Still plenty to play for, say Edinburgh

A CELEBRATION of all that is good about Scottish rugby is what Edinburgh's head coach Rob Moffat and captain Chris Paterson are urging the home side to embrace in today's final Heineken Cup pool tie of the season.

The chances of reaching the quarter-final slid into the mud in Ravenhill last week as Edinburgh again failed to grip the game when it was necessary and grasp the victory that would have set up this afternoon's clash as a pool winner-takes-all affair.

However, Moffat believes there is much to attract supporters to Murrayfield today, not least the featuring in the Stade Francais squad of Hugo Southwell and Simon Taylor, the former Edinburgh players, and a home team determined to regain their ability to compete with and conquer French teams on Scottish soil.

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The game will begin only after a minute's applause for Bill McLaren, the BBC commentator and Scottish rugby ambassador who died on Tuesday. His grandson Jim Thompson will start for Edinburgh, again on the wing, and Moffat believes that pre-match memories of the great Scot whom world rugby took to its heart will help to inspire not only his grandson but also the Edinburgh team.

Moffat said: "It is a mark of respect that Bill deserves; he was an absolutely top-class person. You would never hear anybody say a bad word about Bill McLaren.

"He always had time for everyone. His rugby knowledge and enthusiasm was well documented, but I will always remember what he was like as a man – he was a true gentleman."

Moffat named his team yesterday and he has made six changes to the side that went down in Belfast. Wing Simon Webster makes a long-awaited return to the game, albeit with a start on the bench, while Mark Robertson and Nick De Luca are back in the three-quarter line. The front row has been revamped with Kyle Traynor, Andrew Kelly and Geoff Cross back and Ross Rennie returns to create the all-openside back row that Rob Moffat has been keen on.

That, in itself, promises to create a firecracker of a game of rugby with the pace and guile of Roddy Grant at No8, and Alan MacDonald and Rennie either side of him, facing a terrific test from one of the most physical and quickest back rows in the competition in James Haskell, Mauro Bergamasco and Juan Manuel Leguizamon.

In Paris in October, during a painful 31-7 defeat, Edinburgh came off a distinct second-best in the battle for ball to the point that it forced a radical rethink of their work at the breakdown.

Grant believes that defeat did Edinburgh a great favour and this weekend is the time to show how much they learned and improved as a result of that lesson.

He said: "It was a real step-up and we got blown away at the breakdown. They were very good and put us away in the first half, though we came back at them. It's only when you are involved in a game like that that you really feel the physicality and understand how tough it is, but once I adapted to it out there I didn't feel uncomfortable.

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"I came out of the game feeling 'this is the intensity I want to play at; this is where I want my game to be', and we came back and worked hard to really improve. I certainly remember those training sessions after that, and I think we have played a lot better at the breakdown since then, so this is a big test of how much we've improved. I've really enjoyed playing at No8. I do enjoy seven and think that's the position best suited to me, but it's good to add strings to your bow and I'll play wherever I'm put so long as it gets me a game."

Captain Paterson has more experience than any member of the team of beating French opposition, so it is no surprise to find him quick to point out that Edinburgh still have a chance of qualifying for the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals.

A bonus-point win at Murrayfield coupled with defeat for either of Bath (over Ulster at the Rec today) or Gloucester (away to the Dragons tomorrow) could seal Moffat's men a place in the last eight of the second-tier tournament. If Edinburgh, Ulster and Gloucester all lose, there is also still a possibility that Glasgow could sneak that last qualifying spot if they were to win in Biarritz tomorrow.

Paterson said: "That is part of the extra motivation for us certainly, and so is the fact that the number of wins you get this season affects the seeding for next season's competition."

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