Heineken Cup: Element of surprise can be Edinburgh’s strength says Michael Bradley

THE upside to the fact that Edinburgh did not follow their own script in last week’s Heineken Cup match at Cardiff is that the visitors to Murrayfield tomorrow night do not yet know how Michael Bradley’s team aim to attack them.

It is common in this crucial middle fortnight of the Heineken Cup pool stages for teams to cancel each other out as they spend two weeks forensically analysing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Edinburgh did not plan to go to the Welsh capital and keep their gameplan for piercing the powerful armoury of the Blues hidden up their sleeve, but that is what transpired. After a promising start to their campaign with terrific wins over London Irish and Racing Metro, Edinburgh fell into a familiar pattern, struggling to cope with the Blues power and accuracy at the breakdown, making unforced errors and falling off the pace of the game to allow their hosts to dictate.

Bradley has enjoyed watching his side gradually improve through the past two months and the performance served as a jolt to his system. “It was disappointing for us because we hadn’t seen that in recent matches,” he said. “When you add factors together, we just made it too easy for them, so our starting blocks on Friday are that we have to stand up to Cardiff in terms of their physicality, be sharper in relation to penalties and be more forceful in how we implement our gameplan.

“Against Cardiff, for some reason, we were a little bit off the mark. Territorially, we started quite well, but we had a game-plan and we didn’t implement it as well as we would have liked. So, hopefully, that will change this week and we’ll be a bit more direct in relation to our play and target areas we hope to exploit, and hoped to exploit in the first game. Those options are still there for us.”

It is never a simple matter of simply exerting one’s game on the opposition, and Bradley accepted that his side had to earn the right to play their game first, which comes down to the battle of the big men, which Edinburgh lost in the loose last Friday to the likes of Xavier Rush, Bradley Davies, Sam Warburton and Gethin Jenkins.

“We couldn’t actually play the way we wanted to play because we lost the physical battle,” Bradley conceded. “Cardiff outplayed us, particularly up front, but were more physical one to 15, and, if we don’t adjust to that, we won’t perform.”

Bradley will announce his team today but he plans to restore Greig Laidlaw to stand-off for what will be the Borderer’s 100th Edinburgh match and Netani Talei, the Fijian ball-carrier, to No8, to bring more control and power to Edinburgh’s game.

The positive side to the analysis is that, with just over 15 minutes to go in Cardiff, Edinburgh were still in the game. They had given Dan Parks every opportunity to pick them off with penalty kicks, which the Scotland stand-off duly did, and yet, with a fine try by Lee Jones, had pulled themselves back into the game at 15-8 down and looked hungry for another dramatic late victory. However, a Parks drop-goal and an interception try by Alex Cuthbert with six minutes to go, converted by Parks, claimed a flattering 25-8 win.

Most teams who come to Murrayfield strive to dominate the home pack and play a tight game, Racing Metro having discoverd the danger of opening up. Cardiff have been criticised by supporters for keeping things too tight but they now have Gavin Henson fit and raring to go and he would be a different prospect to Parks at stand-off.

Bradley does not expect the British and Irish Lion to start, but would be pleased if Cardiff did look to take his side on with a more expansive game tomorrow night. “I wouldn’t mind that – that would be a good equation for us,” he said. “But part of the deal is that we have to be effective in how we defend that, and that’s where we weren’t good enough in the game last week. We were disappointed with the result last week because we didn’t do ourselves justice but it’s up to us to put that right.”

This pool always promised to be tight and it will become suffocating if Edinburgh can stick to the script and gain revenge tomorrow night, to claim what would be a first win against Cardiff in seven meetings. Bradley seems to have it worked out.

“The ideal scenario would be to win the match, Cardiff not get a bonus point and we score one try more than them,” he said, “and that gives us the advantage over Cardiff if it comes to a head-to-head. London Irish will go well I expect against Racing Metro at home [on Saturday], and so, if we win, it could be two teams on 12 and us on 13 or ourselves and Cardiff on 13 and Irish on 12, so it is quite tight.”

Squad: M Blair, T Brown, S Cox, G Cross, N De Luca, D Denton, R Ford, G Gilchrist, J Gilding, P Godman, R Grant, A Jacobsen, L Jones, J King, G Laidlaw (capt), S Lawrie, H Leonard, E Lozada, S McInally, C Paterson, R Rennie, M Scott, N Talei, J Thompson, K Traynor, T Visser.