RUGBY fans in the Faithful City are gearing up for Worcester Warriors' historic clash against French team Brive in the European Challenge Cup.

The first leg -being played at 2pm tomorrow at Sixways - is the team's first ever European match and scores of French fans are expected to attend to cheer their team on.

While Brive - about 30m south of Limoges in south-west France - is relatively small, it is a major player on the rugby scene.

The team won the Heineken Cup in 1997, were runners-up in 1998, and are expected to be tough opponents for the Warriors, who were only recently promoted to the Zurich Premiership.

Warriors' head coach Andy Keast said the boys were looking forward to the game.

"We're ecstatic about it - obviously it's an important game for the club.

"People have said 'who are Brive?' but they're a very, very good team and they've got a hell of a tradition and when people realise who they are, they'll want to come and watch."

Scores of Warriors' fans are due to journey to France the following Saturday for the second leg.

But yesterday it wasn't clear how excited Brive's fans were about the match.

Worcester's tourist information centre said it had had no specific calls from French visitors arriving for tomorrow's match.

And when the Evening News called Waterstones bookshop, in Worcester High Street, manager Heather Davies said there had not been a rush on French dictionaries beforehand.

"There's been no more than usual but we sell an awful lot of French dictionaries at this time of year anyway because of courses starting," she said, disappointingly.

Nevertheless, it will be an interesting clash for Worcester's French winger Thomas Lombard, who will come face-to-face with his countrymen.

"We're looking forward to it - at the end of the day we've started well in the Premiership with one win and several narrow defeats and we're improving," said coach Mr Keast.

"What we have to do is take this as a big challenge and hopefully get a win out of it."

Match announcer Dave Bradley - who is an Evening News columnist and BBC Hereford and Worcester presenter - said he was eagerly awaiting the game.

"I think it's great for the Warriors to be playing in Europe, and Brive are one of the top teams so it'll be tough.

"When you think 10 years ago we were playing Lichfield and the like, to host a top French team is amazing - I have to say my French is very poor though!

"I'm really looking forward to the second leg as my Sunday Show is live from a bar in Brive."