Edinburgh v Blues: Teams

Bradley: Impressed with pre-season

New Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley is looking for his side to build on a promising pre-season when they tackle Cardiff Blues in their opening RaboDirect PRO12 match.

Under the guidance of Bradley, who took over in the summer, Edinburgh belied the loss of eight players to the World Cup by beating Sale and Newcastle in their warm-up games.

And he now wants his side to carry this form into the competitive fixtures.

"Home advantage is massive in all sports and rugby is no different. The concept of the stadium within the stadium was excellent last Friday night," said Bradley

"We've had a good week preparation-wise. The pre-season results went well for us in terms of competitive games, tough rugby matches and testing our systems.

"The results have given us confidence that if we play well we should get a positive result but make no mistake, tomorrow night will be a different ask.

"Cardiff will be an extremely competitive side and would expect to be one of the top four playoff teams. That's what we're striving for so already we have an important match on our hands tomorrow night."

Tim Visser, Matt Scott and Lewis Niven come into the side that beat Newcastle 20-17 in their final friendly.

Opportunity

Cardiff Blues travel north in a similar position to their hosts - with eight players away in New Zealand and a new coaching set-up.

With Dai Young having made the switch to Wasps in the summer, Gareth Baber and Justin Burnell have been handed the reins.

And they will go into their first game with Gethin Jenkins, Bradley Davies, Sam Warburton, Lloyd Williams, Jamie Roberts, Leigh Halfpenny, Fau Filise and Dan Parks all missing.

However Burnell believes the younger players can step in.

"It's going to work in two ways, it's going to affect team performance because some of our better players will be at the World Cup, but on the other hand it gives us the opportunity to look at our younger players and perhaps some other players that have been vying to get that first team spot," said Burnell.

"We have lost eight players, six Welsh players, one Scottish and one Tongan. I think when I've looked at some of the squads there has been an average of eight to 10 players missing across the board from those bigger teams.

"I imagine it's going to be about strength in depth of the teams and who has the best development programme that come to the fore," he added.

Edinburgh: 15 Jim Thompson, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Simon Webster, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Greig Laidlaw (c), 8 David Denton, 7 Roddy Grant, 6 Sean Cox, 5 Steven Turnbull, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Lewis Niven, 2 Steven Lawrie, 1 Kyle Traynor.
Replacements: Andrew Kelly, 17 Robin Hislop, 18 Jack Gilding, 19 Esteban Lozada, 20 Hamish Watson, 21 Chris Leck, 22 Gregor Hunter, 23 John Houston.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Chris Czekaj, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Andries Pertorius, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Michael Paterson, 5 Deiniol Jones, 4 James Down, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 T Rhys Thomas ( c ) 1 Sam Hobbs.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Nathan Trevett, 18 Ryan Harford, 19 Paul Tito, 20 Maama Molitika, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Dafydd Hewitt.