Duo back to boost Racing Metro

Coach Pierre Berbizier has made nine changes to the side that drew with Perpignan in the Top 14 last week but, with him shuffling his side regularly in recent weeks, it is far from a second string.

In fact, bringing back Hernandez at stand-off and Chabal, and handing Springbok star Francois Steyn his first start after injury, brings an extra potency to the Racing line-up.

As they did in the astonishing Murrayfield match that ended 48-47 to the hosts, Racing have left out notable performers, including Sireli Bobo, the Fijian wing, and props Julien Brugnaut and Mikaele Tuugahala, preferring experienced Italian Andrea Lo Cicero and huge tighthead Juan Pablo Orlandi.

But there is no doubting Racing’s depth of quality and, even though their hopes of a Heineken Cup quarter-final place are gone, they have a strong desire to atone for their defeat back on their own patch. What they did not bargain for in the first meeting was a home team that had the belief and ability in attack to come back from a 24-point deficit and, when Racing tried to halt the charge in the last quarter, they were a man down, the legs were going and their lungs were on fire.

Coach Berbizier has demanded that his players do not make the same mistake, and instead dominate up front from the first minute in the ferocious way they do in the Top 14.

He also wants his players to defend better and put the game to bed with slick finishing by half-time.

But, seeking a first win in three games, he has a bench full of potent finishers, notably Jonathan Wisniewski and Henry Chavancy, to ensure Edinburgh will be made to fight all the way for a rare win on French soil.