Preview: Edinburgh v Northampton

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15 Oct 2010 12:12 PM

Edinburgh seek to prolong a proud recent home record in the Heineken Cup when the Saints visit Murrayfield on Saturday.

Edinburgh seek to prolong a proud recent home record in the Heineken Cup when Northampton Saints visit Murrayfield on Saturday for a vital Pool One fixture.

The capital club have won each of the last four European ties played on home turf, beating Castres (pool phase opposition in this year's competition), Ulster, Bath and Stade FranÃ§ais.

They also recorded back-to-back victories over Northampton the last time the two clubs clashed, in the 2000/01 Heineken Cup season.
Chris Paterson and Allan Jacobsen, who contributed to both those wins, have been named in the side for Saturday's fixture.

The Edinburgh line-up shows one change from that which suffered a narrow 18-17 defeat to Cardiff Blues on the first weekend of the Heineken Cup last Saturday.

James King, who joined the club from Melrose in the summer after previously serving the Border Reivers and Italian outfit L'Aquila, will play at inside centre in place of Alex Grove, who has been named among the substitutes. It will be King's first start for the club.

Head coach Rob Moffat urged all his players to give the Murrayfield crowd another occasion to remember by claiming a further prize European scalp.

“With the help of our fans, we've managed to put away a number of good sides at home in the past couple of seasons, and all the same ingredients need to be there again this weekend to make sure we achieve the right result,” he said.

“If we can produce a positive performance, and in particular start as well as we did in Cardiff last week, that will help get the crowd right behind us for what will be a massive challenge.

“I was pleased with a lot of what we did in last week's game, but the harsh reality is that we only came away with one point when we put ourselves in a great position to claim four. The key this weekend is working hard to ensure we create the same sort of platform, then pushing on and completing the job.

“We've shown in the past couple of years what we're capable of delivering at this level. The challenge now is to prove we can do it again.”

Meanwhile, Saints Director of rugby Jim Mallinder says there will need to be an all-round improvement from the Round 1 win over Castres.

“We got the win over Castres but there has been plenty to work on during the week,” the Saints boss said.

“No one in the squad was happy with our overall performance last Friday and they are keen to get back to top form on Saturday. We've shown how we can play in the Premiership this season and now we have to take that level into the Heineken Cup.

“We will certainly have to play well if we want to get a positive result against Edinburgh. They don't lose at home very often in Europe and have a squad full of international players.

“Last weekend's results showed that we are in a very tight pool in which every point will count. What is most important is that we keep on winning, and that is what we have been focused on this week.”

Ben Foden sits out the trip to Scotland under the EPS agreement while Bruce Reihana has been ruled out with a finger injury.

The teams:

Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Jim Thompson, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 James King, 11 Tim Visser, 10 David Blair, 9 Mike Blair, 8 Roddy Grant (c), 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Alan MacDonald, 5 Fraser McKenzie, 4 Scott MacLeod, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 David Young, 19 Craig Hamilton, 20 Netani Talei, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 Alex Grove, 23 Mark Robertson.

Northampton: 15 Greig Tonks, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 James Downey, 11 Paul Diggin, 10 Steve Myler, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Phil Dowson, 5 Christian Day, 4 Courtney Lawes, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Soane Tongauiha.
Replacements: 16 Brett Sharman, 17 Regardt Dreyer, 18 Euan Murray, 19 Mark Sorenson, 20 Calum Clark, 21 Ryan Powell, 22 Shane Geraghty, 23 Joe Ansbro,

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