Blair sure Edinburgh can handle early start

MIKE BLAIR insists his Edinburgh players won’t be caught cold by the early kick-off time in today’s Challenge Cup quarter-final against Wasps. The match gets underway at 12.30pm at the DAM Health Stadium, which is a stark departure from the vast majority of Edinburgh’s normal kick-off times. They would typically be faced with a teatime or early evening kick-off time in most of their games in Europe and the United Rugby Championship. Blair admits that it brings a different challenge in terms of how to prepare the players, particularly in terms of how they approach a pre-match meal which doubles as their breakfast. But he insists his players will be up bright and early and can overcome any hurdles as they prepare to host a Wasps side who currently sit ninth in the English Premiership. ‘I’ve played a 12 o’clock game before and that was a strange one, trying to eat your bolognese at 9am,’ said head coach Blair. ‘But I believe this group are adaptable. ‘The weather looks great for 12 o’clock.

Hopefully we’ll have a real family feel to the crowd because of the kick-off time and the crowd will really get behind us. ‘We are really excited. We had an excellent meeting yesterday talking about what this game means for the club. ‘We reflected a little bit on previous European campaigns and energies they created and how special this can be for the players and supporters. We are really looking forward to the game.’ Blair (right) challenged his players to step up and create memories of their own after he was asked about their reflections on previous European campaigns. He said: ‘We just talked about the memories that can be created and it being part of creating history for the club. ‘Gilko (Grant Gilchrist) spoke about going to the 2003 game against Toulouse — the first game of the pool games when we won that at Meadowbank. ‘Playing in the Champions Cup quarterfinal against Toulouse in 2012 (where Edinburgh won 19-14), and in 2019 the quarter-final with Munster as well (Edinburgh lost 13-17). ‘Gilko was saying the most memorable one was the Toulouse game because Edinburgh won. So having that at the forefront of our minds — that it’s going to be a great occasion, and winning this game is going to make it even more memorable.’ With injuries to Stuart McInally and Dave Cherry, Adam McBurney gets the nod to start at hooker for Edinburgh. Harrison Courtney starts at loosehead and, like McBurney, is relatively inexperienced at the top level. The likes of captain Gilchrist, WP Nel and Magnus Bradbury will be the older heads among the Edinburgh pack. Ben Vellacott faces his former club at scrum-half and Blair Kinghorn retains the ten jersey, with Jaco van der Walt continuing at full-back. Darcy Graham isn’t quite fit enough to return, but Blair revealed that it was close and he would possibly have risked him if it was a one-off final game of the season. ‘Adam leads every day through his actions on and off the pitch,’ said Blair. ‘We know we need to be right at our best. We have got to have the mindset that we are going to create opportunities, but also be ruthless and relentless in taking those opportunities.’

EDINBURGH: Jaco van der Walt; Damien Hoyland, Mark Bennett, Chris Dean, Emiliano Boffelli; Blair Kinghorn, Ben Vellacott; Harrison Courtney, Adam McBurney, WP Nel, Jamie Hodgson, Grant Gilchrist, Luke Crosbie, Magnus Bradbury, Connor Boyle. Replacements: Patrick Harrison, Pierre Schoeman, Lee-Roy Atalifo, Pierce Phillips, Mesulame Kunavula, Henry Pyrgos, Matt Currie, Jack Blain.