches on TV. I saw the large crowds of supporters travelling to games and it was really something special," he told journalists.
"There is a little more pressure about a game like this, where you know you go home if you lose. But it's not new to me. When you represent the All Blacks, you have pressure in every game."
Other high-profile former All Blacks who could run out alongside Carter are Joe Rokocoko, Casey Laulala and Chris Masoe, along with former Chiefs prop Ben Tameifuna, while former New Zealand Test backs Ma'a Nonu and Tom Taylor are in Toulon's squad.
