Edinburgh call all hands to the pump as race for play-off slots gathers pace

• Edinburgh's Phil Godman is fresh enough to start on Friday having played second fiddle to Dan Parks in the national squad. Picture: SNS Group

Coach Rob Moffat named a side yesterday to face the Scarlets at Murrayfield on Friday night that is pretty close to a full-strength Edinburgh team, some of which is down to the fact that some of his internationalists have been playing second fiddle to others for Scotland recently and the willingness of others, such as Nick De Luca, to get straight back into club action.

The Scarlets are expected to be without their Scotland winger Sean Lamont and Stephen Jones, the Wales fly-half, who have been given the week off to recover from the Six Nations, and will still be missing a few injured caps, notably Mark Jones, Simon Easterby and Dafydd Jones. But Edinburgh have named all of their Six Nations players in the squad, albeit with the forwards trio of Allan Jacobsen, Ross Ford and Jim Hamilton starting from the bench.

De Luca goes straight in, back at his familiar inside centre berth and Ben Cairns shifting from a spell at full-back into the No13 jersey. That is due to the return of Jim Thompson, the Scotland 'A' full-back, from a knee injury.

Mark Robertson and Tim Visser are on the flanks and Phil Godman and Mike Blair, the skipper, reunite in a half-back partnership that was Scotland's only a year ago. Up front, Kyle Traynor, Geoff Cross and Andy Kelly start in the front row, the hooker having shown superbly in the demolition of the Ospreys at Murrayfield what talents he has when given the chance to be expressed, and Scott MacLeod and Steve Turnbull, also on form against the Ospreys stay together.

The back row is still without the injured Allister Hogg, but Scotland's Alan MacDonald returns to the starting XV alongside Ross Rennie and Roddy Grant as the all-action 'openside' back-row prepares to maintain the team's rapid return among the title-chasers.

Moffat said: "It is good to see our internationalists back available following that good win in Ireland – that is a positive for us.

"What we want to do between now and the end of the season is to keep everything as competitive as possible in our squad.

"With two players challenging for every spot that is how we will get the most out of our season.

"The onus is on everybody to perform well as our progress so far this season has been a real squad effort.

"The front row is a good example of that level of competition for places. Whether we select Allan Jacobsen or Kyle Traynor at prop or Andrew Kelly or Ross Ford at hooker, they know that whoever is not playing will be pushing the other one hard.

"I thought Ben Cairns did really well at 15 against Ospreys, but it is good to be able to bring Jim back into the team because it has been a frustrating season for Jim. He has had a few injuries and not played a lot of rugby, but he is now fully fit and I'm looking forward to seeing him play again."

On the bench, flanker Scott Newlands has recovered from an eye injury while stand-off David Blair has overcome the head knock which forced him to be replaced against Ospreys.

Still out with injuries sustained in the past six weeks are Chris Paterson, lock Craig Hamilton and Ross Samson, the scrum-half who broke his arm in two places playing for Gael Force against Leinster earlier this month, and has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

The next few weekends are crucial and one suspects will mean more to all the teams in the league.

Even the Scarlets in ninth place, on 22 points, will not be out of the play-off reckoning if they are able to pull off a victory in Edinburgh this week.

Moffat's side are currently in second spot, ahead of Glasgow only on points difference, with both sides four behind leaders Leinster, who have a game in hand, and cursing Glasgow's inability to grasp victory from a good performance in Dublin just two days before Scotland beat Ireland.

Munster are also on the same 34-point mark as the two Scots sides, and with the same number of games played, with the Ospreys, having had the wind taken from their sails in the hefty defeat at Murrayfield, one point further behind, but still with a game in hand. Behind them, Newport-Gwent Dragons are four adrift.

Edinburgh have a great incentive to push on with two games away from Murrayfield coming up, at Connacht and the Dragons, and then Ulster back to the capital next month, while Glasgow have the Dragons, Ulster and Leinster all at home in April.