Edinburgh Vs. Toulouse Build up thread

[RuggerRadge2611]

I'm going to do my best to keep the feet on the ground here, but I have just bought my Ticket and now I cannot wait for Saturday.

Let's face it, Scottish rugby is in need of a good pick up after the debacle of getting whitewashed in the 6N. The weekend just past kind of set the tone for me. Edinburgh played well and battled past a dogged Scarlets at Murrayfield and the Warriors thumped the Blues and Henson nearly got expelled from his flight home because he was intoxicated.

Now I'm looking forward to Edinburgh's most anticipated match in memory where we have the multiple HC winners Toulouse coming to the capital. Glaws showed the way on how to beat Toulouse in the pool stages, get in their faces and stifle their attacking style of rugby. By the end of the match Glouceseter had run them ragged and closed the game out.

Very similar to what Edinburgh did to London Irish and Racing Metro in the pool stages of the tournament.

Always known for it's sensationalist journalism the Hootsman has chipped in with an article about the French giants "fearing" Denton.

Toulouse admit fears over Dave Denton
By BILL LOTHIAN
Published on Monday 2 April 2012 12:00

DAVE DENTON has emerged as the player Toulouse are most keen to contain when visiting Edinburgh Rugby for Saturday’s Heineken European Cup quarter-final.



The form of the 22-year-old Test back rower was rewarded with man-of-the-match honours as Edinburgh won 26-23 at home to Scarlets at the weekend.

But opposite number Louis Picamoles, capped 21 times by France, was already wary, insisting: “Edinburgh have a lot of young and talented players and play offensive style of rugby with very good consistency.

“Denton is a fine young player and next week will be as difficult as the (recent) France game (a 23-17 win) at Murrayfield. It will be tough, but it is also going to be hugely exciting.”

Picamoles missed Toulouse’s latest fixture, a 22-18 win at Stade Francais to stay top of the French League.

But France prop Jean-Baptise Poux turned out and looked ahead to the Edinburgh clash by insisting it was a major obstacle on the road to the club’s fifth Heineken Cup.

Poux, himself a three time-winner, said: “Edinburgh have the ability to keep the ball and play through a lot of phases. They play attacking rugby and are capable of beating anyone.

“We saw that during the French game against Scotland in the Six Nations. We could have lost.

“I watched several of Edinburgh’s games during the Pool stages. Against Racing Metro they showed a lot of power and, when the Racing players were exhausted, they scored at the last minute to win the game – they are a dangerous team.”

I seriously doubt Toulouse will fear any of our guys but they will be astute enough to pick out the danger players ala Denton. For me the backrow will be critical for this game, and whoever dominates the breakdown will win the game. If Edinburgh can get the quick ball they thrive off I think running Toulouse of the park is a disticnt possibility.

More positive news when I found out that Edinburgh have a chance to set the record attendence for HC UK pool record. 30000 have been sold so far and as far as I am aware the SRU/Edinburgh Rugby are getting lots of publicity on local radio and with Students Unions/ Pubs / Resturants and local advertising to try and break the 37000 that attended the Cardiff Vs. Tolouse game at the Millenium Stadium.

A fantastic achievement for a country with apparently no interest in Rugby. If We get the win against Toulouse and do it with some style I would bet heavily some of those guys will be back.

So this result is not just important for Edinburgh but also for Scottish rugby as a whole in trying to raise the profile of the game. With Glasgow doing so well in the pro12 who knows, maybe after the disapointment of the 6N we are turning the corner?

Anyway as I said I'll try to keep my feet on the ground with this (NO PROMISES) one but I believe we can win this game.

C'mon the Burgh

Black & Red army

[AsLongAsBut100ofUs]

Radge, I've got my fingers and toes and every other bit crossed for your lot this weekend

This was in the Scotland on Sunday at the weekend too:

Toulouse have pedigree performers front to back

By TOM ENGLISH

GUY Novès has one of the easier jobs in world rugby. Oh sure, there’s pressure on him at Toulouse, an insatiable desire among the support for trophies and more trophies, but what coach in the club game anywhere in the world wouldn’t embrace the stress if he was packing the kind of firepower Noves is privileged to work with?

