NEW CHALLENGE

Edinburgh No 8 Cornell du Preez hopes the excitement of a big European night can invigorate the side out of their current slump.

For a team who have just lost six games on the bounce, the visit of a side in form so good that they are riding high at the top of the French league would not normally be a welcome proposition, but the Scotland internationalist believes Edinburgh’s record of rising to the occasion in Europe can help them get the better of La Rochelle in the Challenge Cup quarter-final at BT Murrayfield on Friday night.

“There’s a different feeling because it’s something fresh, and also because it is a quarter-final,” said Du Preez. “We’ve played against some good sides in this competition and done very well.

“I don’t know if it is mindshift thing, but we haven’t been doing very well in the league – so this could kickstart us to maybe have a good end to the Pro12 season.”

Du Preez has gone from the high of winning his first Scotland caps against England and Italy in the Six Nations to enduring disappointing losses with his club and he admits the squad are not happy with how things have gone since the turn of the year.

“It is frustrating,” he said of a losing run which was extended with a bad loss on the road at Scarlets last Friday. “I think as a whole group we find it frustrating because we know we’ve got players to do well but we just haven’t been functioning as we should.

“I think is has a lot to do with individual errors as well, we only have ourselves to blame for things like losing the ball before we have got through a couple of phases – and I think that has been costing us most. If we can get that sorted out, just think about ourselves and not the opposition so much, we could do well.”

Friday will be the latest chapter of what has been an interesting season for Du Preez, which began with him playing club rugby for Heriot’s in a bid to regain fitness and led to him gaining those caps five months after the South Africaborn forward became eligible for Scotland on the three-year residency rule.

“There’s a different feeling, it’s something fresh and a quarterfinal. We’ve played some good sides in this competition and done very well”

CORNELL DU PREEZ