Edinburgh have to balance the needs of the future weeks as well as this crucial week as they have left out four Scotland internationals for the trip to the Scarlets this afternoon.
Head coach Alan Solomons won’t risk Dougie Fife and Matt Scott and feels he has to rest Alasdair Dickinson and Ross Ford for a macth that could have a huge bearing on whether Edinburgh reach their target of a top six place.
If the Scarlets continue their unbeaten home record this afternoon, they’ll move into pole position in that race for the final European qualifying spot, as Solomons readily accepts.
“They’ll be the driving seat, but there’s a lot of rugby to be played before then,” he said. “I just feel that with Fordy and Dicko especially they’ve played in every one of the Six Nations games in the coal face, in the front row.
“Dicko didn’t start against Ireland but he came on after 20 minutres so it was effectively a full test match for him. They both came in mustard keen to play but I think it’s in their best interests and ours that they have a weeks’ break.”
Fife suffered a nose injury that required internal stitching and was kept out of contact work this week, while Scott’s shoulder “didn’t feel 100 per cent right” in his one contact session, so Edinburgh are erring on the side of caution.
In contrast, David Denton was kept out of Tuesday’s contact session but was going full-out on Thursday, and Greig Tonks, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and other Scotland squad members were all straining at the leash to play, said the coach.
“It’s four test players, three experienced ones, so of course we’ll miss them,” said Solomons, who also has one eye on next week’s European Challenge Cup quarter-final at London Irish.
“But Rory Sutherland has done a great job for us when Dicko has been gone, Stu McInally and Neil Cochrane have been excellent at hooker and we still have Phil Burleigh and Andries Strauss in the centres.
“I think the Scarlets will have all their (international) guys back, and they all had great campaigns, Liam Williams and Scott Williams especially. They’ll be flying after how well Wales did, and John Barclay is obviously a class player who we know quite well but is playing well for them.
“It’s a huge challenge but it’s up to us to front up and compete, and we’re looking forward to it.”
The head coach is still rueing two matches that got away from them in the Six Nations window.
“The biggest thing is that we should have won the Ulster game here,” he said. “If we’d just kicked well at the posts we’d have won that game comfortably, and I also think we missed a chance at Cardiff.”
Edinburgh (vs Scarlets, Guinness PRO 12, Parc y Scarlets, today ko 2.40pm, live on Sky Sports)
Jack Cuthbert; Tom Brown, Phil Burleigh, Andries Strauss, Tim Visser; Greig Tonks, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne; Rory Sutherland, Stuart McInally, WP Nel; Anton Bresler, Ben Toolis; Mike Coman (capt), Hamish Watson, David Denton.
Replacements: Neil Cochrane, Grant Shiells, John Andress, Fraser McKenzie, Roddy Grant, Nathan Fowles, Tom Heathcote, Sam Beard.