Maxime Médard gets injured during the Six Nations? Yeah, whatever. They’ve still got Clément Poitrenaud for full-back. A doubt about the prolific Vincent Clerc? Big deal. They’ve got the Fijian Clerc in Timoci Matanavou to call on. Any doubts about Lionel Beauxis at stand-off? Just send for Luke McAlister, the 30-times capped All Black. Any issues with their international props? Well, replace them with their other international props. Same for the second-rows and the back-rows. There are heavily-capped and world-famous players kicking their heels in the reserves in Toulouse.

You wonder sometimes if Novès himself has forgotten about half of them. Rupeni Caucaunibuca, the mesmeric Fijian finisher is still on the books, but is injured and forgotten. So is Vilimoni Delasau, another Fijian flyer of the recent past.

Throughout Novès’ squad there are names to conjure with, names that have been overtaken by bigger names. It’s cut-throat in Toulouse. You have to run just to stand still there.

In a club that boasts so many luminaries it is hardly a surprise that nobody batted any eye-lid when Luke Burgess came to town via the Waratahs and the Wallabies. Burgess has 37 caps for Australia, the most recent coming in the third and fourth place play-off with Wales at the World Cup in New Zealand, but those kind of numbers hardly even register in a place like Toulouse. At Edinburgh, Burgess would be considered a star. At Toulouse, he has to get in line for star treatment.

He’s made a difference, though. Burgess is sharp. He might not speak the language but he’s a leader in this team. He’s managed to force his way into the side ahead of the current Argentine scrum-half and the youngster everyone thinks will be the future French No.9 and he has excelled. “It’s going OK,” he says. That’s another thing. He’s an honest bloke. Down to earth. He doesn’t pretend that things are all rosy when, in fact, they are not.

Toulouse are top of the French league, so there can’t be a whole lot wrong with them at the moment. But Burgess isn’t getting exactly euphoric about the way Edinburgh’s opponents in the Heineken Cup quarter-final have been performing of late. “It’s been up and down to be honest. We’ve played some outstanding stuff and some ordinary stuff. It’s important that we stay focused and do the simple things well and not get carried away.

“Everybody’s got confidence in their own ability but it’s not always about that, it’s about working hard. People are out to get us. We know that. We need to need work harder than everybody else.

“Our form and our results haven’t been great. We haven’t put teams away on occasion and we’ve given up games that we shouldn’t have. Everybody is just finding each other I guess. There are some new guys in the squad, like myself, and the dynamic changes when new players come in. It takes time. We lost two games in the pool stage of the Heineken Cup that we shouldn’t have lost. We got beaten by Harlequins at home and by Gloucester away in the last round and we were to blame. We were lucky to get through at all. Our qualification was in the lap of the Gods there for a while. Our fate didn’t look good, but we’ve been given this chance against Edinburgh and we can’t waste it.”

Murrayfield. It gives him the shivers. He’s only been there once and the memory of it leaves him cold. He was part of the Wallabies squad that got beaten by Andy Robinson’s side in 2009. He came off the bench for Will Genia and remembers like it was yesterday.

“I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out how we lost that game. I don’t think Australia expected Scotland to defend the way they did, to be honest. We were probably cocky going over there. I don’t know why because we were on a very bad run at the time, but we just didn’t see it coming. It was arrogance on our behalf which is unlike us because we’re not an arrogant team and we’re not an arrogant nation. It was just a slip-up. They defended well and we made a lot of mistakes. Not happy memories. I went back to Australia and got sledged by Scottish people all over the place. My great grandfather was from Whitburn so I know a lot of Scots. How many? That week, too many.”

Burgess is 28 years old and is pretty much done now with the Wallabies. He doesn’t mind admitting that it’s been frustrating for him living in the shadow of Genia, so when Toulouse got in touch he jumped at the opportunity. No regrets. His new club is a challenge, he says. Novès is a thing of wonder. Some of the places where they go and play are beautifully weird. “You go and play somewhere like Brive and you think they don’t really have a team with a lot of big names, but the passion of their supporters totally inspires them and makes them better players. It’s amazing to see it. It’s fantastic. The sense of pride in their own place is just wonderful.”

He admits he knows little or nothing about Edinburgh just yet. Doesn’t really know how they got to the quarter-finals and who they beat. The homework won’t start until today. “We’ll look at them closely. I know very little about them but I know that only good sides make it to the knockouts so they have our respect. They’ve earned a home draw, too. So they’ve done more right so far than we have. I got burned the last time I was at Murrayfield so there’s no way I’ll be listening to any talk about us being favourites. That’s what happened the last time. I’d be a fool if I didn’t learn the lesson. I’ll try and get that message across to the boys during the week. My French isn’t great, but I’ll do the best I can to warn them of the danger.”

