Head coach Rob Moffat has handed stand-off Phil Godman the number 10 jersey for Edinburgh’s must-win Heineken Cup Pool Four match at Bath on Sunday (13 December, kick off 3pm, live on Sky Sports) and admits the fixture is a must-win game for his team.
In the previous round of the competition, Edinburgh defeated Ulster at Murrayfield and Moffat acknowledges that sequence of European wins must continue in the West Country in order to reinvigorate the team’s Heineken Cup campaign.
Moffat said: “We have to win the game and that is an exciting challenge for us. We’ve got two games against Bath followed by two derbies against Glasgow, so we’ve got four really important matches coming up which will shape our season.
“Our away record over the past two seasons has been good – there are not many places where we haven’t won in the Celtic League.
“So our mindset is very similar whether we play at home or away – we play the same type of positive rugby.
“Every game is important for us, but we know that if we don’t win at Bath then it will be incredibly difficult to achieve anything in Europe this season.
“I really like these double-headers because sometimes you have to wait a few months before you play the same opposition.
“What we’ve seen in the past is that a lot can happen over the two games and we’re looking forward to being involved in two entertaining matches.”
Rested for last week’s win at Scarlets, Scotland internationalist Godman is joined in the starting line-up by hooker Ross Ford and wing John Houston, who were on the bench for the game in west Wales.
As a result, David Blair and Andrew Kelly are named amongst the replacements, but Moffat stresses that competition for starting spots is higher than it has ever been at Edinburgh.
He said: “We have difficult selection calls to make every week which is really good and speaks volumes about the quality within our squad.
“Last week we won the game, but our performance could have been better and we are looking for improvements this week.
“When you leave a player out, everybody naturally presumes the individual is playing poorly, but that is not the case at all.
“The chief priority is managing the wellbeing of the whole squad and ensuring that players don’t burn out at important times in the season.
“Phil had played a lot of rugby – both in the November Tests for Scotland and in the months leading into those games.
“He wasn’t complaining, but sometimes I think you only realise just how tired you are sometimes when you have a break.
“David did well and he is on the bench this week, so we know we can rely on him when needed and we are looking forward to Phil playing.”
Prop Allan Jacobsen is the only surviving member from the team’s previous Heineken Cup match at The Rec eight years ago; a 17-10 defeat.
Back row forward David Callam, who made his comeback match last weekend, is unavailable for the fixture because he is not registered for this round of the Heineken Cup.
But vice captain Allister Hogg has recovered from a hip injury and earns a place on the bench while first team captain Mike Blair is still out with an ankle problem.
On the injury front, club captain Simon Cross is still out with a knee injury alongside Andrew Easson (knee) while Ross Rennie, who appeared for Gael Force two weeks ago, is edging ever closer to a first team return.
Scotland lock Jim Hamilton (knee) is close to returning to full squad training while Simon Webster is out with a hamstring injury.
Edinburgh Rugby Club team to play Bath at The Rec (Sunday 13 December, kick-off 3pm, live on Sky Sports)
15 Chris Paterson (captain)
14 John Houston
13 Ben Cairns
12 Nick De Luca
11 Tim Visser
10 Phil Godman
9 Greig Laidlaw
1 Allan Jacobsen
2 Ross Ford
3 Geoff Cross
4 Steve Turnbull
5 Scott MacLeod
6 Alan MacDonald
7 Roddy Grant
8 Scott Newlands
Substitutes: Andrew Kelly, Kyle Traynor, David Young, Craig Hamilton, Allister Hogg, Ross Samson, David Blair, Jim Thompson.
