Edinburgh Rugby have made only one enforced change from the team that cantered to next week’s European Challenge Cup final as they seek to bolster their top six campaign in the Guinness PRO12 tonight at BT Murrayfield.
Basement team Zebre are the visitors with a full quota of points the target for the capital club, who need as many as they can get in a chase for qualification for the main European Rugby Champions Cup next season.
While Gloucester, next week’s final opponents at the Twickenham Stoop, have a play-off for the ERCC as well as the trophy to win, there is no such incentive for Edinburgh. Their only way into the main event next year is a top six finish in the PRO12, and the race is tightening up with three games left. Connacht currently hold sixth spot and host Glasgow at the Sportsground tomorrow, while Scarlets, on the same points as the Irishmen but with a weaker points difference, play Dragons in the Millennium Stadium doubleheader of Welsh derbies, also tomorrow.
Edinburgh are a point behind both and with matches away to Dragons and home to Leinster left, so a full complement of five points is essential, and Alan Solomons is happy to let the team that routed Dragons 45-16 with five tries in last week’s Challenge Cup semi-final run out again.
The one enforced change is Jack Cuthbert’s groin injury sustained last week meaning Tom Brown starts at full-back, while Solomons has opted not to risk his three key players who missed last weeks semi – and in the end were barely missed – David Denton, Greig Tonks and Hamish Watson.
Getting the mind back on the PRO12 has been easier than expected with the target so clear for his team, said Solomons.
“Last Friday was fantastic but it’s already in the past and all the focus has been on Zebre,” he said. “Every game for us is vital in the run in and this is no different.”
The head coach came up with the perfect gameplan last week despite being forced into a number of changes by injuries, but one tactical switch he made caught the eye, with stand-off Phil Burleigh an influential figure in the key stand-off role, despite only playing there twice before this season.
Solomons thinks that the Kiwi is a “natural New Zealand first or second five-eighth” able to play at stand-off or inside centre equally comfortably.
“My tradition in South Africa is that we have set fly-halves and set centres, but Phil’s one of the those New Zealanders who has been brought up to be a playmaker in either position,” he said.
“He has such a good all-round game I always thought it strange he hadn’t played at 10 more when he was in Super Rugby, and I thought he had a very good game for us in the semi-final.”
Edinburgh team: Tom Brown; Dougie Fife, Sam Beard, Andries Strauss, Tim Visser; Phil Burleigh, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne; Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford, WP Nel; Anton Bresler, Ben Toolis; Stuart McInally, Roddy Grant, Mike Coman (capt).
Replacements: Neil Cochrane, Rory Sutherland, John Andress, Fraser McKenzie, Cornell du Preez, Nathan Fowles, Tom Heathcote, Carl Bezuidenhout.