The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Cockerill confident Edinburgh will see off visiting Italians
Richard Cockerill still has faith in his Edinburgh side despite their disappointing start to the Guinness PRO14 campaign.
The capital outfit have lost all three of their away fixtures so far, with their only success the 17-10 Murrayfield victory over Connacht a fortnight ago.
Cockerill believes his side deserve to have taken more from the opening month of the season and expects them to see off Benetton when the Italians visit tonight.
He said: “If you have any ambition to be competing, then you obviously want to win your home games.
“We’ve had three away matches and certainly could have gotten more points out of Ospreys and Ulster – but we didn’t.
“However, they are clearly tough places to go.
“Benetton were good last year and are much improved. They’ve had a very good start to this year but we feel like we’re playing pretty well. We’ve got a lot of confidence in the team and we’re driven to win at the weekend.
“If we put together the performances from the last three weeks, we’ll certainly get points out of the next few games. I’ve got every confidence in this group of players.”
Cockerill will send out a full-strength side as he looks to get Edinburgh back on track against their Treviso rivals.
Eight international stars return to the starting XV, with nine changes in total to the team that lost to Leinster in Dublin last weekend.
In the Scotland backline, caps Blair Kinghorn, Matt Scott and Henry Pyrgos are all reinstated, while former New Zealand U20 captain Simon Hickey gets the nod at stand-off.
In the pack, captain Stuart McInally returns at hooker alongside experienced tighthead prop WP Nel. Scotland lock Grant Gilchrist starts in the second row, while Hamish Watson and Fijian international Viliame Mata feature in the back row.
Edinburgh: B Kinghorn, D Fife, C Dean, M Scott, D van der Merwe; S Hickey, H Pyrgos; A Dell, S McInally (capt), WP Nel, B Toolis, M Bradbury, H Watson, V Mata. Subs: R Ford, R Sutherland, M McCallum, F McKenzie, J Ritchie, N Fowles, J van der Walt, J Socino.
Lee Jones will embark on a double mission tomorrow when he makes his Glasgow comeback.
The winger will line up against the Dragons at Scotstoun, determined to prove he is back to peak fitness after a spell on the sidelines.
Jones also wants to help Warriors bounce back from their bombshell Pro14 loss to the Southern Kings in South Africa.
He said: “Everyone badly wants to put right what went wrong last weekend. The guys who played in Port Elizabeth are champing at the bit to prove it was a one-off.
“And those who are coming in to the team are focused on showing they are worth their place,” he added.
“All our attention is on the Dragons and there has been a bit of extra edge in training.”