Ospreys have never won a European trophy, reaching the quarter-finals of the Heineken Champions Cup three times and the last eight of the Challenge Cup once, but the 39-year-old Australian is excited about their chances this term as they prepare to visit Worcester Warriors on Saturday.

“Obviously, Worcester is a big challenge this weekend, but again for us it’s an opportunity in this competition, which is massive for us,” the 2007 Challenge Cup winner told Ospreys TV. “We are really excited about this competition.

“We want to put in a good performance against Worcester and we are probably looking a bit more at ourselves than the opposition. We’ll talk up some of things from last weekend and that’s what we’re looking at improving this weekend.”

James, who scored 502 points in 69 European games for ASM Clermont Auvergne and La Rochelle, is expecting a contrast in rugby on the artificial surface at Sixways Stadium.

“Obviously, the Premiership is a different game to the Top 14, so it will be a different team and a different game I imagine,” he commented.

“It will be a lot quicker on the 4G, so that’s something we’re looking forward to, as it gives us an opportunity to put some of our attacking plays together, which will be good.”

Despite running in five tries in their 39-15 drubbing of Castres last Saturday, James, who joined Ospreys in the summer from La Rochelle after 14 years in France, revealed the Welsh region weren’t totally content with their display at the Liberty Stadium.

“Obviously we were happy to come away with the points, but something positive to come out of this group is that they’re not satisfied,” he said.

“There were quite a few opportunities we let go in the first 20 minutes which would have put a different picture on the game.”

Ospreys attack coach Brock James has admitted that the European Rugby Challenge Cup is “massive” for the Welsh region this season, after they opened their campaign with a bonus-point victory over Castres Olympique last weekend.