[red_stag]

My big concern is that even with 50,000 fans is the atmosphere going to be lost in Murrayfield?

[RDW]

Great intro Radge. As I've said before I bought 10 tickets and have taken over an entire row!

If we'd lost to Scarlets on Saturday then I'd literally have no hope. However the fact that we won, and the first half performance (not the 2nd half) has shown me that these guys haven't forgotten their Heineken form.

We really need to tighten up our defence though if we stand a chance. We can score tries against anyone, but Toulouse can definitely score a lot more tries than us!

No yellow cards too!!!

I am pretty sure this will be his team

1 - Chunk
2 - Ford
3 - Cross
4 - Gilchrist
5 - Cox
6 - Denton
7 - Rennie
8 - Talei
9 - Blair
10 - Laidlaw
11 - Webster (lol jk LMFAO) Visser obviously
12 - Scott
13 - De Luca
14 Jones (played well on Friday)
15 Tom Brown

Subs: Traynor, Kelly, Gilding (baws), Lozada, Grant, Leck, (good)Godman, Thomson

Front row we should have parity, 2nd row this is a massive game for the young Gilchrist and for Cox to show he deserves to play at this level, Backrow I'd hope we'd at least have parity with Toulouse and the backs are nice and exciting, if a little lightweight.

Also - it's my 25 birthday so will be in the Hampton before if anyone will be there!

[RDW]

My big concern is that even with 50,000 fans is the atmosphere going to be lost in Murrayfield?

There was a very good atmosphere with 12000 at the London Irish game. I'm pretty sure 30 000 will be enough!

The pitchside standing has made a massive difference.

[RuggerRadge2611]

RDW Bang on with your pick. Mine would be 100% the same, Possibly JT instead of Brown but happy either way.

With 30000 already going there are only 4 stadiums in Scotland that are suitable for it. Hampden, Ibrox, Celtic Park and Murrayfield.

I think 30000 pasionate fans will create and atmosphere. Ironic that one of the best atmospheres I can ever remember for a Scotland game was the match mentioned in ASBO's post. Scotland vs Australia. 33000 I think turned up.

The fans absolutly ripped it up that night.

[funnyExiledScot]

I do hope Toulouse are genuinely focused on Denton, because then they'll miss the real star of the Edinburgh back row in the HC this season which is Talei. His roaming advantage line crossing carrying game gives Edinburgh the ability to recycle quickly, as the opposition are on the back foot, and avoid the need to get bogged down in a breakdown slog.

Stuart Barnes wrote a really good piece in the Sunday Times this weekend about Edinburgh need to take Dusatoir out of the game. I completely agree, Toulouse have too much power at the breakdown for Edinburgh to allow that area to become a contest, so lots of offloading and quick ball is key. That means effectively both Blair and Laidlaw being scrums halves, and Matt Scott being a first receiver where necessary, just to keep it all moving. Big carrying games also needed from the front row.

Big game also needed from Tom Brown at 15. He's a talented runner, and I just hope he backs himself to run it back. Kicking to the Toulouse backs isn't the right thing to do. Rennie et al need to be very quick in getting back to support the counter-attack.

All in all a very exciting contest. Massive game for Scottish rugby, and it's great that young players like Gilchrist, Scott, Jones and Brown will likely start the match. Great experience.

[RuggerRadge2611]

I do hope Toulouse are genuinely focused on Denton, because then they'll miss the real star of the Edinburgh back row in the HC this season which is Talei. His roaming advantage line crossing carrying game gives Edinburgh the ability to recycle quickly, as the opposition are on the back foot, and avoid the need to get bogged down in a breakdown slog.

Stuart Barnes wrote a really good piece in the Sunday Times this weekend about Edinburgh need to take Dusatoir out of the game. I completely agree, Toulouse have too much power at the breakdown for Edinburgh to allow that area to become a contest, so lots of offloading and quick ball is key. That means effectively both Blair and Laidlaw being scrums halves, and Matt Scott being a first receiver where necessary, just to keep it all moving. Big carrying games also needed from the front row.

