A victory for Edinburgh Rugby against Ulster would ensure winner-takes-all tie

Published on Friday 15 January 2010 10:18

SKIPPER Chris Paterson has urged Edinburgh to take their Heineken European Cup qualification bid all the way to the final game by beating Ulster in Belfast tonight.

• Chris Paterson

Victory on a Ravenhill ground where Edinburgh have already won a Celtic League clash this season would mean the concluding fixture, against Stade Franais at Murrayfield tomorrow week, would be very much alive.

While insisting the sole focus is on Ulster, it was acknowledged by Paterson that the situation in the group, where Edinburgh are on nine points with Stade leading on 13, can be used as motivation since no player likes to participate in a "dead" rubber.

"To state that we want to take our qualification bid all the way through implies we might be looking beyond Ulster and, really, they are all we are concerned about at this stage.

"But we would be kicking ourselves if we didn't give ourselves a chance should the qualification door be flung open for us (by Bath winning or drawing in France) and that's what we have to do.

"Not even a losing bonus point will be sufficient tonight, though. We must win to keep our hopes alive. As for Ulster being inactive due to the weather last weekend while we were in action, does it give us an advantage or them? It's impossible to say."

The all-or-nothing approach to avoid being also rans and set up what would be a tumultuous finale should stand Edinburgh in good stead and, typically, Paterson was putting no emphasis on the fact he is on the brink of something special in the individual scoring stakes.

Just nine points – and he's averaged a dozen per match in his last three outings – would see him equal Duncan Hodge's team record haul of 228 in Europe.

Paterson said: "I was totally unaware of that record until it was mentioned at the start of this Heineken Cup campaign.

"If it comes, it would be a nice accolade especially with me working alongside Duncan."

Hodge is currently Edinburgh's kicking coach and Paterson paid tribute, saying: "The fact Duncan and I have played together helps and it is good to have someone keeping an eye on you."

This will be Paterson's 51st European appearance with Edinburgh, adding to seven made during a brief sojourn at Gloucester and, during that time, he has seen the team, as well as the tournament, evolve.

Soon seedings will be re-appraised which should avoid the scenario where the strongest are more or less automatically pitched in with the traditionally weakest Italian teams. And the three best runners-up who missed out on a place in the Heineken quarter-finals now go into the second-tier event.

Paterson said: "European rugby is evolving on and off the field while at Edinburgh, where there is an average age of 25, we are obliged to show a bit more versatility. Partly it is down to having a slightly smaller squad than most rivals but it adds to development that so many of us are interchangeable."

That has recently meant Paterson moving up from full back to stand off late on in games but tonight that role is back in the hands of Phil Godman, who is fit again and whose timely drop goal secured that previous victory in Ulster. That win has given Edinburgh encouragement although 31-year-old Paterson is anxious to stress that nothing can be taken for granted on a ground where he started his professional career with an outing for Glasgow as a teenager.

"Looking back, I still don't know how we won last time in Ulster. After 20 minutes, it was a case of 'dig in' because we were really up against it. That's what we did and we managed to come away with the win. What we really need to rediscover now is consistency because, in our back-to-back defeats by Glasgow, our error count proved costly."

As Paterson points out, that has now been rectified with tries flowing again as Cardiff were dispatched last weekend. But nothing less than the bulldog spirit that brought league spoils home from Belfast will be required because the glittering prize is a head-to-head with Stade Franais for a place in the last eight.