Edinburgh out to continue Connacht’s Galway woes

Edinburgh Rugby will be anxious to avoid becoming Connacht’s first league victims since September when they visit Galway tonight.

The West of Ireland side have shown themselves to be on the up by drawing with Glasgow at the Sportsground last time out.

There was no such good fortune for Edinburgh who lost at Newport Gwent Dragons last week, extending a run that has seen them unable to defeat only Italian opposition on the road since 2009.

Edinburgh’s last win at Connacht was back on October 24, 2008, and they have not tasted victory in the league for four matches, dating back to the visit of Aironi in early December.

One incentive for Edinburgh will be to exorcise the spectre of possibly dropping to second bottom this weekend.

That is a possibility, with Newport Gwent Dragons heading for bottom team Aironi on Sunday knowing that by then it might be possible to leapfrog Edinburgh – as would Connacht with a win.

For the second successive weekend Edinburgh include a young Stirling County forward on the bench – prop Mike MacDonald – but he will be hoping to fare better than club-mate Robert McAlpine, who travelled to provide cover at Newport last week and was one of two unused substitutes. Man-of-the-match from last weekend Dougie Fife is also a sub.

Edinburgh: Paterson; Brown, Thompson, Scott, T Visser, Hunter; Leck, Traynor; Kelly, Gilding, Gilchrist, Cox, McInally, Talei, Grant (c). Subs: Walker, MacDonald, Gamboa, Lozada, Watson, Black, Godman, Fife.