Bennett banks on home comfort

MARK BENNETT hopes the DAM Health Stadium crowd can help give Edinburgh the edge as they bid to see off Wasps in Saturday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final. The Scots have proved formidable on home turf since moving from BT Murrayfield to their new purpose-built ground next door to the national stadium at the start of this season. Last Saturday’s United Rugby Championship defeat by Ulster was their first loss there, but Bennett insists the team have benefited from their new surroundings and believes they can set about re-establishing their home as a fortress this weekend. ‘The stadium’s been amazing,’ said the 29-year-old centre. ‘The pitch is brilliant and we play a great brand of rugby on it. The atmosphere it generates is awesome. We had a sell-out at the weekend and the crowd were huge for us. It’s been a real positive step coming in here. ‘We’ve got huge games to finish the season and the atmosphere in here will help. It’s great we’ve got a home quarter-final because those games are usually down to tight margins and hopefully the crowd can pull us through.’ Bennett is relishing the prospect of trying to help Edinburgh make it into the semi-final of European competition. ‘It’s massively exciting,’ he added. ‘We’ve been here before a couple of times in the last few years and not managed to progress, so as a club we’ve got to go that one step further and keep pushing towards hopefully winning the tournament. ‘We’ve played some huge teams. Saracens away was a huge result, London Irish down there was a good challenge for us, and then Bath at home was another challenge. It doesn’t get any easier this weekend.’