Big game also needed from Tom Brown at 15. He's a talented runner, and I just hope he backs himself to run it back. Kicking to the Toulouse backs isn't the right thing to do. Rennie et al need to be very quick in getting back to support the counter-attack.

All in all a very exciting contest. Massive game for Scottish rugby, and it's great that young players like Gilchrist, Scott, Jones and Brown will likely start the match. Great experience.

Could not agree more Talei has been utterly monstrous for Edinburgh in every game in HC this year. He almost always breaks the gainline and has such great hands when offloading he trully is the star of the Edinburgh backrow.

[whocares]

ST could start with the following :

Poux - Servat - Jonhston
Maestri - Albacete
Dusautoir- Picamoles - Nyanga
Burgess - Beauxis
Donguy - McAlister (if fit)- Fritz - Matanavou
Poitrenaud

bench: Montes - Human - Tolofua - Milo-Chulsky - Galan/Sowerby - Doussain - Jauzion

[AsLongAsBut100ofUs]

I do hope Toulouse are genuinely focused on Denton, because then they'll miss the real star of the Edinburgh back row in the HC this season which is Talei. His roaming advantage line crossing carrying game gives Edinburgh the ability to recycle quickly, as the opposition are on the back foot, and avoid the need to get bogged down in a breakdown slog.

Stuart Barnes wrote a really good piece in the Sunday Times this weekend about Edinburgh need to take Dusatoir out of the game. I completely agree, Toulouse have too much power at the breakdown for Edinburgh to allow that area to become a contest, so lots of offloading and quick ball is key. That means effectively both Blair and Laidlaw being scrums halves, and Matt Scott being a first receiver where necessary, just to keep it all moving. Big carrying games also needed from the front row.

Big game also needed from Tom Brown at 15. He's a talented runner, and I just hope he backs himself to run it back. Kicking to the Toulouse backs isn't the right thing to do. Rennie et al need to be very quick in getting back to support the counter-attack.

All in all a very exciting contest. Massive game for Scottish rugby, and it's great that young players like Gilchrist, Scott, Jones and Brown will likely start the match. Great experience.

+1

My goodness, another 9,724,699 club caps and we should probably look at these youths for the national team, don't you think, fES?

[RuggerRadge2611]

ST could start with the following :

Poux - Servat - Jonhston
Maestri - Albacete
Dusautoir- Picamoles - Nyanga
Burgess - Beauxis
Donguy - McAlister (if fit)- Fritz - Matanavou
Poitrenaud

bench: Montes - Human - Tolofua - Milo-Chulsky - Galan/Sowerby - Doussain - Jauzion

Gulp!
The backrow are very dangerous. To me the weakest link in that side is Beauxis, and even he is a very good player. Servat for me is one of the best hookers of my generation.

[GLove39]

Can't wait till Saturday. It'll be my first time going to a Heineken cup game!
Travelling down with a bunch of mates from Aberdeen.

Mon the Burgh

[RDW]

I do hope Toulouse are genuinely focused on Denton, because then they'll miss the real star of the Edinburgh back row in the HC this season which is Talei. His roaming advantage line crossing carrying game gives Edinburgh the ability to recycle quickly, as the opposition are on the back foot, and avoid the need to get bogged down in a breakdown slog.

Stuart Barnes wrote a really good piece in the Sunday Times this weekend about Edinburgh need to take Dusatoir out of the game. I completely agree, Toulouse have too much power at the breakdown for Edinburgh to allow that area to become a contest, so lots of offloading and quick ball is key. That means effectively both Blair and Laidlaw being scrums halves, and Matt Scott being a first receiver where necessary, just to keep it all moving. Big carrying games also needed from the front row.

Big game also needed from Tom Brown at 15. He's a talented runner, and I just hope he backs himself to run it back. Kicking to the Toulouse backs isn't the right thing to do. Rennie et al need to be very quick in getting back to support the counter-attack.

All in all a very exciting contest. Massive game for Scottish rugby, and it's great that young players like Gilchrist, Scott, Jones and Brown will likely start the match. Great experience.

Could not agree more Talei has been utterly monstrous for Edinburgh in every game in HC this year. He almost always breaks the gainline and has such great hands when offloading he trully is the star of the Edinburgh backrow.

Shhhhh don't tell them!

We've struggled without our internationalists as teams know that stop Visser and Talei and you stop the entire team. Luckily with Denon, Rennie and Ford etc back that is no longer the case!

