Rugby: Edinburgh flanker gears up for Paris clash

With a brother, James, playing in the Basque country with St Jean de Luz, Ross Rennie doesn’t have far to look for deep insight into French rugby culture.

And the 25-year-year-old international flanker’s 19 previous Heineken European Cup outings with Edinburgh, including four from off the bench, have included clashes with Agen, Castres, Stade Francais and Toulouse.

So, it is with some authority that Rennie pinpoints exactly what his team will have to counteract when they pitch up at the Stade du Manoir in Paris tomorrow for a vital showdown with Racing Metro.

He may have missed the reciprocal leg at Murrayfield as part of the team’s rotation policy but Rennie looked on with admiration at the free-flowing nature of proceedings which eventually brought a 48-47 home win.

He said: “I have probably played about six times against French opponents, enough to know their style is different.

“They like to pass the ball before contact which is unusual and they look for a lot more offloads than we do in the UK.

“There are just different challenges across the park from what we are used to.

“If we get a good platform that will be a start because there is no bigger challenge than trying to win in France.”

Despite their Murrayfield losing bonus point and a win at London Irish, the Parisians are surely out of qualifying contention with a seven-point haul leaving them at the foot of the pool.

But, according to 11 times capped Rennie, that only makes them more dangerous.

“No French team playing at home likes losing,” he said. “It’s still going to be a very tough game, especially as we have also had to spend part of this week fixing things that didn’t go right against Ulster in the league last Friday.”