Preview: Edinburgh v Cardiff Blues

Edinburgh Head Coach Rob Moffat believes Rory Hutton will take his chance when he makes his debut against Cardiff Blues.

Edinburgh Head Coach Rob Moffat believes Rory Hutton will take his chance when he makes his debut against Cardiff Blues on Saturday.

The National Academy and Heriot's stand-off, 22, impressed when he was handed the 10 jersey for a warm-up match at Newcastle in August.

With first-choice pivot Phil Godman rested in order to ease a hip injury, the Sevens man has been given another opportunity to showcase his skills.

Moffat is keen to seeing what the former Hawick man can bring to his back division against last term's Heineken Cup semi-finalists.

“We are looking forward to seeing what Rory can do,” he said.

“He impressed us in pre-season, played in the warm-up match down at Newcastle and has been training with us over recent weeks.

“It is right for him to get a chance this week.

“This may be his Magners League debut, but he has a lot of experience both with Scotland sevens and at Premier One level with Hawick last season.

“Phil did really well to come through to play last week. But we felt we should give him a rest this week in order for him to get some recovery time and this gives Rory a chance.”

Hutton's elevation into the starting line-up is one of six changes to the side that lost to Glasgow Warriors last weekend with props Allan Jacobsen and David Young added.

Young, who joined in the summer from Leicester Tigers, will be making his first Magners League start for Edinburgh, replacing previous ever-present Geoff Cross in the number three jersey.

“Davie has been waiting for his opportunity, so this is a chance for him to show what he can do,” continued Moffat.

“Geoff has played in every game so far this season and has rarely been substituted, so we felt he needed a rest in order to recharge his batteries.”

In the back three, Scotland 'A' international Jim Thompson has been selected on the wing with Moffat stressing that the versatile back deserves his shot.

Like Thompson, scrum-half Greig Laidlaw missed Saturday's match because of a viral infection, but he returns to the side with Ross Rennie back in at openside.

The Scotland flanker was out for a lengthy period of time after undergoing knee surgery and Moffat underlined the player needs to be managed carefully in order to reach his optimum.

“We have to manage Ross carefully and listen to medical advice,” he said.

“There is no way that, after his injury, he will play in every game.

“This will be three weeks since Ross last played and we felt it was the right time for him to return.”

On the opening day of the season, Edinburgh recorded a memorable 22-21 win at Cardiff and Moffat has urged his players to repeat that display.

He said: “We are looking for the team to replicate the performance we produced at Cardiff on the opening day of the season.

“Everybody knows that we haven't played well over the last couple of games.

“But those matches are in the past now and we must move on and rise to the challenge against Cardiff.”

On the injury front, both captain Mike Blair (ankle), and Scotland wing Simon Webster (hamstring), are edging ever closer to returning to competitive action.

Vice-captain Allister Hogg underwent surgery to repair a hip injury just before Christmas and is expected to be out for a few months.

Meanwhile, stand-off David Blair continues to be ruled out after injuring his ankle at Bath while club captain Simon Cross is still out with a knee injury along with Andrew Easson (knee) and Ryan Grant (ankle).

The Blues have named Ceri Sweeney at fly-half after he looked lively when he came on against the Dragons and the Ospreys during the festive period.

Wales international winger Leigh Halfpenny, who needs game time under his belt, gets a run out at full-back.

Speaking ahead of the match, boss David Young knows that his team need to improve their performances if they are to start climbing the league table.

“We haven't really taken off this season and haven't really put in an 80 minutes performance together,” said Young.

“I'm confident that when we can get some continuity in our selection and get somewhere near our best team out on the field we will start to play the way we can.

“At this moment we've got to start producing better performances and start picking up points.

“The season isn't going 100 per cent to plan but this is when players, coaches and everybody have got to earn their stripes and look at where things are going wrong and hopefully start putting things together.

“We've had a couple of glimpses of what we can do and a couple of false dawns so we will be looking for an improved performance against Edinburgh this Saturday.”

Form: Edinburgh have won their last three fixtures with Cardiff Blues since the Welshmen won 20-0 at Murrayfield on 28th March 2008. Edinburgh have lost three of their last four games in the Magners League, and were defeated 8-9 by Dragons on their only previous home match against a Welsh team this season. Cardiff Blues have lost all four away encounters in the Magners League this season. The Blues have been defeated in their last four matches against Scottish teams.

The teams:
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson (capt), 14 Jim Thompson, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 John Houston, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Rory Hutton, 9 Greig Laidlaw, 8 Roddy Grant, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Alan MacDonald, 5 Scott MacLeod, 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 David Young, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Craig Hamilton, 19 Scott Newlands, 20 Ross Samson, 21 Nick De Luca, 22 Mark Robertson.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Andy Powell, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andries Pretorius, 5 Paul Tito (capt), 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Taufa'au Filise, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Sam Hobbs.
Replacements: 16 Rhys James, 17 Scott Andrews, 18 Bradley Davies, 19 Ben White, 20 Richie Rees, 21 Dai Flanagan, 22 Gareth Thomas.

Date: Saturday, January 9
Kick-off: 18:30
Venue: Murrayfield
Referee: John Lacey (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Peter Allan (SRU), Graeme Marshall (SRU)
TMO: Jim Yuille (SRU)