NEWPORT'S South African coach Ian McIntosh gets his first taste of French rugby with the visit of champion club Toulouse to Rodney Parade on Saturday night.

And he admits he is excited and stimulated by the challenge of facing French opposition, and even by all the different competitions in Welsh rugby.

"I knew it would be very exciting," he said. "The Heineken Cup is a tremendous concept. There's a lot of inter-variation and even more cross-pollination with French sides. "This is the first one, and I'm looking forward to others. Toulouse are typically French and from what I've seen we should not go by their Leinster result.

"One minute they're down, the next they bounce back. If you give any French side time to get their style going you're in trouble."

And on switching from one competition to another, and even a third with the Celtic League, McIntosh gave a surprising answer.

"I find it terribly stimulating playing in all these different competitions," he said. And he is not going to pay attention to Toulouse's last game against Leinster which the French lost 40-10.

"I haven't watched it because it wasn't a fair reflection. I watched the Biarritz game instead which was close and they showed more of their potential," he said.

l Newport centre Jason Jones-Hughes, who The Argus reported last week would be out until the new year with a major knee injury, will have an operation soon. "In the opinion of the specialist he needs an operation which is a big blow, very disappointing," said McIntosh.

"He's a a great player and he's got tremendous potential, but he's absolutely devastated, he had waited a long time to come back, you've got to feel for him."

l Newport have been inundated with requests for tickets for the Toulouse game. "We have been selling at the rate of 400-500 per day, and there were only 360 stand seats left in the family stand at lunchtime on Tuesday," said chief executive Keith Grainger.

"At that stage we had sold in excess of 6,000 tickets for a ground that has a capacity of 11,676 this season.

"We took almost 1,000 fans with us to Newcastle and they were magnificent, now we want to recreate the special Heineken Cup atmosphere from our home games against Bath, Munster and Castres last season.

"There will be a full day of activity. The bars open for lunch at noon, the family village is open from 4pm and the Heineken Cup clash between Harlequins and Munster will be on our big screen in the Rodney Hall."

Newport are carrying out a charity collection at the match in aid of the Toulouse disaster fund following the explosion last week at a chemical factory which killed over 20 people and destroyed part of the rugby ground. "Leinster did their bit to accommodate Toulouse by switching the game to Dublin last week.

"They held a minute's silence and flew their flags at half mast as a mark of respect," said Grainger.

"Everybody at Newport wanted to find a way to help and after talking to colleagues at Toulouse we agreed to stage a charity collection.

"All monies raised will be sent to the Toulouse rugby club, who will, in turn, pass the sum on to the fund raisers."

*The referee for Saturday's game is Alain Rolland, the Dublin-born, French speaking financier who won two caps for Ireland.

He also handled last month's Wales-Romania game at the Millennium Stadium.