[funnyExiledScot]

All in all a very exciting contest. Massive game for Scottish rugby, and it's great that young players like Gilchrist, Scott, Jones and Brown will likely start the match. Great experience.

+1

My goodness, another 9,724,699 club caps and we should probably look at these youths for the national team, don't you think, fES?

No, I disagree. None of these guys should ever play for Scotland. Why pick players on merit when you can just select players like Bennett, blokes who don't have to play rugby to prove themselves

[AsLongAsBut100ofUs]

Good, glad we see eye2eye on this one - from now on we'll strictly be picking on reputation lone, and it won't have been necessary for our star players to have muddied their shorts

[funnyExiledScot]

Good, glad we see eye2eye on this one - from now on we'll strictly be picking on reputation lone, and it won't have been necessary for our star players to have muddied their shorts

Now I'm just confused. Was Dan Parks a "star player"? He never seemed to muddy his shorts, not on the outside anyway

[AsLongAsBut100ofUs]

[RDW]

Read this morning that Toulouse have only sold 200 tickets - makes the 31000 tickets sold so far even more impressive since it is all Scottish rugby people.

Also puts the sold out games in the other quarter finals into perspective too - guaranteed there will be thousands of away fans at each of those games swelling the numbers.

[AsLongAsBut100ofUs]

Read that too, RDW, and it seems very odd too I always thought that Toulouse were a very well supported team on the road, and I can't believe that the fans are either (a) being totally complacent and think that their team just has to show up to get the win, or (b) simply don't care - hmm, curious

[RuggerRadge2611]

If it's (a) they are going to be in for a big shock. If it's (b) perhaps they don't care and winning their domestic championship means more to the fans?

Wishful thinking?

Fantastic news that 30800 of the tickets sold are Scottish bases fans. That's more than Scotland can pull in some of their autumn internationals!

Kudos to Edinburgh/SRU, this has been getting advertised everywhere. TV, Radio, Buses and Cars. Even on the train past Murrayfield it's hard not to know whats going on due to the ammount of advertising everywhere.

[RDW]

The other alternative is that the 200 figures is just what Toulouse have sold through their club. I'm pretty sure there will be a lot more than 200 Toulouse fans there on Saturday!

Plenty Frenchies living in Edinburgh/surrounding area that are probably coming, but bought under the Edinburgh allocation.

[RDW]

What do you guys think are the chances of us beating the UK attendance record for a HK quarter? Just looked at the SRU website - we've got about 5000 more to go.

Would be fantastic if we did - would be such a buzz about the place! Even if they gave 2000 schoolkids tickets for free or something!

[funnyExiledScot]

Read that too, RDW, and it seems very odd too I always thought that Toulouse were a very well supported team on the road, and I can't believe that the fans are either (a) being totally complacent and think that their team just has to show up to get the win, or (b) simply don't care - hmm, curious

Or (c), they've seen the weather at the moment in Edinburgh and decided to watch it on TV in sunny France.....

[George Carlin]

Nyanga, Dusautoir and Picamoles against Rennie, Denton and Talei.

That is going to be unbelievable.

[21st Century Schizoid Man]

A good few coming through from the West as well chaps ! C'mon Embra !

[RuggerRadge2611]

Courtesy of Rugby Planet .com

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3822_7650371,00.html

Good and bad news for Toulouse

Toulouse will travel to Murrayfield to face Edinburgh in Saturday's Heineken Cup quarter-final without French international lock Romain Millo-Chluski.

Toulouse manager Guy Novès confirmed on Wednesday that Millo-Chluski had been ruled out due to a foot injury. He joins fellow Bleus Maxime Médard and Vincent Clerc as well as former Springboks Gary Botha and Gary Steenkamp on the Toulouse injury list.

It's not all bad news for the four-time champions however as former Wallaby scrum-half Luke Burgess and Pumas lock Patricio Albacete both returned to training this week after injury lay-offs and will be fit for this weekend.

Former All Black fly-half Luke McAlister is an uncertain starter however.

Young hooker Christopher Tolofua, who has burst on the Top 14 scene in recent weeks, is expected to be on the bench.

Meanwhile, Novès is wary of the threats a highly-motivated home side will present at Murrayfield.

