Edinburgh coach shuffles pack for trip to Llanelli

Edinburgh coach Alan Solomons has made five changes '“ four personnel and one positional '“ for tonight's trip to face second-placed Scarlets in Llanelli.

Ben Toolis returns to Edinburghs second row tonight. Picture: SNS

The Edinburgh side lost 10-3 to Cardiff in the Welsh capital in their last Guinness Pro12 outing and dropped to fifth in the table.

Greig Tonks retains his place at full-back, with young Scotland cap Damien Hoyland returning from injury on the right wing. The centre pairing sees Michael Allen remain at outside centre with Sam Beard returning to the starting line-up at inside centre in place of the injured Andries Strauss and Chris Dean.

Stand-off Phil Burleigh, who signed a two-year contract extension earlier in the week, and scrum-half Nathan Fowles continue their half-back partnership.

Rory Sutherland, Neil Cochrane and John Andress again make up the front row, with Anton Bresler and Ben Toolis both returning to the team in the second row.

Captain Mike Coman resumes his usual position on the blindside, after filling in at second row in Cardiff, while Test flanker Hamish Watson and Cornell Du Preez remain at openside and No 8.

Solomons said: “The Scarlets at home is always incredibly tough and we will need to improve considerably from our Cardiff performance to get a result.”

South African lock David Bulbring will make his Scarlets debut in a side that also includes former Glasgow wing DTH van der Merwe.

Coach Wayne Pivac said: “We’re looking forward to getting back out on the pitch to right the wrongs of the last round. We’ve put in a lot of hard work this week to eradicate the errors.

“Edinburgh’s scrums have gone really well. They drive a lot of their lineout and have been picking up a lot of penalties and scoring tries from there. We really want to get back to winning ways and finish the season strongly like we started. It is really important to get points out of every game.”

- Connacht defeated Newport Gwent Dragons 26-21 in last night’s Pro12 fixture.

EDINBURGH: To play Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets, tonight, 8:15pm:

Greig Tonks, Damien Hoyland, Michael Allan, Sam Beard, Tom Brown, Phil Burleigh, Nathan Fowles, Rory Sutherland, Neil Cochrane, John Andress, Anton Bresler, Ben Toolis, Mike Co man (c), Hamish Watson, Cornell Du Preez.

Subs: George Turner, Allan Dell, Simon Berghan, Alex Toolis, Jamie Ritchie, Sean Kennedy, Blair Kinghorn, Dougie Fife.