Mass changes as Edinburgh bid to reverse league form

ONLY three players who started for Edinburgh in last week’s loss to Munster have held on to their places for tonight’s home RaboDirect PRO12 encounter with Aironi.

The capital side take on the bottom placed Italians at Murrayfield realising that a victory is imperative following a disappointing result over in Ireland with so many “first choice” players not travelling.

As a result, head coach Michael Bradley has made wholesale changes with eight players returning from their rest week last week to bolster the team and four others making the step-up from the subsitutes bench to the starting XV.

The only ones keeping their places are Sean Cox, James King and Chris Paterson.

Bradley rested Allan Jacobsen, Ross Ford, Geoff Cross, Grant Gilchrist, David Denton, Nick De Luca, Lee Jones and Tim Visser for the trip to Thormond Park, no doubt with a busy period – which includes forthcoming double headers against Cardiff Blues in the Heineken Cup and Glasgow Warriors in the 1872 Cup – in mind.

The four players coming off the bench to start are second-row Esteban Lozada, back-row Roddy Grant and half-back pairing Greig Laidlaw and Harry Leonard.

Although Edinburgh have won two out of two in the Heineken Cup and were the talk of Europe after their amazing 48-47 win over Racing Metro a fortnight ago, they have stuttered somewhat in the league this term and sit third bottom.

And the returning big guns will need to fire against the Italian outfit who secured their only win of the campaign against Edinburgh back in September.

Second-row Lozada said: “It is good to have a number of players back after they were rested last week [when Edinburgh went down 34-17 at Munster] as they bring a lot of experience to our team and we are all ready to go against Aironi. As a forward pack, we have had a really good week in training and we are bracing ourselves for a big challenge up-front.

“We know if we can work hard as a unit, work the phases and then secure good ball for our outside backs that it makes their job so much easier, so that is our aim tonight.”

And Lozada is looking forward to again lining up alongside 21-year-old Gilchrist, having been impressed by his progression this term following a stint on a scholarship in New Zealand over the summer.

He said: “I have known Grant was a good player since I joined the club in 2010 but he was unlucky with injuries last season.

“Now he is pushing on and always wanting to learn and he is just one of a number of young players who are really beginning to look confident and composed for us. Not much seems to faze them.”

One of those youngsters Lozada refers to is stand-off Leonard, who was given a professional baptism of fire in the away loss to Aironi but is now much more composed and. whenever he has linked up with Laidlaw at nine and ten, they have looked slick.

In terms of his own personal form, the Argentine cap is pleased with the way things have been going so far this term. He has become the dominant force in the line-out and in the loose that Edinburgh supporters were looking for when he joined 18 months ago.

Season 2010/11 was somewhat stop-start for the 29-year-old from the moment he suffered a back injury in pre-season and then a head knock on his competitive debut against Munster.

However, Lozada is a key part of the Edinburgh squad and added: “I am loving life in Edinburgh at the moment and this is a great bunch of guys to be playing with. There is a real buzz at training and on matchdays and no matter what age we are we are all always learning from each other.

“The local people came out in great numbers to support us against Racing Metro and, with the club trying to create a game day experience which is all about fun, we hope a lot of people also come down tonight – we will be doing our best to put on a show on the pitch.”

• For those supporters going to tonight’s game, the West Stand bar in the Presidents’ Suite is unavailable. Instead, fans can use the North Stand supporters’ bar, located in the Rowan Suite (third floor), while season ticket holders can continue to use the Murrayfield Wanderers facility.

EDINBURGH TEAM

15 C Paterson

14 L Jones

13 N De Luca

12 J King

11 T Visser

10 H Leonard

9 G Laidlaw (c)

1 A Jacobsen

2 R Ford

3 G Cross

4 E Lozada

5 G Gilchrist

6 S Cox

7 R Grant

8 D Denton

Subs

16 S Lawrie

17 K Traynor

18 L Niven

19 N Talei

20 R Rennie

21 C Leck

22 T Brown

23 P Godman