David Denton still determined to achieve season goals at Edinburgh

Denton has finally shaken off a minor injury that has kept him out this season and coach Michael Bradley has also restored Scotland caps Ross Ford, Greig Laidlaw, Matt Scott and Lee Jones, as well as promoting scrum-half Chris Leck, Willem Nel, young lock Grant Gilchrist, Georgian cap Dimitri Basilaia and Roddy Grant.

Bradley yesterday admitted that the Dragons were a team that Edinburgh should have beaten, and he thinks they should also be able to overcome Treviso tonight, although the Italians have home wins over Ospreys and Scarlets this season.

For his part, Denton’s directness reveals a growing confidence in the Scottish side. The back row freely admits that his aims at the start of the season were to become a key figure for Edinburgh, then for Scotland and earn a place on the British and Irish Lions squad for the 2013 tour to Australia.

No messing around. The big, blond-haired Scotland pin-up boy does not worry about tempting fate.

After sitting out the first five weeks of action, he asserts with determination rather than arrogance that his goals remain the same. He said: “It has been incredibly frustrating.

“I missed the summer tour and, just as I was starting to get back into the season, I picked up this wee niggle.

“Now it’s just about getting back on the pitch and first of all making sure I’m back in the Edinburgh team, because that’s no easy task, and then making sure I’m back in the [Scotland] squad for the autumn.

“I haven’t reassessed any of my goals. It’s going to take a lot of hard work but you don’t get anywhere without working hard.

“It [injury] has made my season a bit shorter and that’s not what I wanted but, in the end, it might mean that I’m peaking a bit later in the season, and that could be ideal.”

That kind of confidence undoubtedly helped Denton hit the ground running when he stepped up for his international debut just over a year ago. He went on to become a leading player for Scotland in the Six Nations but is one of three players in tonight’s team who suffered an embarrassing defeat in Rome at the end of that campaign, which handed Scotland the wooden spoon.

But Bradley is hopeful that his experience and confidence help to carry Edinburgh through a tricky assignment tonight and into their Heineken Cup opener with Saracens in good heart.

His counterpart Franco Smith has also reshuffled his side with Test caps Alberto Sgarbi and Tommaso Benvenuti back together at centre, and Tommaso Iannone and Tobias Botes on the wings. Luke McLean reverts to full-back while Fabio Semenzato and Alberto Di Bernardo are are at scrum-half and stand-off.

Treviso are missing a few of their internationals and field just eight who played in Italy’s win over Scotland in Rome, including flanker Simone Favaro who is back after a bout of ’flu.

But Edinburgh supporters should be wary, according to Bradley, who said: “Treviso are a strong, physical, team and have more than half the Italian national side. So we certainly don’t want to get into an arm-wrestle with them.

“Our focus will be on retaining our shape and our width and putting pressure on them in the wide channels, something which characterises our style of play. We’d certainly prefer to go into the Heineken Cup having won our previous match. However, this game’s importance lies with the RaboDirect PRO12 and our ambition to climb the table and make the play-offs.”

Denton concurred, insisting that the platform provided by a victory at Treviso last season was significant in the club’s run to the Heineken Cup semi-finals.

They are looking for a similar lift tonight but, after the 32-12 humbling in Newport last weekend, have ground to make up in terms of their discipline in what is expected to be a tight battle.

Denton added: “This is massive because we showed some creaks last weekend.

We showed problems in our discipline and that’s something that we can’t do again.

For them to score only one try and still get 30-odd points is unacceptable.

“That’s the third game I’ve been involved in with Edinburgh or Scotland where we’ve been down to 13 men.

That’s just not good enough and, although we did win against Toulouse, that was lucky.

“Now, it’s a matter of really executing this week and making a statement before Saracens come up to Murrayfield.”

Edinburgh

15 G Tonks

14 L Jones

13 M Scott

12 B Atiga

11 T Visser

10 G Laidlaw (c)

9 C Leck

1 A Jacobsen

2 R Ford

3 W Nel

4 G Gilchrist

5 S Cox

6 D Denton

7 R Grant

8 D Basilaia

Subs

16 A Titterrell

17 J Yapp

18 L Niven

19 N Talei

20 R Rennie

21 R Rees

22 J Houston

23 D Fife

Treviso

15 L McLean

14 T Iannone

13 T Benvenuti

12 A Sgarbi

11 T Botes

10 A Di Bernardo

9 F Semenzato

1 M Rizzo

2 L Ghiraldini

3 L Cittadini

4 A Pavanello (c)

5 F Minto

6 S Favaro

7 A Zanni

8 R Barbieri

Subs

16 E Ceccato

17 A De Marchi

18 P Di Santo

19 V Bernabò

20 D Budd

21 P Derbyshire

22 K Burton

23 G Toniolatti