Paterson and Godman out as Edinburgh begin Euro bid

EDINBURGH begin their Heineken Cup campaign this weekend without experienced internationalists Chris Paterson and Phil Godman, who are both working back from injury.

But coach Michael Bradley is confident a first away win in over a year will help his side find the confidence to match London Irish at the Madesjki Stadium tomorrow.

He named a 27-man squad yesterday and will name his starting XV this morning. Jim Thompson will remain at full-back as Paterson nurses a minor groin injury and Harry Leonard and Greig Laidlaw are vying for the stand-off role. Bradley refused to be drawn on whether he would opt for the more experienced pairing of Laidlaw and Mike Blair this week, or stick with Leonard, the 19-year-old having impressed in his first two starts in recent weeks.

But he believes that the lessons learned from a narrow loss to Leinster and good win against Treviso in Italy will be vital against a London Irish side which came back to draw with Leicester on Saturday.

Bradley said: “Harry has performed well in the past two weeks, is a good learner, a steady player on the pitch, and questions were asked of him by Leinster and Treviso and he stuck to the gameplan and executed well.

“I’m more happy now going into this with the performance last week and the sense of how we played. The application was very good, the attention to detail was good, the breakdown was good, the energy in defence was very good and, as a coach, you know, if they can bring those elements to any match, they will be a formidable side.

“London Irish have started similar to us [third in table with three wins from seven games], and the league they play in is a bit more physical but maybe not as creative, so you’re going to have a clash of styles. I think it will be a close game and a close group, and the formula is always to win our home matches and get something from the away matches.”

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