Friday 18 November 2011

Edinburgh v Racing Metro live rugby, Heineken Cup

Heineken Cup, Pool 2


  • Venue: Murrayfield Stadium
  • Date: Friday, 18 November
  • Kick-off: 20:00 GMT
  • Coverage: Score updates on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Scotland 810MW & the BBC Sport website

Michael Bradley has made three changes to his Edinburgh side after the 20-19 opening win over London Irish.

Captain Greig Laidlaw starts at scrum-half, with Roddy Grant and Netani Talei replacing Ross Rennie and David Denton.

Edinburgh are also without replacement Sean Cox after a citing complaint against the back-row was upheld.

Racing Metro make eight changes from the side that lost 26-20 to Cardiff Blues, with France international Sebastien Chabal back at number eight.

He replaces captain Jacques Cronje, while France lock Lionel Nallet has also recovered from injury to replace Jone Qovu Nailiko.

But international colleague Fabrice Estabanez is missing with a knock and is replaced with Guillaume Bousses at centre.

Jonathan Wisniewski takes Gaetan Germain's place at full-back and Julien Saubade is on the wing ahead of Sereli Bobo.

Mikaele Tuugahala and Johannes Coetzee take the place of fellow props Andrea Lo Cicero and Juan Pablo Orlandi, while Bernard Le Roux is at flanker instead of Antoine Batut.

They'll be desperate to get their campaign up and running and we want to make the most of home advantage

Michael Bradley Edinburgh head coach

The French side are in only their second year of Heineken Cup rugby and have won only two of their seven games, but Edinburgh's coach was wary of the visitors.

"Obviously the boys are in good form because of the victory, but we're realistic," said Bradley.

"It's a good start, it's good for confidence, but we have a huge task in front of us in this group and it continues this Friday night.

"We've set our stall out to win our home matches and, while it's great that we've picked something up on the road, we have to do our business at Murrayfield this Friday night.

"Racing Metro will be disappointed with their result last weekend against Cardiff, so it's as critical a match for them as it is for us; they'll be desperate to get their campaign up and running and we want to make the most of home advantage."

Captain Laidlaw replaces fellow Scotland international Mike Blair at scrum-half, while Grant and Talei are on the flanks of the scrum in place of Rennie and the injured Denton, while Steven Turnbull replaces the Sean Cox on the bench.

Dutch winger Tim Visser was also keen that Edinburgh maintain momentum following their victory on Saturday.

"There are only six games in the Heineken Cup pool stages," he said.

"So if you win your home games and pick something up on the road then you're putting yourself in contention."

"We've managed to do one of the difficult elements, which is winning away from home, but we need to win our home games to really put ourselves up there and in a chance of progressing in European competition."