The English side had a terrific run to the last four of the 2018/19 Challenge Cup, seeing off the likes of Connacht Rugby and Bordeaux-Begles before eventually losing 24-20 at La Rochelle.

“The encouragement in the Challenge Cup is that the teams who get to the latter stages of that are often in the Heineken Champions Cup the following year, and they’ve had a good year of form in that competition,” said Diamond.

“I’ve won that competition a couple of times with Sale. The latter stages are a stepping-stone between Test rugby and club rugby. It definitely steps up a level.”

However, Diamond concedes that Sale face a stiff task in Round 1, as they take on 2019 quarter-finalists Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun, a team packed full of international talent.

“In Round 1 we’ve got Glasgow Warriors and they are well coached by Dave Rennie, probably with two-thirds of the Scottish national team,” said the Sharks’ boss.

“[They’re] a similar side to Northampton [Saints], the way they are coached I think, with Chris Boyd and Dave Rennie coming from similar backgrounds.

“They play a quick style of play - it’s not in the ruck for more than two or three seconds and [it’s] multi-phased - so if your ‘D’ isn’t right, if you’ve not got your line-speed right, then we could have a hard day at the office. So, we’ve got to make sure we have those principles in place.”

You can watch Glasgow Warriors v Sale Sharks live on Saturday at 13:00 GMT, with coverage on BT Sport and beIN SPORTS.

Try predicting Sale’s result in our brand-new Heineken Champions Cup Predictor Game by clicking HERE.

Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond believes his side’s form in the European Rugby Challenge Cup last season can act as a springboard for their return to the Heineken Champions Cup this term for the first time since 2016/17.