"I am afraid of Edinburgh's will power, their determination to stay in the tournament after their impressive performances in the Pool stage when they only suffered one defeat," said Novès, who has been in charge of all 124 of his club's Heineken Cup matches so far.

"To win a Heineken Cup game away from home is tremendously difficult and they did that at Racing Metro 92 and London Irish which proves the quality of the team.

"On top of that they are very good technically and at ball retention and going through many phases.


"They are playing with a lot of movement and we know that we will not exhaust them by playing that kind of rugby.

"So while I am certainly afraid of their enthusiasm and their technical qualities I am also afraid of the talents of some of those Scottish players we saw in the Six Nations and we will need to be at our best in all aspects of the game - preparation, discipline, concentration and the set moves.

"It is a knock-out game and we must be totally focused on the job in hand and not be distracted by anything else.

"It certainly has the distinction flavour of a Heineken Cup quarter-final but is it any more special than another quarter-final?


"I do not know about that but at least this year we will play in two quarter-finals, in both the Heineken Cup and in the Top14, because we are already qualified for that in the Top 14.


"It is already a good job and we are very happy to be involved in both knock-out stages. We want to succeed and qualify for the semi-final but we know that will be difficult like all quarter-finals, be they home or away."

No club has played - or won - more Heineken Cup matches than Toulouse and Novès is banking on that experience working to their advantage.

"We know the traps we must avoid at Murrayfield," he said.

"For Edinburgh it is their most important game of the season so we will face highly motivated players and we must stay calm and be patient.

"Maybe it is in the preparation for the game, the atmosphere that you need to create for the game and the necessity to keep focus even if there are a lot of distractions."

I know Toulouse's injurys were piling up but I must confess it looks worse than I thought. Steenkamp, Botha, Medard and Clerc are important players for Toulouse and to be without them I reckon will be a big blow.

I'm fully aware Toulouse have a truckload of classy players to replace them with but without the top try Scorer in the history of the Heineken cup will be a big miss for them.

Edinburgh on the otherhand seem to be ok. All the players I would have wanted to survive the 6N did and we seem to have a full strength side to pick from.

Off work tomorrow since it's a bank holiday. I can barely contain myself!

[AsLongAsBut100ofUs]

I know Toulouse's injurys were piling up but I must confess it looks worse than I thought. Steenkamp, Botha, Medard and Clerc are important players for Toulouse and to be without them I reckon will be a big blow.

I'm fully aware Toulouse have a truckload of classy players to replace them with but without the top try Scorer in the history of the Heineken cup will be a big miss for them.
Edinburgh on the otherhand seem to be ok. All the players I would have wanted to survive the 6N did and we seem to have a full strength side to pick from.

Off work tomorrow since it's a bank holiday. I can barely contain myself!

Dead on, Radge. it's when you look at who replaces them that you truly get to understand Toulouse's depth

[RDW]

I really am so excited about this weekend - got to be the most looked forward to game I've ever been to!!!!!!!

[sensisball]

Clear that Noves is treating Edniburgh with respect and he has identified their areas of strength. Which means he is also aware of their weaknesses, and will have prepared his team to attack the set piece.

The pick and driving will allow Burgess to probe for spaces around the ruck where Edinburgh have been vulnerable this season. I expect them to keep the ball quite tight until they have tied in the Embro back row and then move it wide.
Even with injury to Millo-Chluski their front five and more importantly the bench front 5 forwards are likely to prove a real handful for the Edinburgh pack. Conversely Edinburgh's front 5 bench is only going to cause a sleepless night for Michael Bradley!

[Rava]

Absolutely fabulous that over 30k are going to this game. I hope the players respond and we see Edinburgh in the Semi-finals.

Good Luck

[Morgannwg]

I'm backing the gunners and I'm sure everyone else in Wales will be. I see no reason why Embra can not pull off a win, it's their chance to make history whilst making up for their poor position in the league and Scotlands spoon of wood. Surely enough motivation for a team that has performed very well in this competition. Besides, the less French vultures the better. I hate the French clubs.

[RDW]

Great to have support from the other nations!

People have said it above - the benches could make a massive difference. Noves will be able to call upon test standard players to change a game however he wants. Whereas most of our subs will significantly weaken the team if they come on.

The only subs I hope make it on to the pitch on Saturday (and only if replacing someone injured) are Roddy Grant, Leck and JT/Mossy/Brown.

The front 3 replacements, Lozada and Godman will significantly harm our chances if they have to come on.

