Edinburgh aiming to take inspiration from Paris win
Edinburgh captain Grant Gilchrist says Scotland’s victory over France will give his team confidence that they can cause a similar upset when they take on Racing 92 in the last-16 of the European Champions Cup at the Paris La Defense Arena this afternoon.
The second-row – who is one of seven Scotland squad members involved in today’s match – says his team will respect the huge challenge they face against last year’s beaten finalists but insists that the capital outfit fully believe they can cause an upset.
He said: “Our boys who played for Scotland against France last week are bound to feel pretty good after that.
“If we can go to Paris and win with the national team, we can certainly go to Paris and win with an Edinburgh team which has got international players littered all through it.”
Gilchrist says that belief levels have also been boosted by the club’s own recent form against French opposition.
He explained: “We’ve had some great performances for Edinburgh against French teams in recent history, even over in France, so there shouldn’t be that fear factor.
“Traditionally, French teams have a strong power game, but we’ve had a pack that’s been able to compete and get that parity up front.
“Then we’ve got players who can break the game as well.
“Against Toulon in 2019, we fronted up physically, stayed in the game and then had players like Bill Mata, Darcy Graham, Duhan van der Merwe and Blair Kinghorn who broke the game and won it for us, essentially.
“Look at Darcy’s finish in the corner or Bill’s offload (for James Johnstone’s try) – those things really stick in my mind from that game.
“It’s about having the ability to deal with the power game of these French teams, and then it comes down to the small moments, and we’ve managed to win them in games like Toulon away and Montpellier at home.
“Racing are slightly different to Toulon or Montpellier because they’ve got a lot of quality in that forward pack but it’s the backline where their main strengths lie, so defensively we’re going to have to be at our best.
“But, on the other side, we want to make sure we produce our best rugby and see how they cope with that.”
Racing will be without Scotsman Finn Russell – their star playmaker – who is suspended after being sent-off against France last weekend.
Meanwhile, Edinburgh have moved Blair Kinghorn forward from full-back to stand-off, with head coach Richard Cockerill stating on Friday that attack will be the best form of defence.
Gilchrist added: “Racing have got quality across their whole squad – they’re one of the superpowers in European rugby and the depth of their squad reflects that – so it’s a huge challenge.
“But what an exciting challenge it is.
“It’s a great fixture for our club to go there with nobody really expecting anything from us.
“But we’re expecting a lot in terms of our own performance.
“You have to respect their threat, but when we looked at them this week, we still saw the opportunity for our players to have a huge influence on the game.
“We’ll have to be well-prepped for what they will bring – but, on the other side, we want to make sure we produce our best rugby and see how they cope with that.
“We won’t know until after the game whether they have the capabilities to deal with us at our best.”
And if Edinburgh do pull off a shock win, will the celebrations last as long into the night as Scotland’s did last week?
Gilco replied: “Yeah … definitely … why not? Two weeks in a row – you’ve got to enjoy your wins!
“It was such a special feeling, winning in those circumstances last week with all the history of not winning in Paris for so long. We will certainly be chasing that same feeling again this weekend against Racing.”