RaboDirect preview: Edinburgh aiming to get off to a flying start

By DAVID FERGUSON
Published on 01/09/2012 02:28

THE PHONEY war of pre-season now over, Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley will tonight unleash a blend of youth, experience and new talent that he hopes can propel the capital side back among the elite of Celtic rugby.

Being handed an extra £1.2m in funding by the SRU was a welcome improvement, but it shifts the pressure from the SRU leadership and their lack of direction to Bradley and Gregor Townsend and the pro teams’ ability to take significant strides. Their cause should be helped by a reverse situation in Wales with the Welsh RU and benefactors struggling to maintain a level of funding that had their four regions among the biggest spenders in the British and Irish game.

So, Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets have watched a combined total of 47 players leave or retire this summer and a fraction of that number come in. The RaboDirect PRO12 has lost a core of Welsh talent, including Shane Williams, Martyn Williams, Gavin Henson (though we hardly saw him anyway), Stephen Jones, Gethin Jenkins, Aled Brew, Luke Charteris and Tom Smith as well as other internationalists Ben Morgan, Sonny Parker and Nikki Walker, while ex-Blues centre Casey Laulala runs out at Murrayfield in the red of Munster.

Connacht remain the also-rans in Ireland, Ulster are a club on the up and Leinster are holding strong, while one glance down tonight’s team-lines will ensure few in Edinburgh under-estimate Munster. But, the Irishmen may struggle this season as they go through what veteran lock Paul O’Connell termed a ‘transition period’, key figures Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, Denis Leamy, Mick O’Driscoll and David Wallace all having retired. Add in the fact that their top Ireland internationalists, including O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara, expect to miss the first three weeks of league action and there is a fresh vulnerability about the Munstermen.

That matters only if opponents can exploit it, if others are up to speed, physically and mentally, to the challenge of deflating the passion-filled red shirts. They are callow at half-back and in the back row tonight for example, but can Edinburgh make that show? There are few as desperate to see that as Bradley, who grew up a proud boy of Cork, who regardless of how his side performed in pre-season, would always pick his strongest squad for the opening weekend.

“That was always the plan,” he said. “This time last year Cardiff put five tries on us and it wasn’t a good start to the season.

“This year we’re looking to do a lot better in the Rabo and part of that equation is to do well from the start, so we are putting a strong side out. Munster are also putting a strong side out so it should be a cracking game. There are no guarantees that we’ll win it, but it’s a great challenge and we’re looking forward to it.

“Munster and Leinster in the Rabo are the two strongest panels [squads]. Part of the formula for them has been the ability to be strong without their international contingent. We’re working towards that and this season will be a litmus test.”

Bradley acknowledged that a 50-point drubbing by Northampton was not the preparation he wanted for a highly anticipated kick-off fuelled by last season’s Heineken Cup run, but all that is irrelevant now. Edinburgh, arguably, appear better than at any time, with Tim Visser, Nick De Luca, Lee Jones, Greig Laidlaw, Ross Ford, David Denton and Ross Rennie coming in alongside five new signings, and a particularly impressive set of forwards on the bench which could be the difference in the second half.

Acutely aware that new teams take time to gel, and that money does not always buy success, Bradley remains a blend of excitement and nerves as a new era beckons.

“People will expect more of Edinburgh and rightly so,” he added. “That puts more pressure on us and is more of a focus for the opposition when they come here, making them a wee bit sharper again. That is a different dimension to what we were dealing with last year, but that’s good place for us to be.”

Edinburgh

15 G Tonks

14 L Jones

13 N De Luca

12 B Atiga

11 T Visser

10 G Laidlaw (capt)

9 R Rees

1 J Yapp

2 R Ford

3 W Nel

4 G Gilchrist

5 S Cox

6 D Denton

7 R Rennie

8 S McInally

Subs

16 A Titterrell

17 A Jacobsen

18 G Cross

19 P Parker

20 D Basilaia

21 C Leck

22 G Hunter

23 J Houston

Munster

15 D Hurley

14 D Howlett (capt)

13 C Laulala

12 J Downey

11 L O’Dea

10 I Keatley

9 D Williams

1 W Du Preez

2 D Varley

3 BJ Botha

4 D O’Callaghan

5 B Holland

6 P Butler

7 S Dougall

8 J Coughlan

Subs

16 M Sherry

17 D Kilcoyne

18 S Archer

19 D Foley

20 B O’Mahony

21 P Stringer

22 S Deasy

23 I Dineen