Spurred on by the prospect of playing their quarter-final and semi-final games at home should they progress that far, Archer says Munster will do all they can to secure a top-four finish in Pool B.

“Looking back on past European performances and the history of the competition, you want to try and get the highest possible seed as you can to get home quarter-finals, home semi-finals,” he explained.

“And I suppose being around a while now I know how important it is to get seeded as high as possible so we’re treating our match this weekend as nearly a knockout [game].”

But Munster’s most-capped player warned that Wasps will offer a stern test when they come to Thomond Park, especially given their stunning victory over last season’s European champions Stade Toulousain last weekend.

“They’ve had two massive performances in the last few weeks, particularly their last game with 14 men against Toulouse,” Archer added. “It was a very impressive performance from them.

“We’ll be expecting a big battle, obviously the last time we played them they were down to 14 - [that] made our jobs a bit easier.

“We’ll expect a big battle up front, particularly their back row – [Alfie] Barbeary, [Brad] Shields and [Jack] Willis, they’re good units. We’ll expect a massive battle there and they’ll be very hungry to progress to the knockout stage.”

Munster Rugby prop Stephen Archer says the Irish province are preparing for their final Heineken Champions Cup pool stage game against Wasps today as a knockout fixture.