Belief is the key for home team, says Lawson

SCOTLAND scrum-half Rory Lawson will be at Murrayfield today to witness his old club making history in the Heineken Cup, knowing that this Toulouse side is beatable if the Scots believe in themselves.

He knows because he was part of the Gloucester team that defeated Toulouse 34-24 at Kingsholm in January, leaving Guy Noves’ side waiting for the Connacht score to know if they had made the last eight.

Lawson said: “You always like to beat the top teams and Toulouse are really the Real Madrid or Barcelona of the rugby world, so, from that perspective, I look back and feel it was a great thing to beat them.

“But, equally, I feel we gave them a bit too much respect when we played them in their back yard in the first game of the tournament. We ended up running them close [lost 21-17], but if we’d believed in ourselves a bit more we might have beaten them there as well.

“The Edinburgh guys have to respect what they’re capable of, but believe in themselves. Toulouse in the knockout stages will be stronger and they can certainly turn it on, but at Murrayfield in front of 36,000 people, Edinburgh are definitely capable of beating Toulouse.

“What we did was kick high to them and force pressure with a good chase. Up front, they have huge strength in the pack and are good with momentum but, equally, they tire when you move that pack around. It’s going to be tough but Edinburgh have the players capable of winning this. They need to believe that.”