Northampton v Edinburgh: Teams

Edinburgh will be looking to get some momentum for a strong finish to their Heineken Cup pool campaign with victory at unbeaten Northampton.

Rob Moffat's men head to Franklin's Gardens to take on a Saints side that claimed a 31-28 victory at Murrayfield in October.

The line-up bears six changes from the one which began the 21-16 Magners League loss to Scarlets last Saturday.

In the backs, Jim Thompson is in for Lee Jones on the wing, while Ben Cairns comes in for John Houston and will form a centre partnership with Nick De Luca for the first time since the trip to Leinster in May 2010.

Up front, Kyle Traynor gets a start at loosehead prop in the absence of Allan Jacobsen, Esteban Lozada replaces Fraser McKenzie at lock and Roddy Grant comes in at number eight and will captain the team.

Fellow back-rower Netani Talei is suffering from a virus and misses out. Ross Rennie comes in for Stuart McInally, with Alan MacDonald moving to blindside.

And boss Moffat challenged his side to repeat the level of attacking ambition they showed in the first meeting between the teams, a match Edinburgh graced with three tries.

Composure

"We played well in a lot of areas last time out against Northampton, and with a little bit more composure at crucial times, could certainly have won the game," he said.

"Franklin's Gardens is known throughout Europe as one of the toughest away grounds to go and get a positive result, but we've named a side that we feel is more than capable of rising to the challenge.

"The guys have already shown that they can live with a team with the sort of quality Northampton have, and we'll be asking them to really front up again and make sure we do ourselves justice.

"When you go to a place like Northampton, it's always nice to look back through the history books and see you've won there before, but that game [in 2000/2001] was a long time ago and I'm sure that everyone in this team wants to register an achievement of their own.

"What the last few weeks have underlined is that we need our set-piece to be more consistent if we're to fully exploit the potential we have in attack. That's the message we've been hammering home all week: do the basics well and give ourselves the platform to push on and win the game.

"We've still got a lot to play for in this competition, and we know that a couple of wins in these two games [Edinburgh face Cardiff Blues at Murrayfield next Saturday in their final fixture] would give us a chance of more European rugby in the second half of the season.

"Friday will be one of the biggest tests we'll face in the entire campaign, but it's the sort of game that everyone relishes being involved in and we'll travel in positive mood."

Injuries

Northampton, meanwhile, have been forced into several changes after the injury list grew following last weekend's Aviva Premiership clash with Leicester.

However, Saints boss Jim Mallinder is confident that his squad has the strength in depth to deal with the absences.

He said: "Joe Ansbro and Calum Clark played well when they came on at Welford Road.

"We had to cope without the internationals in November and we will have to do so again over the next few weeks. We have to plan for the possibility of injuries and have put together a squad that we believe has the depth necessary to compete."

The hosts have won four from four in Europe this season and currently sit six points clear at the top of Pool One.

Northampton: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Joe Ansbro, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 James Downey, 11 Paul Diggin, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Ryan Powell, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Phil Dowson, 5 Christian Day, 4 Calum Clark, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Dylan Hartley (capt), 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements: 16 Brett Sharman, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Tom Mercey, 19 Mark Sorenson, 20 Mark Easter, 21 Stuart Commins, 22 Joe Ford, 23 Bruce Reihana.

Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Jim Thompson, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Nick De Luca, 11 Tim Visser, 10 David Blair, 9 Mike Blair, 8 Roddy Grant (capt), 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Alan MacDonald, 5 Esteban Lozada, 4 Scott MacLeod, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Kyle Traynor.
Replacements: 16 TBC, 17 Lewis Niven, 18 David Young, 19 Craig Hamilton, 20 Stuart McInally, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 James King, 23 Simon Webster.