Edinburgh ready to go ‘toe-to-toe’ with Ospreys

Head coach Michael Bradley says Edinburgh are ready to go “toe-to-toe” with Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium in the RaboDirect PRO12 League tonight.

The sides go into the match with contrasting fortunes, with the club’s Welsh opponents coming off the back of a convincing away win over Heineken Cup champions Leinster (27-3) while a disappointing final quarter saw the capital club surrender the lead and ultimately their opening match to Cardiff Blues (15-38).

He said: “As a team we have acknowledged that our performance over the 80 minutes against Cardiff was not good enough but we created four or five gilt-edged chances and, if we had put some of those away, we could have put Cardiff under a lot more pressure.

“Ospreys are coming off a very good win over a strong Leinster side so they’ll be very confident. They are a side that like to play the ball and keep the pace of the game up, which we need to counter, but that suits us as well.

“We will go toe to toe with any side that wants to play that type of game so hopefully it will make for a good, exciting game and potentially a win away from home for Edinburgh Rugby.”

Full-back Tom Brown and centre James King have returned to the Edinburgh back-line. King, who has recovered from a groin strain sustained in pre-season training, came through 40 minutes for former club Melrose in their 39-16 victory over RBS Premier 1 rivals Currie while Brown, the starting full-back in the club’s pre-season matches, returns to the fold having missed the club’s season opener with a dead leg.

Their reintroduction to the front line sees Simon Webster return to his favoured wing position and Matt Scott switch centre spots to accommodate King. Gregor Hunter starts at stand-off in place of the injured Phil Godman.

Ospreys: R Fussell; K Phillips, A Bishop, A Beck, H Dirksen; D Biggar, R Webb; D Jones, M Davies, C Griffiths, I Gough, I Evans, T Smith, J Tipuric (capt), J Thomas. Subs: S Baldwin, A Jarvis, J Rees, J Goode, J King, T Isaacs, M Morgan, S Parker.

Edinburgh: T Brown; S Webster, M Scott, J King, T Visser; G Hunter, G Laidlaw (capt); K Traynor, S Lawrie, L Niven, G Gilchrist, E Lozada, S Cox, R Grant, D Denton. Subs: A Kelly, R Hislop, S Knight, S Turnbull, H Watson, C Leck, J Thompson, L Jones.