MIKE Blair has typified the spirit of the Scotland internationals returning to the Edinburgh squad fully focussed on challenging for the Magners League title, and he admitted that tonight's home match with Cardiff holds the key to their chances.
The scrum-half was one of few consistently good performers for Scotland in the recent RBS Six Nations Championship, but he remains frustrated in Edinburgh's bid to lift some silverware. He turned in a fine display in the win over Connacht last week,
but is aware of the challenge posed by a Cardiff side restored to their full international complement ahead of a Heineken Cup quarter-final match away to Toulouse next weekend.
"Connacht and Cardiff were always two big games at home to get us going," he said, "and we know that if we can follow up with another win then we begin to put pressure on the teams around us.
"If we win, I think we can potentially go up to second in the league, but if we lose then we'll drop back into the pack. We were very pleased with how we played in the second half against Connacht – we played with a lot of confidence, made the right decisions, played in the right areas of the pitch – and hopefully we can take that into the Cardiff game.
"But they will be buzzing after Wales' Grand Slam, as will all the Welsh teams, and very confident. They'll be desperate to get revenge for our win over them in January and they got stuffed last week, and with their Heineken Cup quarter-final coming up next week this will be a massively important game for them.
"They're also playing a good brand of rugby at the moment and we're playing some entertaining stuff, so I hope we'll get a good crowd along who really get behind us, because this is a very important part of the season."
Young centres Ben Cairns and Nick De Luca have shrugged off injuries to keep their places, but flanker Ross Rennie has not recovered from a minor knee injury suffered against Connacht so Simon Cross returns on the blindside and Allister Hogg, the team captain, reverts to the No7 jersey.
In the second row, Matt Mustchin, who scored a try during last week's bonus-point victory, has been selected in the starting line-up with Ben Gissing and Fergus Pringle named among the replacements.
The squad are missing hooker Ross Ford (ankle), Allan Jacobsen (groin), Roland Reid (hamstring) and Alan MacDonald (fractured cheekbone), while Greig Laidlaw, Alistair Warnock and Scott Newlands are in Hong Kong with the Scotland sevens team.
But, David Callam, who starts again at No8, is another Test performer who believes the squad still have what it takes to improve on dismal end-of-season runs in previous years.
He said: "We have been in this position a couple of times before, but for some reason we have always fallen away poorly after the Six Nations.
"That is something that we're working hard on addressing this year. Guys are fed up of the fact that we work hard to get ourselves into these positions and never take advantage of it. Beating Connacht was the start, but we need to push on and win our home games if we want to finish as high up the league as we can."
Tom Shanklin, Gethin Jenkins and Martyn Williams return after their Grand Slam celebrations, but the fact that the new Wales coaching team relied heavily on the Ospreys means that the Blues have trained as a more settled squad through the Six Nations period.
Edinburgh shaded the last meeting, 11-10, in dire weather in Cardiff two months ago, but the visitors know that as well as virtually killing off the Scottish fight an away win tonight would give them a chance of at least repeating their runners-up finish of last season if not catching Leinster at the top of the Magners League, if the Irishmen slip up.
Cardiff: B Blair; J Roberts, T Shanklin, G Thomas, T James; D Flannigan, J Spice; G Jenkins, G Williams, T Filise, D Jones, P Tito, M Molitika, X Rush, M Williams. Subs: J Yapp, R Thomas, S Morgan, B White, R Rees, N Robinson, M Stcherbina.
Referee: A Lewis (Ire).
The full article contains 726 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