Similarly, there's no one on that bench that can really change things if we need to chase the game.

Keep Ford, Cross, both 2nd rows, the entire backrow, Ladlaw, the centres and both wingers on the pitch for 80 minutes and we stand a chance!

Not asking much then...

[funnyExiledScot]

There will certainly be plenty motivation for Edinburgh, and the injuries at Toulouse will certainly help the Edinburgh cause. Noves is a wily old bird, but when Edinburgh play well they really are a very good side indeed. Defensive concentration is the key for me, that's where Edinburgh have let things slip, working hard to score good tries, then immediately giving away soft ones.

No team news yet. Hope Bradley doesn't do anything silly.

[RDW]

Both teams announced at 1 30pm tomorrow apparently.

The Edinbrugh team from 1 to 14 picks itself. It is fullback and the bench that will be the only unkown quantity.

I still can't believe we'll be going into a HK quarter final with Jack Gilding as our number 2 prop

[Artful_Dodger]

Would love to see an Edinburgh win here - big fan of Michael Bradley and always root for the underdog

[funnyExiledScot]

It certainly should pick itself, but we've seen Bradley do odd things before, like dropping Rennie for Grant, playing McInally at 7, using Godman or Houston....

I hope there are no surprises.

We should all respect Jack Gilding. Never has a man made so little talent go so far......(ok, well I guess there's Toonie's coaching abilities to qualify that)....

[RuggerRadge2611]

Jack Gilding is just a kid in prop terms though, You don't get the best out of a prop till mid twenties at the earliest.

The backrow is actually an area of Strength, I would have no problem with Rambo coming on for Talei or Denton, just not for Rennie!

[RDW]

We should all respect Jack Gilding. Never has a man made so little talent go so far......(ok, well I guess there's Toonie's coaching abilities to qualify that)....

There's a couple of young guys at my rugby club who are doing apprenticeships with the SRU for youth coaching and things like that and say that Gilding is actually quite funny. When they go out to schools and places like that, and the kids ask why he's not playing, he says it's cause he's crap! So at least he knows he is useless!

Those guys are pretty good for gossip actually!

[RDW]

Radge - there's being "just a kid" and there's being "just crap" - he's definitely the latter!

[funnyExiledScot]

Was that latter or fatter?

Certainly a position that Edinburgh need to strengthen. Nel is a great start, but a loosehead is sorely needed.

Still, hopefully Chunk can have a stormer on Saturday. We should incentivise him properly - a year of free Greggs for each penalty drawn at the scrum......

[RDW]

We're getting John Yapp too, although it isn't confirmed yet. He'll do a decent shift.

[RuggerRadge2611]

Was that latter or fatter?

Certainly a position that Edinburgh need to strengthen. Nel is a great start, but a loosehead is sorely needed.

Still, hopefully Chunk can have a stormer on Saturday. We should incentivise him properly - a year of free Greggs for each penalty drawn at the scrum......

[funnyExiledScot]

John Yapp - hadn't heard that. A seasoned pro I guess, hardly spectacular.

[RDW]

Won the grand slam with Wales in 2005 so has pedigree. Can cover both sides of the scrum too.

Not spectacular, but significantly better than Gilding or Traynor!

[funnyExiledScot]

True. I guess "not spectacular" is a vast improvement.

[AlastairW]

I really am so excited about this weekend - got to be the most looked forward to game I've ever been to!!!!!!!

Good on you! I had to smile when i read your post, i had exactley the same feeling last weekend for Sarries vs. Quins at Wembley! Always good to see your home side play ... but there is a certain something very special about seeing it at a national stadium.

Anyways, that was completely off topic . I shall have to find a pub down here and prop up the bar to watch it - should be a cracking match!

[21st Century Schizoid Man]

33500 tickets sold and rising - just heard Bradley on Radio Scotland -he gave a great plug too. Good effort all round considering the own goals by the SRU recently.

[RDW]

One more day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[21st Century Schizoid Man]

RDW,

can you play ringers? Heavily disguise Jon Welsh and Duncan Weir for your bench !!!

[RDW]

You know what, that might just work!!

Chunky Weir is about the same height as (good)Godman but doesn't have such a square face. Welsh on the other hand isn't ginger, or crap, so might struggle to persuade people he is Kyle Traynor or Gilding.

[Sponsored content]